Texas Fashion Collection: Fashion in Residence

Celebrating a century of at-home dress, Fashion in Residence explores the design innovations and cultural changes associated with clothing worn in private, domestic spaces. From transforming homes into venues for entertaining during Prohibition in the 1920s to the COVID-19 pandemic reshaping our living spaces into primary sites for leisure, our wardrobes have long responded to the changing demands of our times. Located on Level One between Neiman Marcus and Dillard's.

From a design perspective, at-home contexts have inspired styles previously unconsidered by Euro-American fashion consumers. While American designers turned to the Middle East and Asia to expand their design vocabularies, this cultural curiosity also resulted in the appropriation and the exotification of traditional forms of non-Western dress. The remnants of that humanistic yet problematic inspiration seeking remain today in the form of caftans, wide-legged trousers, and kimono-inspired leisurewear.

Within American popular culture, advances in at-home dress have empowered women by gently challenging the boundaries of acceptable clothing. While women wearing pants was not widely accepted until the 1970s, hostess ensembles as early as the 1920s included bifurcated garments. When televisions flooded American homes in the 1950s, designer Claire McCardell designed the first "television suit," an ensemble somewhere between a house dress and nighttime pajamas.

The late 1960s sexual revolution pushed lingerie out of the bedroom and onto the pages of fashion magazines, enlivening options in intimate apparel. In 2020, the "Nap Dress" skyrocketed to fame, a lightweight cotton garment created by Hill House Home founder Nell Diamond. The trademarked design was made for many people's new favorite at-home leisure activity.