The Cincinnati Art Museum will present Elizabeth Hawes: Radical American Fashion, the first major museum exhibition devoted to the work of designer and author Elizabeth Hawes (1903–1971), opening April 24 and running through August 2, 2026. Admission to the exhibition is free. The show will be installed in the Thomas R. Schiff Galleries (Galleries 234 and 235) at the museum’s Eden Park location.

The exhibition brings together more than 50 garments from the 1920s through the 1960s alongside original sketches and illustrations, and is accompanied by the first comprehensive publication on Hawes’s career. Hawes built her reputation advocating for American-designed clothing independent of Paris fashion trends and pursued ideas — including gender-neutral garments, paper clothing, and mass manufacturing methods — that were not widely adopted until decades later. She also authored nine books examining fashion’s role in society.

The exhibition was curated by Cynthia Amnéus, the museum’s longtime Curator of Fashion Arts and Textiles, prior to her retirement in early 2026. The Cincinnati Art Museum is located at 953 Eden Park Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45202. General museum admission is free.

Source: Cincinnati Art Museum