Davenport, Iowa (Friday, February 10) – Step into history and experience over 150 years of women’s sporting fashion pioneered by fearless women at the Figge Art Museum this spring. Sporting Fashion: Outdoor Girls 1800 to 1960, a traveling exhibition organized by the American Federation of Arts and the FIDM Museum at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, Los Angeles, opens to Figge members on Saturday, February 11, and to the public on Tuesday, February 14.

Thanks to the Figge Art Museum’s Major Exhibitions Endowment (MEE), Sporting Fashion will be making a stop in Davenport. The endowment was established by through the generous donations of individuals, families, businesses, and organizations across the Quad Cities community in 2018 and enables the museum to present a major exhibition every other year in perpetuity. Sporting Fashion will be the third major exhibition shown since the endowment began.

Sporting Fashion: Outdoor Girls 1800 to 1960 will be on view in the Figge’s third and fourth floor galleries and is the first exhibition to explore the evolution of women’s sporting attire in Western fashion over this 160-year period. Sixty-four fully accessorized ensembles comprised of more than 480 historic objects selected from the exceptional collections of the FIDM Museum will be featured.

“This twelve-year project took us down many paths as we gathered together the very rare objects, many not found in other museum collections,” said Kevin L. Jones, Curator at the FIDM Museum. “Every single woman you see represented in these clothes was the modern woman of her time, whether it was the 1820s or the 1920s.”

Organized into eight themes including Stepping Outdoors, Further Afield, Taking the Reins, Making Waves, Subzero Style, Wheels and Wings, Having a Ball, and A Team Effort, Sporting Fashion explores how clothing met the needs of new pursuits for women, while at the same time preserving their socially approved, restricted mobility. Garments for swimming and tanning illustrate how innovative designers and manufacturers responded to the increasing acceptance of exposed skin at beaches and pools; winter sports ensembles show how apparel for pastimes such as skiing and ice-skating protected female participants from the elements; and ensembles for cycling, motoring, and flying—often adapted from men’s athletic gear—reveal how women navigated open roads and skies. To complement the artifacts on view biographies of important sportswomen will further situate sporting fashion in the broader context of women’s social history.

With over 150 years of fearless fashion on view, this exhibition highlights ensembles that defined women’s participation in the sporting world as athletes and spectators, giving museum visitors the opportunity to experience the lives of Western women who dared to step outside in search of a better and more active life. Each ensemble featured in the collection represents an era’s sporting fashion presented at its peak and the trailblazing women who found a way to participate in the outdoor sports they were interested in by inventing appropriate attire. Their contributions made outdoor activities and sports more accessible and socially permissible for all women; and the fashions that they created established the basic women’s sportswear fashion of today.

Unique to the Figge’s installation, loans including a 1911 Ford Model T Torpedo Roadster from Steve and Lisa Dierks, a wardrobe trunk, circa 1910,  from the Putnam Museum and Science Center, a 1965 Harley Davidson FLHB Electra Glide Motorcycle from the Harley Davidson Museum, a model A Lindsay Roadster, Circa 1890, from Antique Archaeology, as well as a grouping of ephemera and photographs related to Amelia Earhart from the Smithsonian National Postal Museum will be on display. These items provide further context to the times in which the featured garments were being worn. 

“We are excited to welcome the very first fashion exhibition to the Figge,” said Figge Executive Director and CEO Michelle Hargrave. “When the Major Exhibitions Endowment was created in 2018, the goal was to bring to the Quad Cities exhibitions that our community would not typically have the opportunity to see. This important exhibition tells the story of women’s persistent determination to participate in sports and other outdoor pursuits through 160 years of fashion, and we’re thrilled to be able to share it with our community.”

The Figge is partnering with Downtown Davenport businesses for A Sporting Good Time promotion that provides Figge visitors (adult, paid admission) with a sports "ticket" redeemable for a free alcoholic beverage/drink during the run of the exhibition. Participating businesses include Endless Brews, Blackhawk Bowl, City Loafers, Zeke's Island Café, Raccoon Motel, Cavort QC, Sippis American Grill and Craft Beer, Me & Billy, Mississippi River Distilling Company Downtown Lounge, Armored Gardens, Devon's Complaint Department and Analog Arcade Bar. Please visit www.figgeartmuseum.org for complete details on their drink menus.

