Fashion and Travel – Loving it at the Missouri History Museum

Today Janna Seiz, Marty Swain and my mom and I headed for St. Louis to the Missouri History Museum to view The Little Black Dress exhibit.  The story of how black advanced from being limited to mourning to high fashion.  During the Victorian Age, the black dress was used with very strict mourning social rules to adhere to.  Mourning a parent or spouse during the Victorian Age was at least an 18-month endeavor. We learned that there was full mourning, partial morning and a third mourning period where lavender and grey were allowed.

When Coco Channel came on the scene, she changed fashion and liberated women from corsets and the social norms at the time.  It is really amazing how much she changed how women dressed and their attitudes about their roles.  I didn’t realize how influential she and other designers have been on not only the physical aspect of how a woman looks, but her emotional psyche as well.

The exhibit was a fun view.  It started in April and only runs until September 5, 2016 so if you are planning to go, head out.  There is something about driving through St. Louis’s Forest Park area that brings culture right to your doorstep.  Besides the planned viewing of the dress exhibit, we also walked through Roiute 66 Main Street Through St. Louis which was an unexpected surprise.  Route 66 is huge in the Springfield area so it was great fun to see the cars, signs and places that Route 66 touched in the St. Louis section of the Mother Road.

This is a pretty new exhibit which opened June 25 and runs until July of 2017.  For more information about the exhibits, log onto mohistory.org.  After perusing the museum we had a quick bite at the boat dock and headed home.

I may have to look through my closet and make sure I have my own black dress to wear when cruising Route 66!