From Mandarin Silk Ciselé Velvet to Navy Blue Wool Gabardine: Three Centuries of Men's Fashion at the McCord Museum

From 17 May 2002 until 5 January 2003, the McCord Museum in Montreal presented Clothes Make the MAN, an exhibition of selected men's fashions over the last three hundred years. Guest curator Gail Cariou and Cynthia Cooper, McCord's Curator of Costume and Textiles, along with Curatorial Assistant Eileen Stack, chose a nonchronological approach to the interaction between men and fashion, focusing instead on eight key themes. The ensemble was set in a dimly lit environment, whose walls were painted a dark steel blue. A few sensors activated soundtracks related to the displayed theme. Finally, the clothes on display were equipped with detectors that prevented viewers from behaving as if they were visiting a shopping mall, a detail that seems to have annoyed a few, at least if we are to believe the comments in the visitors book. Upon entering the exhibit, the visitor was welcomed by a simple display showing, side by side, an eighteenthand a twentieth-century three-piece suit. The introductory text suggested a comparison of menswear with women's fashion, the latter a domain that has generally been more broadly acknowledged in museum exhibitions. This approach asserts that men's clothing, like women's, has been and continues to be a means of personal display and self-identification, and that it has its own set of unwritten rules. That is, men's clothes, too, have evolved according to changing cultural, economic and political environments. This comparative explanation attempts to validate the study of men's fashion as a relevant signifier of the time from which it emanates. The two suits introduce useful parameters, while acting as an interesting microcosm encapsulating the eight topics addressed through the show. The first of these is a 1750s mandarin silk cisele velvet suit that belonged to French surgeon and doctor Louis Francois Badelart (1728-1802) who had worn it as an immigrant when he immigrated to Quebec City in 1757. Next to it, the twentieth-century suit belonged to former Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau. Sewn for the politician by Cosmo Spina, his personal tailor between 1980 and 1984, this 1980 navy blue wool gabardine pinstripe suit is striking in its seeming simplicity and anonymity. These two garments immediately give rise to one problematic aspect of the exhibition, that of the society represented by the available garments, a problem made even more obvious in the very first theme of the show, Masculinity — The Clothes Make the Ideal Man. The curators chose to fit three centuries of men's fashion into a linear display of six mannequins, unequally dressed yet judiciously. accompanied by engravings of men similarly attired according to the fashion of the time. Although quite elegant, this display sustained a discourse that might be contradictory to the premise of the show. After having proposed that menswear was subjected to the same rules as women's, that of subtle transformations and whimsical renewal, the first section of the show boldly compacted three centuries of fashion into six displays. A more specific slice of history, with a more subtle observation of the changes occurring from one decade to another, might have better convinced the visitor. Moreover, the point remains that we were looking in this section at a very specific social stratum, the well-to-do. Is the notion of an ideal man

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