Coloring “Renaissance to Runway”: Fashioning Red in Italian Fashion

Lunchtime Lecture

Tags For: Coloring “renaissance to Runway”: Fashioning Red In Italian Fashion
  • Lecture
  • Ticket Required

Come to the CMA for a quick bite of art history. Every first Tuesday of each month, join curators, conservators, scholars, and other museum staff for 30-minute talks on objects currently on display in the museum galleries.

Tuesday, December 2, 2025, 12:00–1:00 p.m.
Darnell-Jamal Lisby, Associate Curator of Fashion
Location:  Gartner Auditorium
Suzanne and Paul Westlake Performing Arts Center
Free; Ticket Required

About The Event

During the Italian early modern period, the color red was prominently adopted into style, becoming a symbol of luxury. Created using various dyestuffs, including those derived from insects such as the kermes and the cochineal, red was a symbol of power. Its essence has transcended time, conveying similar connotations in contemporary Italian fashion, which highlights the color’s connections to exuberant elegance and sensuality. Presented by the associate curator of fashion, Darnell-Jamal Lisby, this lunchtime lecture explores how the color red helped define various narratives elicited by the Renaissance to Runway: The Enduring Italian Houses project. From Giorgio Armani to Gianfranco Ferré, from Versace to Alberta Ferretti, red represents a line from the past into the present and future modes of creativity.

Sponsors

All education programs at the Cleveland Museum of Art are underwritten by the CMA Fund for Education. Principal support is provided by Dieter and Susan M. Kaesgen and Gail C. and Elliott L. Schlang. Major annual support is provided by Brenda and Marshall Brown, Eva and Rudolf Linnebach, Medical Mutual of Ohio, the Edwin D. Northrup II Fund, Shurtape Technologies, and the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation. Generous annual support is provided by Gini and Randy Barbato, the M. E. and F. J. Callahan Foundation, Dr. William A. Chilcote Jr. and Dr. Barbara S. Kaplan, Char and Chuck Fowler, the Giant Eagle Foundation, Linda Harper, the late Marta and the late Donald M. Jack Jr., Susan LaPine, Bill and Joyce Litzler, the Logsdon Family Fund for Education, Sarah Nash, Courtney and Michael Novak, William J. and Katherine T. O’Neill, the Pickering Foundation, William Roj and Mary Lynn Durham, Suzanne Cushwa Rusnak and Jeff Rusnak, Ellen and Lowell Satre, in memory of Dee Schafer, Betty T. and David M. Schneider, the Sally and Larry Sears Fund for Education Endowment, Roy Smith, Paula and Eugene Stevens, the Trilling Family Foundation, Jack and Jeanette Walton, and the Womens Council of the Cleveland Museum of Art.

    The Cleveland Museum of Art is funded in part by residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.

    Education programs are supported in part by the Ohio Arts Council, which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts.