The most influential, unknown woman in American fashion just might be Ethel Traphagen. Truly unknown she is not, but her influence can hardly be overstated. The Traphagen School: Fostering American Fashion at the Museum at FIT makes a strong case for crediting Traphagen, who founded her eponymous fashion school in 1923, with creating a parallel path for American fashion to thrive concurrently with — and independently from — Parisian couture.

The show emphasizes how Traphagen advocated for the integrity of American fashion, as well as the experimental nature of her school; they worked with cutting-edge materials from American manufacturers, which brought them great visibility. Star students like James Galanos, Geoffrey Beene and Anne Klein also get their due — especially Klein’s presence at The Battle of Versailles, where she was unwelcome as a sportswear designer, but brought down the house with her African print-influenced collection modeled by African American models.

Being an academic institution, the Museum at FIT never shies from the complexity of the subject matter. One of the pillars of The Traphagen School was a “design-by-adaptation” method, which Klein returned to for the collection she showed at Versailles — and which brings to mind today’s highly controversial appropriation of Native American and African American fashions in particular. The exhibition brings up this parallel, but declines to place blame on the technique. Rather, it points to it as an example of the long and complex history of appropriation, shows examples of truly original creations inspired by motifs from Ancient Greece and wedding costumes from India, and lets us consider this ever-evolving question ourselves.

The Traphagen School: Fostering American Fashion is on view at the Museum at FIT through March 30.