CINCINNATI, OH.- High Style: Twentieth Century Masterworks from the Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection opens at the Cincinnati Art Museum on Nov. 7. This landmark exhibition of garments and accessories from the Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art features the most influential European and American designers of the 20th century.

High Style traces the work of early couturiers and the evolution of fashion and the fashion industry from 1900 to 1980. The exhibition will showcase a wide range of pieces on 65 mannequins, alongside 35 accessories, including hats and shoes, and related fashion sketches.

A section of the exhibition devoted to the great American couturier Charles James includes 25 objects—nine ensembles, 12 sketches, and four prototype muslins that illuminate the technical mastery behind James’s highly constructed gowns. Four of these gowns are enhanced by digital animations, which analyze the form and structure of the garments. These were originally created by the architectural firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro for the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition: Charles James: Beyond Fashion.

Other highlights include Elsa Schiaparelli’s 1938 surrealist necklace of brightly colored tin insects, and a 1949 tiger-striped silk ball gown by Gilbert Adrian. Examples by some of the most important names in fashion including Coco Chanel, Christian Dior, Hubert de Givenchy and Halston will be on display. Additional attention will be given to the pioneering generation of American women designers working in the 1930s through 1950s.

“This exhibition brings to Cincinnati examples by some of the most important fashion designers of the 20th century from the one of the oldest and most distinguished American collections. It is a tremendous opportunity for us to showcase these quintessential fashions and tell the story of the designers behind them. These men and women were artists whose clothes were the ultimate expression of style for those who wore them,” said Cynthia Amnéus, Chief Curator and Curator of Fashion Arts at the Cincinnati Art Museum.

High Style is made possible by the collection-sharing partnership, initiated in 2009 by the Brooklyn Museum that established the Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Brooklyn Collection, now a part of the Met’s Costume Institute, includes the most comprehensive assemblage of pieces by American fashion designers, and the definitive holdings of Charles James designs and archival materials. High Style celebrates this collaborative partnership by presenting selected highlights from the collection, which was formed in 1903 and carefully developed over the course of the 20th century.

Organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, this exhibition was originally on view at the Brooklyn Museum in 2010, and was curated by Jan Glier Reeder, now consulting curator for the Brooklyn Collection at The Costume Institute. at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Recently on view at Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco’s Legion of Honor, the Cincinnati Art Museum is the only other venue.