The Foundation for the National Archives and DC Fashion Week Inc. today announced a new partnership to highlight Washington, D.C.’s rich and diverse culture. Leveraging National Archives Museum’s latest exhibit, Making Their Mark: Stories Through Signatures, the Foundation will host DC Fashion Week’s (DCFW) Opening Night event on September 24 at the National Archives Building. The evening will honor the organization’s 10-year anniversary with a showcase of previous years’ collections and a debut of 2015 Spring/Summer designer collections.
“Making Their Mark illustrates the many ways people have placed their signature on the country’s history, from developing a signature style to signing groundbreaking policy into law. We are excited to bring a new audience to the National Archives Museum to explore the many ways that fashion and design have made their marks on our nation’s history,” said Patrick M. Madden, Executive Director of the Foundation for the National Archives.
“What better place to celebrate fashion and free expression and to make our mark on history than at the National Archives, the very site where the most important records of our democracy are preserved and shared with the American people,” said DCFW Founder Ean Williams. “As we celebrate the 10th anniversary of DC Fashion Week, we are honored to partner with the Foundation and to showcase the Making Their Mark exhibit and our own history, promoting our nation’s capital as the center of international fashion.”
DCFW is Washington’s premier apparel trade show, and the only fashion trade show entity formally recognized by the District of Columbia. A partnership of independent fashion designers, producers and models, DCFW was created to increase economic development in the area of fashion design, clothing merchandising and modeling, and to enhance the visibility of the nation’s capital as a center of international fashion. DCFW showcases the fashion industry in the D.C. area and includes a wide range of domestic and international fashion trade professionals including buyers, sourcing agents, merchandisers, exporters and high-end retailers.
DCFW will begin Wednesday, September 24, with the event at the National Archives and run through Sunday, September 28, 2014. For more information on DCFW, go to: dcfashionweek.org. The Opening Night event will be free and open to the public, but RSVPs are required. Tickets will be available through DCFW later this month.
Making Their Mark features original signatures from National Archives holdings nationwide – including those from fashion, sports, politics and entertainment – and the stories behind them. The exhibit features the #signaturestyle of First Ladies and Presidents, including Jackie Kennedy’s pillbox hat, President Bush’s cowboy boots, and more.
A signature can be as routine as a mark on a form or as extraordinary as a stroke of the pen that changes the course of history. It can save lives or end them. The exhibit is free and open to the public, and will be on display in the Lawrence F. O’Brien Gallery of the National Archives Museum in Washington, DC, through January 5, 2015. The National Archives Museum in Washington, DC, is Metro accessible on the Yellow and Green lines, Archives/Navy Memorial station.
“Making Their Mark: Stories Through Signatures” is made possible in part by the Foundation for the National Archives with the generous support of Lead Sponsor AT&T. Major additional support provided by the Lawrence F. O’Brien Family and members of the Board of the Foundation for the National Archives. Family and educational programming related to “Making Their Mark” is sponsored in part by Fahrney’s Pens and Newell Rubbermaid – Parker Pen Company.
