A Chinese Diaspora's Little Black Dress
Qipao, China, 1928–29. LACMA, gift of Costume Council Fund. Designer Jason Wu customized the show's mannequins In recent years LACMA's costume collection has grown to become one of the most significant in the U.S. There are hints of that, at least, in the Geffen Galleries installations and also on the second floor of BCAM. "Fashioning Chinese Women: Empire to Modernity" offers a first look at a 2022 gift from Chere Lai Mah. She donated a unique collection of modern Chinese diasporic costume that her mother in law, Susan Mah, had painstakingly assembled. Concerned about COVID and wildfires, Lai Mah wanted to secure the collection's preservation and appreciation. Most U.S. museum collections of Chinese fashion foreground elite dynastic wear (such as the Qing court robe featured, by itself, in one of the Geffen's smallest rooms.) Mid-20th century costume in Maoist China was austere if not drab. But there was an alternate history of Chinese fashion being forged i...
