The Cincinnati Art Museum will open “Elizabeth Hawes: Radical American Fashion” on April 24, running through August 2, 2026. The exhibition marks the first major museum presentation of the work of Hawes (1903–1971), an American designer and author who argued for homegrown fashion independence at a time when the industry was largely shaped by Parisian trends. Admission to the show is free.

More than 50 garments spanning the 1920s through the 1960s will be on display alongside sketches, illustrations and the first publication devoted entirely to Hawes’s career. At a point when American fashion was dominated by European couture, Hawes emerged as one of the first visible American couturiers. She articulated her position in her first book, “Fashion is Spinach,” a critique of the fashion industry’s deference to French design. She forecast gender-neutral clothing, paper garments and quality mass manufacturing decades before those ideas entered the mainstream.

After closing her couture house in 1940, Hawes pursued a range of other careers — writing for the left-leaning PM magazine, working in an airplane engine factory during World War II and organizing for the United Auto Workers. Her outspoken views eventually led to her being placed on an FBI blacklist. The exhibition was curated by Cynthia Amnéus, longtime CAM Curator of Fashion Arts and Textiles, before her retirement in early 2026.

“When you read her sharp-tongued words, you recognize things we still wrestle with, both in dressing ourselves and in the functioning of the fashion industry,” said Megan Nauer, acting curator of fashion arts and textiles at the museum. The Cincinnati Art Museum is located at 953 Eden Park Drive. For more information, visit cincinnatiartmuseum.org.

Source: Cincinnati CityBeat