Try on the Little Black Dress at Florida Tech’s Ruth Funk Center for Textile Arts; Free Admission

MELBOURNE, FLA.—That indispensible little black dress will be the center of attraction in a new Ruth Funk Center for Textile Arts exhibition featuring selections from the Costume Museum of Canada. The exhibit, curated by Carla Funk of Melbourne Beach, runs Jan. 15-April 23 at the center, located at Florida Institute of Technology. Admission is free.

Little Black Dress traces the origins of this iconic garment from mourning attire to chic wardrobe essential, with more than 30 key historic examples. Startingwith the 1890s, the exhibit willhighlight thestylistic changes and popular trendsof each decade through the 1990s.

The little black dress is represented as a symbol of the modern era, a potent expression of women’s identity and liberation through changing times.
Most dresses will be on loan from the extensive collection of the Costume Museum of Canada in Winnipeg, Manitoba.Once a major hub on the trading routes from Montreal to the United States’ West Coast, Winnipeg was also a garment manufacturing center.

Complementing the Canadianpieces will be examples from the permanent collection of the Ruth Funk Center for Textile Arts. Dresses on display will represent such designers such as Chanel, Oscar de la Renta and Arnold Scaasi.

Admission to the exhibit is free. For more information, visit http://textiles.fit.edu, or contact the center at (321) 674-8313, or at textiles@fit.edu.