10 May 11th–May 17th, 2023 phoenixnewtimes.com phoenix new Times | music | cafe | film | culTuRe | NighT+Day | feaTuRe | NeWs | OPiNiON | feeDBacK | cONTeNTs | In her role as the Jacqui Dorrance Curator for Fashion Design at Phoenix Art Museum, Jean is the public face of the institution’s current exhibition “MOVE: The Modern Cut of Geoffrey Beene,” which is on display through July 23. The show can be seen in three rooms on the second floor of the museum. In the large Harnett Gallery, mannequins posed as ballerinas dance in breathtaking evening gowns, watched by dress forms bearing sporty jumpsuits, chic officewear, and a gaggle of cheerful, polka-dotted garments. In the next gallery, a collection of inventive evening gowns faces a rainbow of coats and bolero jackets. In the final room, objects on loan from the Geoffrey Beene archives share space with one very special dress, a sequin-and-ostrich-feather minidress from the 1960s that was one of the first pieces in Phoenix Art Museum’s fashion collection. Most of the items in “MOVE” come from the wardrobe of New York City philanthropist and publisher Patsy Tarr, a longtime client of Beene’s before his death in 2004. As Jean explains, Ellen Katz, a major donor and supporter of the museum who hails from New York, convinced her friend Tarr to donate the bulk of her Beene garments to Phoenix Art Museum in 2019. Tarr had already loaned the museum a number of items for a 2009 exhibition titled “Geoffrey Beene: Trapeze.” “We’re very, very fortunate that she chose our museum,” Jean says. “Of course, it was very intentional on her part, sharing this story and these objects and this opportunity to study this design- er’s work. And more than just the designer — it’s the tailors that he worked with and the seamstresses that he worked with and the photographers and the dancers and all of these other people that were involved in these years of production. So there’s a wealth of stories that can be told from this and she saw the opportunity to share that in a much larger way by gifting it to an institu- tion outside New York City, outside of the East Coast.” Visitors to the museum will undoubtedly enjoy feasting their eyes on the exquisite items in the exhibition, but Jean gave us some special insight and helpful hints on getting the most out of “MOVE: The Modern Cut of Geoffrey Beene.” Understanding the collector- designer relationship Although Tarr purchased and wore many Beene designs over the years, Jean says that calling her a muse isn’t really the right word. “She wouldn’t call herself a muse,” Jean says. “And she even was very respectful in saying, ‘I can’t even call him a friend. I admired him greatly. We were friendly, but we weren’t close and didn’t share intimacies in the way a deep friendship does.’ They did spend lots of time together as a client and a designer and shared a lot of life stories and bonded in those ways. So they bonded over the clothing. She was a client. … The client is what is at the end of this entire process and that is the entire point, for this vision that he has that’s manifested into these beau- tiful garments arrives in the hands and is worn on the bodies of these women. That is the endgame.” What drew Tarr and so many other women to Beene’s work? “Lots of things. Comfort. It was so easy to put on. She felt so confident in it. It didn’t require tons of underpinnings and fussiness,” Jean explains. “And what she’d say over and over again was, ‘You can just throw it on and put on whatever shoes you wanted and just go out the door.’ And you can just be comfortable and you had what you needed. And it had pockets. And it always looked great. … And the comfort is over and over and over again the under- lying statement that you get from these women, these clients. And it is something that is unique to Mr. Beene and also unique to American fashion is that level of comfort and that level of practicality.” Which isn’t to say that a Geoffrey Beene evening gown isn’t a work of art, a meticulously conceived and crafted garment that cost thousands of dollars even in the 1980s and 1990s, the era during which most of Tarr’s items were made. But, Jean says, “That alignment that is very rare, to have that level of quality on that type of fabric deliver those performance features and the comfort.” Why the show is called ‘MOVE’ When the museum received Tarr’s collection in 2019, Jean began to research the clothes. Through that, she learned Phoenix Art Museum MAKING A ‘MOVE’ See Phoenix Art Museum’s latest fashion exhibition through the eyes of its curator. BY JENNIFER GOLDBERG G rowing up in the Midwest, Helen Jean knew of Geoffrey Beene as the name on the designer-licensed shirts and neckties her father purchased at the mall. It was only after she began her education in fashion that she came to see and understand the creativity and artistry of the revered American designer. >> p 13 Phoenix Art Museum A sequin-and-ostrich-feather minidress from the 1960s is a special Beene design in the collection. Geoffrey Beene’s rainbow wall of coats and bolero jackets.