Additionally, two life-size cutouts will be touring around the Quad Cities for the Get in the Game promotion. Participating businesses will host life-sized cardboard cutouts that are designed to encourage community members to visit the participating business, pose/create a scene with the cutouts and post those images to social media, tagging the Figge and the participating business. The Figge will track tags/mentions each week, and at the end of the week draw a winner from that week's participant pool who will receive the hosting business' giveaway and two general admission tickets to the Figge. Participating businesses include Hotel Blackhawk Bowl and Martini Lounge, City Loafers, NorthPark Mall, SouthPark Mall, The River’s Edge, Quad City Botanical Center, Putnam Museum, Watermark Corners, Davenport Public Library and Freight House Farmers’ Market.

Sporting Fashion: Outdoor Girls 1800 to 1960 is organized by the American Federation of Arts and the FIDM Museum at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, Los Angeles. Support for the national tour is provided by the AFA’s Gold Medal Circle: Elizabeth Belfer, Stephanie Borynack Clark, Ashleigh Fernandez, Lee White Galvis, Stephanie R. La Nasa, Merrill Mahan, Clare E. McKeon, Jennifer New, Angela Timashev, and Victoria Ershova Triplett.

The presentation at the Figge is made possible by the Platinum Sponsor: Von Maur, Premiere Sponsor: Deann Thoms, Supporting Sponsors: Alan and Julie Renken, Pepsi-Cola Bottling Co. of Davenport, and Contributing Sponsors: Mark and Rita Bawden, John and Kay Hall, Sue Quail, Hugh and Debby Stafford, Whitey’s Ice Cream and Rhythm City Casino.

Sporting Fashion: Outdoor Girls 1800 to 1960 will be on view through May 7, 2023.

ABOUT THE CURATORS:
Kevin L. Jones began his career at the FIDM Museum in 1999 and has served as Curator since 2002. Christina M. Johnson began her career at the FIDM Museum in 2003 and has served as Associate Curator since 2010. Together, Jones and Johnson have curated such exhibitions as High Style: Betsy Bloomingdale and the Haute Couture (2009) and FABULOUS! Ten Years of FIDM Museum Acquisitions, 2000–2010 (2011), and in 2013, they organized Modern Love: Fashion Visionaries from the FIDM Museum, LA with the Bendigo Art Gallery, Australia.

ABOUT THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF ARTS:
The American Federation of Arts is the leader in traveling exhibitions internationally. A nonprofit institution founded in 1909, the AFA is dedicated to enriching the public’s experience and understanding of the visual arts through organizing and touring art exhibitions for presentation in museums around the world, publishing scholarly exhibition catalogues, developing innovative educational programs, and fostering a better understanding among nations through the international exchange of art.

ABOUT THE FIDM MUSEUM:  
The American Federation of Arts is the leader in traveling exhibitions internationally. A nonprofit institution founded in 1909, the AFA is dedicated to enriching the public’s experience and understanding of the visual arts through organizing and touring art exhibitions for presentation in museums around the world, publishing scholarly exhibition catalogues, developing innovative educational programs, and fostering a better understanding among nations through the international exchange of art.

ABOUT THE FIGGE ART MUSEUM:  
The Figge Art Museum is dedicated to bringing art and people together. Located in downtown Davenport at 225 West Second Street, the Figge is the premier art exhibition and education facility between Chicago and Des Moines. Its landmark glass building, designed by British architect David Chipperfield, is home to one of the Midwest’s finest art collections and presents world-class exhibitions, art classes, lectures, and special events that attract visitors of all ages. Museum hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday; 10 a.m.-8 p.m. on Thursdays; and 12-5 p.m. on Sundays. Reservations are not required but can be made at www.figgeartmuseum.org or by calling 563-345-6632. Admission to the museum is $10 for adults, $6 for seniors and students with ID and $4 children ages 4-12. Admission is free to Figge members and institutional members and to all on Thursday evenings. You can become a member for as little as $50 by visiting the Figge website. To contact the museum, please call 563.326.7804, or visit www.figgeartmuseum.org.   

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