Coat 1903 - 1907

This neutral-toned coat was made by Frederick Loeser & Company, though we don’t know exactly when. Imagine the workshop, the designer sketching, and the seamstress pinning and sewing, her hands making and remaking until she got the perfect silhouette. The subtle ornamentation in the coat is what really sings to me. The details are pretty restrained, yet the buttons and frills around the sleeves give a glimpse of the care that went into its making. Think about the person who wore this coat – what were they thinking, where were they going? The folds in the fabric flow like brushstrokes of an abstract expressionist painting. The material speaks to the legacy of fashion as an embodied form of expression, constantly borrowing and riffing off ideas across time, inspiring creativity in all of us.