Join the MFA’s Curator of Fashion Arts Michelle Finamore for a multi-media overview of her book “Hollywood Before Glamour: Fashion in American Silent Film,” which is the first in-depth exploration of the relationship between fashion and film in Hollywood’s early days.

The presentation will highlight well-known stars like Gloria Swanson as well as lesser known starlets of the first fashion serial drama. From the “New Woman” of the early 1900s to the Jazz Age Flapper, moving images offer fascinating cultural and visual commentary on women’s dress. Drawing on research and film footage from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Library in Los Angeles, Swanson’s archive in Austin, Texas, and the British Film Institute in London, the event promises to be a lively and animated walk through early twentieth century fashion.