Fabulous Flapper Fashions Highlight Gallery Exhibition at Colorado State University’s Gustafson Gallery; Tours on Tap Later this Month

The glass, flash and gleam of the fabulous flapper era will come alive again in a special ongoing exhibit on fashions of the 1920s from Colorado State University’s renowned Historic Costume and Textiles collection.

The exhibit, "Glitter and Glass-Beaded Dresses of the 1920s," will be featured in the university’s Gustafson Gallery, Room 145 in the Gifford Building on campus on Lake Street. The exhibit runs through May 7 and is free and open to the public from 9 a.m.- 5 p.m. Monday through Friday "The lives of women changed a great deal in the 1920s, and the clothing of that time reflects this change in society," said Linda Carlson, curator of the Gustafson Gallery and the university’s Historic Costume and Textiles Collection. "This exhibit looks at the changing lives of women and how the clothing of the era changed with them–new silhouettes, much shorter hem lengths and all kinds of beautiful fabrics and embellishments." Also on tap this month is a special open house and tour of the Historic Costume and Textiles Collection titled "Behind Closet Doors." Carlson, along with Colorado State students enrolled in the advanced historic costume class, will offer tours and explanations of clothing in the university collection. The collection, which numbers more than 10,000 artifacts, includes everything from a 15th century chain mail shirt and the collection from noted designer Richard Blackwell to a rhinestone bra once worn by Phyllis Diller and 19th century bustled gowns.

The tours, also free and open to the public, are set for April 17 and will begin at 3:30 p.m. following a 3 p.m. annual meeting of the Friends of the Gustafson Gallery. For more information, contact Carlson at (970) 491-1983.