Jacket and Pants c. 1938

Curator: Immediately I see a pair of ornate turquoise trousers and a cropped jacket. Such an odd pairing, really. I mean, are we going dancing or commanding a naval fleet? Editor: That's Hal Blakeley’s "Jacket and Pants," a colored-pencil drawing from around 1938. What intrigues me is its somewhat documentary style, this straightforward depiction of clothing. Curator: Documentary… like evidence. It's not trying to seduce, exactly, but these aren’t everyday garments. I sense performance, almost a costumey extravagance. The bright color clashes with the somber dark trims and how they structure the garment in clean shapes, they really could tell stories, right? Editor: Absolutely. Think about how clothing signified social standing. Even sketches like this could represent aspirations and reflect sartorial trends percolating through different social strata. During the late 1930s, increasing consumer culture was affecting the middle classes. Blakeley might capture something about that cultural shift. Curator: Right, because clothes make the man—or, in this case, tell us something about the zeitgeist. But it almost feels beyond class; it reads more… the theatrical ornamentation. What did that symbolize then, beyond just having means? A sense of... freedom? Maybe clothes being tools for transforming the self is more what draws me. Editor: Perhaps. Though fashion’s democratizing impulse could enable individual expression, remember that restrictive norms still heavily governed self-presentation then. I am curious how it was originally presented. The art gallery as an arbitrer of taste, maybe? This certainly would make it easier to have new types of consumption become more widespread. Curator: Mmm, it brings back a vivid kind of old movie feeling, now that you mention arbiters of taste... Editor: And it’s the cool, flat rendering… So, Hal Blakely leaves me thinking. Maybe what art history, and indeed drawing can be, when it considers these daily items. Curator: Leaving you with a little panache. You know? And maybe seeing those threads... connecting life, art and history.