Fashion Statement
Art Eyewitness tribute to Dilys Blum Curator of Costumes & Textiles at the Philadelphia Art Museum
By Ed Voves
The email messages of January 8, 2026 brought sad tidings for the new year. The Press Office of the Philadelphia Art Museum sent a release announcing the "loss of Dilys E. Blum, the Jack M. and Annette Y. Friedland Senior Curator of Costume and Textiles, who passed away on December 27, 2025."
The magnitude of the contributions of this supremely gifted curator and art historian was underlined by the words of tribute from Daniel Weiss, the director and CEO of the museum. Reflecting upon the brilliant life's work of Dilys Blum, Weiss noted:
Through decades of scholarship and curatorial rigor, she transformed this museum’s Costume and Textiles department into a program respected around the world. Her work expanded the very idea of what belongs in an art museum and ensured that these objects are appreciated as vital expressions of culture and identity. We are profoundly grateful for her contributions and the foundation she built for the future.
With a testimonial for Dilys Blum like this, further commentary may seem hardly necessary. Yet, one of the most telling proofs of human achievement is the effect on the attitudes of others and the ways that they incorporate these mental/emotional shifts in their own actions.
It is very significant in his valedictory words, that Daniel Weiss should have emphasized how Blum "expanded the very idea of what belongs in an art museum and ensured that these objects are appreciated as vital expressions of culture and identity."
I can truthfully say that the insights and influence of Dilys Blum and her fellow curators at the Costume and Textile Department of the Philadelphia Art Museum have had a powerful and positive effect on Art Eyewitness. Two 2018 exhibitions, both of which involved the Costume and Textile Department, influence the way that I now look at the correlation of the visual arts and the "material" world.
Before commenting on these 2018 exhibitions, a brief look at Blum's impressive credentials is in order.
After graduating with a degree in art history at Connecticut College, Blum traveled to England to do graduate work at the University of Manchester and the prestigious Courtauld Institute. Blum returned to the U.S., joining the Costume and Textile Department of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (as it was then called) in 1987. There she stayed for nearly thirty-eight years, becoming the senior curator and leader of one of the most dynamic departments at the Philadelphia Art Museum.
During her nearly four decades at the Philadelphia Art Museum, Blum curated over 40 exhibitions. These ranged from displays of high fashion design, like Best Dressed: 250 Years of Style (1997), to folk-art textile creations like Gee's Bend, the Architecture of the Quilt (2008). Especially notable were Shocking!, the 2003 exhibition devoted to Elsa Schiaparelli, the controversial designer whose clothing reflected Surrealist art of the 1930's, and Patrick Kelly: Runway of Love (2014).
Shocking! the Art and Fashion of Elsa Schiaparelli made quite a "statement" back in 2003. That was a decade before Art Eyewitness was launched and years before I was able to appreciate the place of couture and textiles in the realm of art.
Fortunately, during the spring-summer of 2025, visitors to the Philadelphia Art Museum were able to savor a taste of Shocking! in an exhibition curated by Blum, devoted to the design ethic of the World War II years and its aftermath.
Boom! 1940's featured a display of Schiaparelli-designed suits and evening dresses. These dated to the years, 1939 to 1941, an ominous time when the last flourishes of 1930's style gave way to wartime realities.
Dilys Blum's death, only a few months after she retired, is indeed a great loss. However, it should be noted that great leaders, in whatever their respective profession, are those who plan and organize for the time when they no longer guide their organizations. In the closing of his tribute to Blum, Daniel Weiss underscored this in his praise for "the foundation she built for the future."
Evidence of Blum's "strategic" leadership, her ability to inspire and delegate responsibility, work with other departments and lay foundations for the future were a feature of her tenure as head of the Costume and Textile Department of the Philadelphia Art Museum.
The 2018 exhibitions which I mentioned earlier as striking examples of the contributions and capabilities of the Costume and Textile Department were: Modern Times: American Art 1910-1950, displayed from April 18, 2018 to September 3, 2018 and Fabulous Fashion: From Dior’s New Look to Now, on view from October 16, 2018 to March 3, 2019.
These two outstanding exhibitions had several things in common. The exhibits took place during the renovation years at the Philly museum, when works from the museum's collection, rather than loans, were of critical importance. And both exhibits were not curated by Blum.
This may seem a strange way to applaud Blum's leadership. Yet, as I hope to prove, these exhibits did exactly that.
