Automotivated: Streamlined Fashion and Automobiles opens July 24, 2010

(LOS ANGELES, June 1, 2010) More attention has been devoted to the design of apparel and automobiles than to any other objects. To celebrate this important link, The Petersen Automotive Museum and Phoenix Art Museum have collaborated on a new exhibit opening at the Petersen on Saturday, July 24, 2010.
Automotivated: Streamlined Fashion and Automobiles will reach from the early 1900s to the height of the Art Deco era to examine the automobile’s influence on fashion, fashion’s influence on the automobile, and the joint and unexpected influences between both. Cars ranging from a 1913 Mercer Raceabout to a 1938 Delahaye will be displayed with complementary clothing styles of the era to illustrate how each discipline has been shaped by ongoing innovation, changing tastes, and evolving trends. Together, they will reveal how style-conscious individuals embraced cars as fashion accessories and how they ultimately came to consider their vehicles to be additional layers of clothing that were as essential to proclaiming their financial and social status as their hats, gowns, and jewels.




The automobile-inspired clothing drawn from Phoenix Art Museum’s fashion design collection will range from bulky but protective dusters, hats, gloves and other accoutrements created in the early days of the automobile to the stylish gowns, stoles, capes, dresses and ensembles that developed in the Art Deco period. As the streamlined forms of the automobile came to be highlighted, so did the streamlined forms of the human figure. Undergarments designed to accentuate the human form in order to compliment the clothing that was draped over them will be exhibited to provide an inside look at what it took to streamline society. Automotivated: Streamlined Fashion and Automobiles showcases designs by Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, Sophie Gimbel, Nina Ricci, Hattie Carnegie, and Jeanne Lanvin.

The Petersen Automotive Museum Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)(3) charity. The Museum is located at 6060 Wilshire Boulevard (at Fairfax) in Los Angeles. Admission prices are $10 for general admission adults, $5 for seniors and students with ID, and $3 for children ages 5 to 12. Museum members and children under five are admitted free. Covered parking is available for $2 per half hour with an $8 maximum for Museum visitors. Museum hours are Tuesday through Sunday from 10am to 6pm. For general Museum information, call 323/930-CARS or visit the Museum’s Web site at: www.Petersen.org.

Founded in 1966, Phoenix Art Museum's fashion design collection is notable for its quality and comprehensiveness and is comprised of more than 5,000 objects of American and European men's, women's and children's dress and accessories dating from the late 17th century to the present. Phoenix Art Museum is one of only a handful of art museums in the country with a long and continuous active fashion program. To learn more visit www.PhxArt.org.