What’s in fashion right now in Charleston’s cultural world? In a word, it’s fashion.
In a moment of national soul-searching, it might at first seem like a disconnect to get in touch with the outer self.
But in times weighted by complex social dynamics, style has frequently made a statement. Whether to uplift, provoke or pose questions, fashion finds its way into the conversation.
Take as a recent example the Superfine: Tailoring Black Style exhibition this year at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Images from its star-studded, brilliantly garbed gala enthralled social media for days.
One of the pieces in the Met exhibition, an 1830s jockey suit made by an enslaved plantation tailor, was borrowed from the Charleston Museum. Its Historic Textiles Collection is the largest collection in the Southeast, with more than 10,000 objects at any given time.
‘Reimagined Fashion’
The Charleston Museum has bounteous material for Reimagined Fashion: Creations of the Future Past. Through Jan. 18, 2026, the exhibition curatorially weaves layers, textures and materials in ways suggesting that in Charleston, past and present, we are what we wear.
Virginia Theerman, its curator of historic textiles, envisions fashion to be a recurring initiative, which expands a previous, one-night-only offering that took place in 2019 before her arrival the following year.
“We loved the idea of getting local creatives in to look at the collection and take advantage of this wellspring of inspiration we have here behind closed doors,” she said. Moving to Charleston, she was quickly impressed by the creative sector, and invested in showcasing the work they are doing in this community.
“I think we’re seeing the pendulum swing back from online shopping,” she said, noting that people want to be more viscerally, tactilely involved.
With this in mind, she tapped 19 sought-after local makers spanning artistic backgrounds, methods of expression and imaginative perspectives, who have set their mind and honed their skills on everything from dressmaking to jewelry design. Theerman invited them to comb through the collection, to then fashion works inspired by the old to image something altogether new.
Fashion has a moment
The Charleston Museum is not the only esteemed local cultural hub that has lately celebrated with style. This spring, the Gibbes Museum of Art framed its annual Art Charleston five-day fest around its then-exhibition, Statement Pieces: Contemporary Fashion Design and the Gibbes Collection.
The year prior, it featured an exhibition exploring the work of the style-minded artist Ned Jennings, who was a devotee of the famously fashionable Oscar Wilde–and who was also an assistant to Laura Bragg, the Charleston Museum’s celebrated and pioneering woman director in the early 20th century.
On June 12, the International African American Museum opened its new temporary exhibition, re/Defined, which delves into the ways in which Black artists and cultural producers have shaped narratives of identity, resisted systemic erasure and redefined Blackness through art, music and movement. cludes contemporary fashion, jewelry and hair design.
Indigo, hair and mail slots
At the Charleston Museum, the vitrines speak Charleston, past and present.
There is, naturally, indigo–given Charlestonian Eliza Lucas Pinckney’s forays into the plant’s domestic cultivation–and the museum’s holdings of her clothes. Mother-and-daughter team, Emily and Dana Brereton imagined an updated version of a carpet bag in our city’s basic blue.
Madame Magar, who has long been elbows deep in it, devised a “Healing Gown” by tinting hospital sheets as well as incorporating hair taking its cue from hair wreaths of yesteryear, while also enfolding her own cancer experience. Gina Marie Roberts imagines Pinckney’s own journey to contemporary, using indigo denim and digital design to recreate her subject’s trademark aesthetics.
Gullah culture is on view, too. Jocelyn C. Patterson’s sweetgrass sandals reference baskets in the collection, while Shaniequa L. Washington’s cowrie shell- and sweetgrass-adorned silk gown is based on a differently embellished silk dress from 1886.
The creations bridge Charleston classes. Nicholas Overstreet of Boysterous Couture fine leather accessories pays tribute to the proletariat. Selecting working-class textiles, a circa-1900 driving duster coat and circa-1930 overalls–he crafted a leather bag complete with a 1920s brass mail slot, made with a mind’s eye to the workaday.
Others revive past style sensations. Jewelry artist Gina Iacovelli weaves hair into intricate patterns. Spotlighting two 1850s pieces reflective of the once-popular “hairwork” of the mid-nineteenth century, she was guided by the era’s Gibson Girl, highlighting fine strands in acrylic beads–as well the time when Charleston women made a living from such handiwork.
“These women were able to own shops on King Street just by weaving hair and making wigs,” she said. Deeply interested in historic preservation, the designer is part of an international hair workers group aiming to bring back this sustainable artform.
Designer Keiko Striplin is captivated by organic forms from nature and was thus taken by a large helmet shell with its carved Victorian cameo. For the exhibition, she dreamed up a garment of undulating folds in the colors of a sea at sunset, wearable art reminiscent of the fashion house Commes des Garcons, where she worked in New York City.
Exhibition tour
There’s a great deal more to learn from this Charleston Museum exhibition – and its featured designers. At 4:30 p.m. on June 20, The Charleston Museum will host “Reimagined Fashion Designer Talks.” Theerman will provide a tour of the exhibition and field question-and-answer sessions with some of the participating local style-setters.
For more information visit charlestonmuseum.org.
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