From cowboy boots and bathing suits to Hollywood gowns and streetwear, Fashioning America: Grit to Glamour presents American fashion as a powerful emblem of global visual culture. Highlighting experimental art-garments, ready-to-wear classics, and iconic red carpet fashion moments, Fashioning America demonstrates the widespread impact of media and celebrity culture through fashion. This bilingual Spanish–English presentation includes more than 100 objects—from a rare 19th-century denim frock coat to a zero-waste wedding dress and Savage X Fenty lingerie—and amplifies the voices of Native American, Black, and immigrant designers who are often left out of dominant narratives of American fashion history. This sweeping presentation reflects the American spirit of ingenuity and underscores important stories of opportunity and self-innovation. Featured designs include Isabel Toledo’s inauguration suit design for Michelle Obama, a dazzling rhinestone Nudie suit, gowns from the Ebony Fashion Fair, and—one of the oldest American-labeled garments—a metallic tasseled evening gown by New Orleans’s Madame Olympe.

Fashioning America: Grit to Glamour is organized by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas and curated by Michelle Tolini Finamore.