2001-2002 SEASON

BRAVO SERIES
Cosi Fan Tufte (Western Opera Theatre)
Raymonda (Grigorovich Ballet)
The Merry Widow (London City Opera)
The Taming of the Shrew (Acting Company)

FASHION BACKWARD from page 59

MEIJER BROADWAY SERIES
The Sunshine Boys
with Dick Van Patten & Frank Gorshin
Titanic
Funny Giri
The Odd Couple
with Barbara Eden & Rita McKenzie

FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

JAZZ & BLUES SERIES
Naturally Seven
All Over Blues (Muddy Waters Tribute)
Cyrus Chestnut (A Charlie Brown Christmas)
Preservation Hall Jazz Band
SiegellSchwall Band
Glenn Miller Orchestra

WWJ NEWSRADIO 950 BROADWAY TOO SERIES
Sophisticated Ladies
with Mary Wilson
Ragtime
Cabaret

OFF-BROADWAY SERIES
Strike Up The Band
George & Ira Gershwin/George S. Kaufman
Our Sinatra
HMS Pinafore
New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players

C & G NEWSPAPERS COMEDY SERIES
Carrot Top
Gallagher
Capitol Steps
Penn & Teller

ORCHESTRAS & CHOIRS SERIES
Gnarly Wood Woodwind Trio - MSU
River City Brass Band
Christmas with the Mantovani Orch.
Boys Choir of Harlem
Corky Siegel's Chamber Blues
with Warren Symphony Orchestra

C & G NEWSPAPERS COUNTRY SERIES
Pam Tiflis
Glen Campbell's Rhinestone Christmas
Larry Gatlin's Country Christmas
Roy Clark

DIRECTOR'S CHOICE SERIES
Marcel Marceau
Cirque Orchestra
Holiday Spectacular On ice
Scrap Arts Music

COMCAST ROCK & POP SERIES
Jerry Lee Lewis
Smokey Robinson
Chuck Berry
Ray Charles

DISCOVERY SERIES
Bayanihan Philippine National Dance Comp
Ballet Gran Folldorico De Mexico
Tamburftzans
Can Can de Paris
ShaoIln Warriors

THE MACOMB DAILY FAMILY SERIES
A Christmas Carol (Nebraska Theatre Car.)
The Little Angels
National Acrobats of China
Cinderella On Ice
Three Men And A Tenor

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COMCAST SUNSHINE SERIES SINGLES
Famous People Players (kLittle Like Magic)
Huggabug Club Christmas Show
Little Bear Live On Stage
Three Men And A Tenor
The Ugly Duckling starring Pinky Flamingo
Stuart Little (Seem-To-Be-Players)
Russia's/American Kids Circus

FIRST STATE BANK ENCORE SERIES
The Gaylords
Mandy Patinkin
Anne Murray's
Christmas Comes to Clinton Township
Judy Collins Christmas Show
Marvin Hamlisch
Irish Rovers

TRAVEL SERIES
Four Corners USA-Southwest Adventure
The Magic of Malaysia
Exploring Costa Rica
The Maltese Welcome
Tanzania Safari

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HISTORY SERIES
Rick Benjamin's Paragon Ragtime Orch.
Magic Lantern Victorian Valentine
Modern Mandolin Quartet

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with social reformers and schoolteach-
ers, played the role of fashion police,
admonishing people about immodest
or garish dress.
She writes of Rabbi Stephen Wise's
1922 New Year's address, when he
inveighed against "improper dress."
A Perfect Fit is extensively illustrated,
with vintage photographs of immi-
grant Jewish women in large hats and
men posing in "stylish" American
clothes. It also includes an advertise-
ment in Yiddish for a "fashionable
dressmaker," a photo of a Hadassah
Wonders of America: Reinventing Jewish
luncheon with women wearing "their
Culture, 1880-1950, she found cultural
finest chapeaux," fashion illustrations
clues in found objects like a menorah
of the flapper dresses that "radically
made of mah-jongg tiles. "Clothing
broke with tradition" and an ad for I.
was the next best thing," she says.
Cohen's neckties and paper collars.
Writing this new book was a "felici-
A seeming anti-Semitic illustration
tous blend of the personal and profes-
of
a Jewish women wearing exaggerat-
sional interests," she explains, adding
ed clothing and jewelry depicts the
that she "didn't feel the least bit guilty
"Jewish woman's alleged affinity for
or frivolous writing about clothing."
excess." She explores how perceptions
The professor has always been inter-
like that developed, and
how Jews sought to
quash them.
As Joselit notes in the
book's conclusion,
"Emphatically Modern,"
in the period after the
book leaves off, beginning
in the 1940s, clothing
"had stopped serving as a
compass whose coordi-
nates registered national
concern about what was
appropriate and what was
not." Dressing became
Hadassah more a matter of personal
ested in clothing, loves shop-
lunches provided — rather than communal
ping, and is particularly
an opportunity for — expression. Fashion had
attuned to accessories. Her
members to wear more to do with standing
tastes tend toward the mini-
their finest chapeaux. out, celebrating individual-
mal; she favors clean lines,
ity, than fitting in.
great fabrics and interesting
When asked about
buttons. She likes hats and
issues of fashion in the contemporary
has many.
Jewish observant community, she speaks
She doesn't limit A Perfect Fit to
of clearly defined internal norms. "What
women's fashion. In a chapter titled
a Modern Orthodox Jew might wear is
"The Mark of a Gentleman," she
different from what a chasidic Jew might
describes how many immigrant men
wear,"
she notes. "It distinguishes the
also "quickly learned their way around
latter
from
the outside world, and sig-
the haberdasher's."
nals them one to another," she says.
Some immigrant men who donned
"These communal notions of styl-
colorful socks and ties were known as
ishness, once they're set, are awfully
`sports," while those who became known
hard to break."
by their collars were called "stiffs."
Joselit agrees that people do act in
Joselit links color with the idea of
ways that match their clothes.
freedom. She quotes a fabric buyer,
"The material world is not simply
writing in the Saturday Evening Post,
about the wrong set of values," she
who credits Eastern European immi-
says. "Clothing says a great deal about
grant men for their fashion forward-
notions of respectability, probity,
ness in embracing color, once they
belonging, the self. All the major issues
became more confident of themselves
are nestled in the sleeves of a garment."
as Americans.
The historian adds, "Or they had
In the time period she addresses,
El
been."
rabbis, ministers and priests, along

(it was also was one of the earliest
American publications to feature
Theodore Herzl).
Part of her research also involved
scouting flea markets for relevant
material, and she tried on examples of
the clothing she writes about.
A cultural historian who is a visiting
professor of American studies at
Princeton University, Joselit has previ-
ously explored other aspects of daily
life, including food and material cul-
ture. In her award-winning book, The

'TN