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 retrospective dedicated to Hawes (1903–1971), a designer and author who challenged the American fashion industry’s dependence on European trends and advocated for clothing that reflected the practical realities of everyday life. Admission is free.

The show presents more than 50 garments produced between the 1920s and 1960s, alongside original sketches, illustrations, and archival materials. A new publication released in conjunction with the exhibition is the first book devoted entirely to Hawes’s career. Megan Nauer, the museum’s acting curator of fashion arts and textiles, noted that Hawes was widely recognized during her lifetime but has since faded from public awareness. “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,” Nauer said.

Hawes trained in Paris early in her career but became an outspoken critic of the fashion world’s deference to French couture. Her 1938 book “Fashion Is Spinach” called on American designers to develop their own aesthetic identity. Over her career she published nine books on fashion and culture, promoted ready-to-wear garments and ease of movement decades before those became industry norms, and anticipated gender-neutral clothing and efficient large-scale production methods. In 1940 she closed her couture house as the U.S. entered World War II; she later worked in an aircraft factory, wrote for the publication PM, and became involved in labor organizing with the United Auto Workers. Federal investigators scrutinized her politics, and she was eventually blacklisted.

The exhibition was organized by Cynthia Amnéus, who led the museum’s fashion arts and textiles department before retiring earlier in 2026 after years of research into Hawes’s life and work. Amnéus also edited and contributed to the exhibition catalogue. The Cincinnati Art Museum is located at 953 Eden Park Drive.

Source: Movers & Makers