When films were silent, fashion spoke volumes—Goddesses in the Machine explores the story of costume and style in early Hollywood, from actors wearing their own clothes to the birth of the movie costume designer. Please join Michelle Finamore for an overview of the forthcoming exhibition Goddesses in the Machine: Fashion in American Silent Film opening at the Bard Graduate Center in New York in September of 2026. The first major exhibition to explore fashion in American silent film, the exhibition and accompanying catalogue will explore how silent films transformed fashion from personal expression into powerful storytelling, creating the blueprint for modern movie glamour. Bringing together a selection of rare surviving objects from the advent of cinema, a vibrant display of ensembles and accessories at the Bard Graduate Center Gallery will be enriched by accompanying film clips and works on paper including photographs, posters, film stills, and costume design sketches.
About the Presenter
Michelle Tolini Finamore, Ph.D. is Fashion & Design Curator, Historian and Author. Forthcoming exhibitions include Historic New England’s Shoe Stories: Past, Present Future and the Bard Graduate Center’s Goddesses in the Machine: Fashion in Silent Film. Past exhibitions include Fashioning America: Grit to Glamour (2022-23) at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art/New Orleans Museum of Art and Gender Bending Fashion (2019), #techstyle (2016), Hollywood Glamour (2015), and Think Pink (2014) at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Books include Hollywood Before Glamour: Fashion in American Silent Film, Gaetano Savini: The Man Who Was Brioni, and Jewelry by Artists: In the Studio, 1940-2010. She has lectured widely and written numerous articles for both the scholarly and popular press on topics as varied as American fashion, menswear, contemporary fashion, sustainability, studio jewelry, and food history. Finamore has also taught courses on fashion/design/film history at various college including Northeastern University and the Rhode Island School of Design.
This presentation is free and open to everyone. Simply register below to join.
