Brooke Shields

provides commentary

for this year's
Fash Bash.

Fash Bash, this year
featuring Brooke, ads and
a "Hollywooarlamour
theme, reminds us that
while Jewish women today
are fire to dress in a way
that expresses individuality
yoterdals clothing was a
means for their, fbrebears to
fit in with the larger
,.rnerican culture.

SUZANNE CHESSLFR

Special to the Jewish News

r

ash Bash, the annual glare-style show
joined with parties galore to benefit the
Detroit Institute of Arts, this year features
commentary by actress Brooke Shields,
blown-up Vanity Fair pages as backdrops and musi-
cal productions by rock performers Nine Days and
folk singer-songwriter Don McLean.
The event, titled "Hollywood Glamour," also can
be looked at on a deeper level — representing Jewish
attitudes toward clothing — as described by Jenna
Weissman Joselit, cultural historian and author of A

Perfect Fit: Clothes, Character, and the Promise of
America (Metropolitan Books; $26).
When models parade along the Fox Theatre run-
way Aug. 10, they will be wearing outfits by Jewish
designer Calvin Klein as well as other top-drawer
trend-setters, including Versace, Nicole Fahri,
Carolina Herrera, Armani and Badgley Mischka. In
Joselit's terms, they will be showcasing the duality of
the fun of fashion and the social consciousness that
dress implies.
Launched by the DIA Founders Junior Council in

1969, Fash Bash is a Marshall Field's presentation
with Vanity Fair. It will be seen in Minneapolis
tonight and in Chicago on Aug. 17, ,'Aipporting local
causes in those cities.
For the post-party at Comerica Park, different
areas will be converted into reproductions of
Hollywood landmarks, such as a 1940s club, leg-
endary hotel, film studio lot and a current Los
Angeles hotspot.
"There's alv,rays a social agenda to fashion, but
people can have fun with it, too," says Joselit, a visit-
ing professor of American studies at Princeton
University and also author of The Wonders of
America: Reinventina- Jewish Culture 1880-1950. "I
think that one goes s hand-in-hand with the other."
Joselit, who has lectured twice in Michigan,
defines today's mainstream Jewish dress as a way to
express individuality; and yesterday's (1880s-1930s)
mainstream Jewish dress as a way for immigrants to
express that they were in lockstep with the larger
American culture.
"We now put something on to make ourselves feel
good," says Joselit, reflecting the Fash Bash spirit.
"Our attitude toward clothing has changed so much
[since the period covered by my book].