Skip to Main Content

Costume and Fashion in Chicago

A guide for researching the history of clothing and fashion in Chicago and beyond

View Past Costume Exhibition Catalogs Online

View scans of past costume exhibition catalogs.

Collage of different costume catalogs from the Chicago History Museum.

  • Silver Screen to Mainstream: American Fashion in the 1930s and ‘40s 
  • Making Mainbocher: The First American Couturier
  • Chicago Styled: Fashioning The Magnificent Mile® 
  • Inspiring Beauty: 50 Years of Ebony Fashion Fair
  • Charles James: Genius Deconstructed
  • I Do! Chicago Ties to Knot 
  • Bertha Honoré Palmer 
  • Chic Chicago: Couture Treasures from the Chicago History Museum 
  • Dior: The New Look
  • What George Wore and Sally Didn’t: Surprising Stories from America’s Past 
  • Becoming American Women: Clothing and the Jewish Immigrant Experience 1880–1920 
  • Fitting In: Four Generations of College Life 
  • Eight Chicago Women and their Fashions, 1860–1929
     

Recent Costume Exhibitions

Dressed in History: A Costume Collection Retrospective

October 19, 2024–July 27, 2025

Treasured Ten: Selections from the Costume Collection

April 9, 2022–January 16, 2023

Silver Screen to Mainstream: American Fashion in the 1930s and ’40s

April 8, 2019–January 21, 2020

Making Mainbocher: The First American Couturier

October 22, 2016–August 20, 2017

Chicago Styled: Fashioning The Magnificent Mile®

November 15, 2014–August 16, 2015

Inspiring Beauty: 50 Years of Ebony Fashion Fair 

March 13, 2013–May 11, 2014

Charles James: Genius Deconstructed

October 22‚ 2011–April 16‚ 2012

Costume Exhibition Catalogs Available in the Research Center

Google Arts & Culture: CHM Online Exhibits