Fashion Symposium: Proust’s Muse

The Museum at FIT‘s 16th annual daylong academic symposium is organized in conjunction with the current exhibition Proust’s Muse, The Countess Greffulhe. Researchers from the United States and Europe will discuss the connections between fashion, patronage, literature, and the arts in turn-of-the-century France. The Countess Greffulhe, a champion of the arts, influenced literature, ballet, and music. The French composer Gabriel Fauré dedicated his slow processional piano piece—Pavane—to her, and she was a major supporter of the Ballets Russes, an itinerant ballet company based in Paris. She also supported the scientist Marie Curie, and the unjustly imprisoned Jewish army officer Alfred Dreyfus.

Click here for the symposium program, speaker biographies, reading lists, and an exhibition brochure.

The Proust’s Muse Symposium is free, but registration is required. Click here to register online.