Lectures on Tap - The Artwear Movement: From Counterculture to Couture

📍 Location: Exact address given in confirmation email

🧠 Lecture: "The Artwear Movement: From Counterculture to Couture"

🎤 Speaker: Melissa Leventon

Join us for a captivating evening exploring the rich history of artwear—also known as wearable art, art couture, fashion art, and artisan fashion—and its deep roots in the Bay Area since the late 1960s.

Artwear emerged when artists, often women trained in fine art, began creating handmade garments intended to be seen as art rather than conventional fashion—pieces that could hang on a wall as easily as they could be worn. In this talk, Melissa Leventon will trace the evolution of this movement from its hippie and craft-revival origins, through its fusion with mainstream fashion in the 1980s, its decline in the 1990s, and its ongoing presence in today’s fashion landscape.

Melissa Leventon, formerly Curator-in-Charge of Textiles at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, is principal at Curatrix Group, a museum consultancy focused on European and American textiles and fashion. She has organized major exhibitions, authored multiple books and essays, and teaches fashion history and theory at California College of the Arts.

Get a drink, connect, and learn at Lectures on Tap! 🙌

Agenda

6:30 PM – Doors open: find a seat (open seating!), order food & drinks, and expect a bar line—arriving early is key.

6:55 PM – Host introduction

7:00 PM – Lecture begins

7:45 PM – Audience Q&A

8:00 PM – Have 1:1 time with the speaker, mingle with fellow guests, and order another round

8:30 PM – Wrap up.