Photo courtesy of Anne Bissonnette

Credit: Ron Soltys

Indigo will be the color this September.

Anne Bissonnette, curator of the Kent State Fashion Museum, is in charge of the worldwide exhibit, beginning in fall. She said she decided to put this exhibit together as an off-shoot of an exhibit she did on colors in fashion during 2004. The exhibit will consist of about 70 pieces.

Bissonnette said a lot of the pieces in the exhibit can be considered working-class garments. Indigo was popular among poorer people because it was resistant to fading, so it would last, she said.

“It (the color indigo) has a social reality that is different than other colors,” she said.

One piece in the exhibit that shows this is an indigo dress from the 1860s with unknown origins.

“Women wore them on the frontier outside of the house because it was so practical,” Bissonnette said.

There will also be an indigo Japanese kimono on display at the exhibit, as well as pieces from Africa and China.

Pieces of artificial indigo will also be part of the exhibit. Natural indigo comes from a plant, while artificial indigo is chemically produced, Bissonnette said. Natural indigo differs from artificial indigo because it is less consistent in the colors it produces on cloth, she said.

The fashion museum is open from 10 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. It is open from 10 a.m. to 8:45 p.m. Thursdays and from noon to 4 p.m. on Sundays.

General admission is $5. The cost is $4 for senior citizens and $3 for students and children ages 7 to 18 years old. Admission for Kent State students and faculty, as well as children under 7 years old are free. General admission on Sunday is free for everyone.

Contact fashion reporter Kristen Kotz at [email protected].