The SCAD Museum of Art presents An American Master of Inventive Design, an exhibition of designs by acclaimed fashion designer Stephen Burrows curated by André Leon Talley. The exhibition will be on view May 20 – September 15 at the SCAD Museum of Art, 601 Turner Blvd, Savannah, Georgia.

Burrows is the recipient of the 2014 André Leon Talley Lifetime Achievement Award. Both the award and the exhibition are presented in conjunction with the annual SCAD Fashion Show.

An American Master of Inventive Design features four decades of Burrows’ groundbreaking designs. Noted for his unorthodox color combinations, cutting-edge patternmaking, fluttery “lettuce edge” hems, and pioneering use of stretch fabrics, Burrows’ carefully crafted garments reveal a deep understanding of material and the body. As Talley describes, Burrows’ designs are a “joyous explosion of color”, a concept which Talley has incorporated into the exhibition design itself.

From 1963 to the present, Burrows’ designs have been worn by a host of fashion, film, and music icons including Pat Cleveland, Diana Ross, Cher, Naomi Campbell, Iman, Barbra Streisand, Liza Minnelli, Lauren Bacall, Kate Moss, Heidi Klum and Michelle Obama, among many others.

In addition to Burrows’ designs, Talley’s exhibition also features never-before-seen footage from the Battle of Versailles (generously provided by the producers of the award-winning documentary, Versailles 73: American Runway Revolution). Held in 1973, this landmark runway extravaganza marked the first time African American models starred on a high fashion runway, put American design on the map, and forever changed the history of fashion.
SCAD Museum of Art
601 Turner Blvd
Savannah, Georgia 31401
www.scadmoa.org

About André Leon Talley
SCAD trustee and Creative Director of Zappos Couture, André Leon Talley has served as a mentor for SCAD fashion students for over a decade. Talley began his career assisting Diana Vreeland at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute and later wrote for Interview Magazine and Women’s Wear Daily, before joining Vogue, where he served as Contributing Editor for many years.

An American Master of Inventive Design marks the third exhibition curated by Talley at the SCAD Museum of Art, following the internationally acclaimed Little Black Dress (2012) and High Style (2011). Talley also curated Joaquin Sorolla and the Glory of Spanish Dress (2011), an exhibition of fine art and fashion at the Queen Sofia Spanish Institute in New York.

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