Modern Times, curated by Jessica Todd Smith, surveyed 20th century American art in all its diversity, from the era of the Armory Show to the Ab-Ex painters of the 1950's. It drew on the museum's rich collections of painting, sculpture and photos. However, what really brought the early years of the "American century" to life were the displays of period clothing from Costume and Textile Department holdings.
The importance of collecting and preserving apparel and accoutrements in depth and across of wide range of historical eras is vital for a museum department like Costume and Textile at the Philadelphia Art Museum.
Not all museums maintain costume collections, while others have abandoned the effort. In 2010, for instance, the Brooklyn Museum bequeathed its impressive garment holdings to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. But Dilys Blum and the staff of her department redoubled their efforts and the dividends paid-off in the spectacular 2018 exhibition, Fabulous Fashion: from Dior's New Look to Now.
Fabulous Fashion was the exhibition which really opened my eyes to the vital importance of including couture - clothing, accessories, and textiles - within the realm of high art. Beginning with the inspired efforts of Christian Dior, Tina Leser and other fashion designers to bring a sense of beauty back to a war-ravaged world, the exhibition charted a timeline of creative achievement from 1947 to the present day.
Not only are these stunning creations beautiful to behold, but, in large measure, they were made by hand, or with the skillful use of technological means which heighten, rather than diminish, the role of devoted, hardworking garment makers.
As I mentioned above, Dilys Blum was not the curator of Fabulous Fashion. Rather, it was her talented colleague in the Costume and Textile Department, Kristina Haugland, who brought this magnificent 2018 exhibition to such a high degree of perfection. But I don't think anyone would disagree with me when I say that Fabulous Fashion was mounted in the signature style of the Philadelphia Art Museum during the Dilys Blum years.
While reading Daniel Weiss' valedictory for Dilys Blum, the second sentence struck a particularly significant note:
Her work expanded the very idea of what belongs in an art museum and ensured that these objects are appreciated as vital expressions of culture and identity.
Dilys Blum treated rare Kantha fabrics from India with the same care that she devoted to a Givenchy evening dress. Such an attitude bespeaks of respect for people and cultures from all over the world and throughout the annals of time.
Although I only met Blum once - that I can recall - I was much impressed. I hope, indeed, expect that her legacy will continue at the Philadelphia Art Museum. Hopefully, a major retrospective exhibition in her honor will be mounted, much as the Morgan Library and Museum did recently for its first director, Belle da Costa Green.
Of course, we need not wait for a special occasion to honor to Dilys Blum. We can do that right now. We can follow her lead by "expanding our ideas of what belongs in an art museum" and appreciating these precious talismans as "vital expressions of culture and identity."
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Original photography, copyright of Anne Lloyd
Introductory image:
Anne Lloyd, Photo (2018), Gallery view of the Fabulous Fashion: From Dior’s New Look to Now exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The dress shown is a 1962 palazzo pants ensemble designed by Irene Galitzin.
Portrait of Dilys Blum. Courtesy of the Philadelphia Art Museum.
Philadelphia Art Museum catalogs, written/edited by Dilys Blum. Copyright of the Philadelphia Art Museum.
Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Dresses designed by Elsa Schiaparelli, displayed in the Philadelphia Art Museum exhibition, Boom! Art & Design in the 1940's.
Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) The entrance to Boom! Art & Design in the 1940's at the Philadelphia Art Museum, April to September 2025.
Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Dilys Blum at the press preview for Boom! Art & Design in the 1940's.
Anne Lloyd, Photo (2018) Victorian-era girl's dress, ca. 1867-68, from the collection of the Costume and Textile Department, Philadelphia Art Museum.
Ed Voves, Photo (2018) The entrance to the Fabulous Fashion exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, October 2018-March 2019.
Anne Lloyd, Photo (2018) Gallery view of Fabulous Fashion: From Dior’s New Look to Now, showing designs by the Christian Dior gallery. At left, Woman's Suit, Jacket, Skirt, Belt & Camisole, Fall/Winter 1998. At right, is the Woman's Dress, Bodice and Skirt, Spring 1948. Collection of the Philadelphia Art Museum.
Ed Voves, Photo (2018) Tina Leser's handpainted Sea Fan Fantasy Evening Dress, 1947. Collection of the Philadelphia Art Museum.
Ed Voves, Photo (2018) Gallery view of Fabulous Fashion: From Dior’s New Look to Now at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. From left are: Issy Miyake's Woman's "Flying Saucer" Dress, 1994; Charles James' Woman's Dinner Suit: Jacket and Skirt, 1955; Giorgio di Sant'Angelo's Woman's Ensemble: Bodysuit and Skirt, 1971. All dresses are from the collection of the Philadelphia Art Museum.
