Lynne Barringer
Even a dreary, rainy Friday morning couldn’t stop the ladies from Robson’s Rockin’ Red Ranchers from attending our May event by visiting the UNT Fashion collection followed by lunch at the Avesta Restaurant located in UNT’s Union Hall. Lynne Barringer, Nita Ice and Susan Hebert hosted the event.
The program was hosted by Annette Becker, Director of The UNT Texas Fashion Collection, assisted by the Collection Manager, Janelle McCabe. Annette did an exceptional job explaining the fashion collection items and the care and expertise it takes to preserve the collection. The UNT Texas Fashion Collection is dedicated to the preservation and documentation of historically significant fashion and serves as an educational and inspirational resource for students, researchers and the general public. This vital resource is part of the UNT College of Visual Arts and Design and is one of the most acclaimed educational resources at UNT. The collection lives in a 4,500 square-foot climate-controlled room on campus, containing some 20,000 items valued at about $12 million.
This collection of top designers’ works began in 1938 through the efforts of Stanley and Edward Marcus. The Neiman Marcus Foundation maintained the collection until 1953. The Dallas Fashion Group took over in the 1960s and then saw that it came to UNT in 1972 to support a growing fashion design program. Items include designs from Cristobal Balenciaga, Hubert de Givenchy, Oscar de la Renta and Normal Norell. The Braniff Pucci Collection was donated to the museum in March 1969 which included several dresses owned by Braniff’s wife Bess. In addition to designer originals, the collection has added some exceptional homemade items which include personal history to make these items even more treasured.
All the Rockin’ Red Ranchers truly enjoyed visiting the Fashion Collection and were grateful for the time and expertise that was shared with us by our host at the Collection. Lunch was very enjoyable as well as we got to see the impressive Union Hall at UNT. What an improvement since we were college students!