This week, Brooklyn Museum offered CFDA Members and staff a private tour of Georgia O’Keeffe: Living Modern. Rosie Assoulin, Mara Hoffman, Lizzie Fortunato, Gaby Basora, Cynthia Sakai, Monica Botkier, Jordan Askill, Whitney Pozgay, and Katrin Zimmermann were among the designers in attendance.
O’Keeffe typically brings to mind large-scale flower paintings or images inspired by the Southwest. However, she also had an acute eye for her own personal style, pushing boundaries in the way she dressed.
Throwing corsets to the curb and opting for simple, comfortable silhouettes, O’Keeffe oftentimes designed her own clothing. The show showcases an impressive collection of items sewn by O’Keeffe herself and also those she purchased or had made (among them, a Claire McCarddell and Pucci dress). O’Keeffe’s signature style was soon recognized as a cornerstone of her eventual celebrity, a persona that emerged in the 1960’s, a time in which she was swept up as a type of icon of the second wave of feminist revolution. “I was consistently struck by how ahead of her time O’keefe was,” said CFDA Member Lizzie Fortunato. “She really seemed to wield this power over her identity which was unusual for women in the early 20th century. The way O’Keefe “branded” herself with her clothing and independent, desert lifestyle was so modern.”
However, O’Keeffe largely rejected this role, and particularly hated the word woman being used as a qualifier before the term artist. With closer examination of her work and life, O’Keeffe certainly did not live within the stereotypical confines of a woman’s identity. In her yearbook, a 16-year-old O’Keeffe wrote, “A girl who would be different in habit, style, and dress; A girl who doesn’t give a cent for men – and boys still less.”
Her dress was a testament to her belief that everything in life should be done with intention. The clothes O’Keeffe wore were as much a reflection of herself as a person as they were of her fashion sense. As CFDA Member Monica Botkier exclaimed, “What a fashion icon she was!”
The Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit will be open until July 23rd at the Brooklyn Museum.
