New York, New York (August 2, 2022)
Fresh from receiving rave reviews during the February 2022- May 2022 showing at The Brick Store Museum in Kennebunk, some thirty, performance gowns, exclusively culled from the private collection of Jane Morgan, spanning the singer’s illustrious stage, screen, TV career, from the 1950’s-1980’s, will be on view during NYFW at the 3 West Club’s, gracious Pratt Lounge/Living Room, during NYFW.
The illustrious location is specifically chosen for inspiration taken from The Met Exhibition, The Costume Institute’s IN AMERICA: An Anthology of Fashion which focuses on the interaction between late 19th-late 20th century American designer fashions, set across a series of rich, period rooms.
Famed director, Martin Scorsese, one of nine film directors, selected by The Met to put a cinematic spin on American fashion, created a unique mise en scene vignette; composed the room as a one-frame melodrama, envisioning the eclectic beauty of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie School-style, drawing room, designed in 1912-14, as a living room for a Minnesota home, with its imposing fireplace, oak trim, heavily leaded-glass windows, patterned-glass light fixtures, plush, banquette seating, as the setting for a noir epic, costumed in the creations of famed designer, Charles James.
Now, embracing the same genre of what Scorsese accomplished with James’ creations through Frank Lloyd Wright’s living room at The Met, Jane Morgan’s show-stopping, performance gowns are perfectly “fitted” to achieve the highest pinnacle of beauty and style today, set across the quintessential, Old World New York aura of The 3 West Club and the equally luxurious Pratt Lounge – an elegant, simply divine, New York living room, replete with sweeping City views, 15’ ceilings; dark, wooden details, antique furnishings, rich, red carpeting, two marble fireplaces, baby grand piano, – at the heart of Rockefeller Center and Radio City Music Hall.
For Morgan, who has a Star on The Hollywood Walk of Fame; twice sang at the Oscars; received numerous awards and accolades across her international singing career and is well known for the special gowns she wore for every appearance, including singing for Royalty and Presidents George Bush and JFK at The White House, the time is right to bring the collection to the public.
As she says, “They’re just so magnificent. It’s hard to believe I even wore these treasures. Some of them are so intricate and complicated you’d have to have a road map to get into one of them.”
Throughout the time-consuming process of unpacking, sorting, selecting the specially made and specifically constructed gowns – “perfect confections”, she notes – showcasing dazzling, luxurious sequins, beading, lace, feathers, embroidery, finest fabrics, for the Exhibition, Morgan worked closely with Bonnie Bien, owner, La Presse PR, who as a teenager, travelled with and personally assisted Morgan for four years.
Morgan hand-picked Bien to help with the gown selection/preparation for the Exhibition, particularly because of Bien’s first-hand knowledge of the collection and the famed designers who created the unique, one-of-a-kind gowns; Kathryn Kuhn, Donald Brooks, Stephen Yearick, Ben Reig, Ruben Panis, Oleg Cassini, Gunter Project 2, Monte Streitfield, Don Loper of California The Exhibition, which focuses on Morgan’s desire to find a good and charitable purpose for the gowns which she wore on stage, takes the pieces from the long, packed-away time in boxes, straight to the public eye; international press, media, VIP trendsetters, celebrities, et al, during NYFW.
As she explains, “no one was getting to see all these fabulous pieces. My goal was to find the best way to exhibit a sampling of the gowns; share them in a fabulous, Museum setting, the ilk of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where both Kathryn Kuhn and Ben Reig have pieces”.
As further testament to Morgan’s legacy and enduring fame, solidifying her and her songs as classic and timeless, The Great American Songbook Foundation, paid homage to her in a special presentation, originally released on December 22,2021; viewable now on YouTube: Songbook Sessions: Jane Morgan, Conversations With The Great Artists Of The Songbook Era.
Adding more of an honorarium to Morgan’s long-lasting style, her well-known song, “If I Could Live My Life Again”, was chosen for the closing music of Season 2, Episode 10, of the Apple TV hit, “The Morning Show”, starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon.