Coming Home: Geoffrey Beene
May 5, 2024 – January 24, 2025
Presented by
John G. Turner & Jerry G. Fischer
Also supported in part by the Provost's Fund for Innovation in Research - Scholarly
& Creative Activity for the Arts, Humanities, Social & Behavioral Sciences
and by our sponsors
Pat Alford
Lubna Culbert
Mindy & Greg LaCour
Time Warp Boutique
Geoffrey Beene (1924-2004), originally from Haynesville, Louisiana, was a legend of American fashion design who won eight Coty Awards and two Council of American Fashion Designers awards in his forty-year career. This retrospective exhibition features the collection of Sylvia R. Karasu, MD, with garments from the 1960s through the early 2000s, supplemented with fashion sketches.
Coming Home: Geoffrey Beene was curated by graduate students from the Department of Textiles, Apparel Design, & Merchandising, supervised by Dr. Mamp.
Student Curators: Md Nazmul Haque, Chloe Johnson, Lauren E. Lansdell, LaDyra Lyte,
Mfon-ABasi Obong, Aja Palermo, Elizabeth Schick, Morgan Strzynski, MG Taylor, Penelope
Williams & visiting scholar Camila C De Albuquerque Oliveira with the assistance of
undergraduate student workers: Martha Rigney & Olivia Ryland.
Gallery Hours:
M-F 10:00 AM -12:00 PM & 1:00-4:00 PM and
the first Sunday of each month from 2:00-4:00 PM.
Admission is Always Free!
Unlined jackets of wool/cashmere blend fabric with hand beading and embroidery; giraffe and tiger (with Venetian glass buttons and bias variegated edge trim); fall 1992, gift of Sylvia Karasu M.D. Vintage dress forms from Mr. Beene's showroom, c. 2000.
Strapless full-length evening dress (left), with a bodice of Klimt-inspired gold scrolling lace over black satin printed with large scattered circles in turquoise, orange, purple, hot pink, and red; bodice with boned lining; the long skirt of sheer black and gold lace with appliques on the interior of multi-color circles, rippled hem trimmed with gold and black striped ruffles, fall 1998. Black sequin and floral print gown (right), c. 1997, both gifts of Sylvia Karasu, M.D., photographs by Alan Barnett.