Story and photos by Kelsey DeClue
Under the care and expertise of Kate Rowold, fashion springs to life. All clothing tells a story. It reflects our history. It represents our personalities and interests. As curator of Indiana University’s Sage Collection, part of which is currently finding a home at the new IU Center for Art and Design in downtown Columbus, Rowold and her crew brought life to famous articles of clothing worn by generations of the Irwin-Sweeney-Miller family. Rowold, assistant curator Kelly Richardson, students and volunteers selected items from the nearly 24,000-piece historic clothing and accessory collection to display in the center’s gallery, creating an exhibit called “Fashioning a Legacy: Irwin Sweeney Miller Style, 100 Years of Fashion.” They prepped the priceless and extremely fragile pieces in less than a year and took only six weeks to install them. Members of the Irwin-Sweeney-Miller family have been donating to the collection for generations. “When an object comes into a collection, I try to imagine the person to whom it belonged,” Rowold said. “Those times and places can’t be re-created, but we can see into a slice of that time through the article of clothing.” The clothing on display was worn by the men and women of the family, including those worn to formal events, such as meeting political dignitaries.
December 2011 • she magazine
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