Real Clothes, Real Lives: 200 Years of What Women Wore, the Smith College Historic Clothing Collection

Real Clothes, Real Lives: 200 Years of What Women Wore, the Smith College Historic Clothing Collection

September 27, 2024 – June 22, 2025

Due to light sensitivity, a majority of the garments in the exhibition were changed over in mid January. Explore a whole new rotation of clothes from the Smith College collection now.

This groundbreaking exhibition examines the everyday clothing of ordinary women, from hard-worn house dresses to psychedelic micro minis and modern suits to fast-food workers’ uniforms. On view in the Joyce B. Cowin Gallery of Women’s History and showcasing items from the Smith College Historic Clothing Collection that are on view in a museum for the first time, this exhibition traces how women’s roles have changed and evolved dramatically over the decades across the spectrum of race and class. Each piece of clothing holds rich stories about the woman who wore it and who made it, the materials used, and the context in place and time. Whether homemade or ready-made, many of the garments on display are modest and inexpensive, rarely saved or displayed in a museum setting. Some are one-of-a-kind pieces; others are examples of clever making-do, and many are influenced by popular styles and trends of their era. Visitors to Real Clothes, Real Lives will gain an understanding of the “real” women who have worked and dressed in America for two centuries. Rebecca Shea and Kiki Smith, Curators; Anna Danziger Halperin and Keren Ben-Horin, Curators for the Center for Women’s History.

Major support for Real Clothes, Real Lives: 200 Years of What Women Wore at New-York Historical is provided by the Coby Foundation. Support for the Smith College Historic Clothing Collection’s production of the exhibition is provided by the Coby Foundation, Brigitte Vosse, Marta Rudolph, the MAE Foundation, Smith College, and Friends of the Historic Clothing Collection.

Photos curtesy of The New York Historical.