From Prohibition to disco, the cocktail hour ritualized the passage of time between work and leisure amidst the sweeping social changes that defined 20th-century American life. This social phenomenon sparked vibrant new forms of expression in fashion and design - from the iconic cocktail dress and barware to lively printed fabrics.  Cocktail Culture: Ritual and Invention in American Fashion, 1920-1980, opening Friday, April 15, is the first exhibition to explore the rich and varied ways individuals presented themselves within the theater of cocktails.

Organized by the Department of Costume and Textiles, Cocktail Culture features more than 220 works, including clothing, jewelry, textiles, and decorative and fine art drawn from the Museum's vast holdings and loans from other museums and private collections. The array of apparel - stunning in breadth and quality - represents the century's major designers, such as such as Elizabeth Arden, Cristóbal Balenciaga, Pierre Balmain, Pierre Cardin, Chanel, Christian Dior, Oscar de la Renta, Hubert de Givenchy, Halston, Elizabeth Hawes, Charles James, Mr. John, Beth Levine, Mainbocher, Norman Norell, Jean Patou, Mollie Parnis, Emilio Pucci, Lilly Pulitzer, Scaasi, Elsa Schiaparelli, Carolyn Schnurer, Pauline Trigère, Vera, and Madeleine Vionnet. More than10 special pieces loaned from the Swarovski jewelry archives in Austria bring Hollywood glitz and everyday glamour.

Cocktail fashion is presented in context with photographs, illustrations, decorative arts, and novelty items such as a 1940s tiki bar from Japan. Organized thematically, the exhibition illustrates the ways in which the cocktail hour transformed  20th-century fashion and design - from the Roaring Twenties to the wartime and postwar periods to the social upheaval and loosening of societal rules of the 1960s and '70s. Visitors will see how different popular venues for cocktails - such as urban nightclubs, backyard barbeques, and the luxury ocean liner - changed the ways we dressed for one another. A section about icons introduces the classic elements of cocktail culture, such as the little black dress.

Cocktail Culture is sponsored by Swarovski, with additional support from The Coby Foundation and the Museum Associates.

Cocktail Culture is accompanied by a lavishly illustrated book published by the Rhode Island School of Design and available for purchase at the Museum's shop, risd|works. Five essays explore the various ways in which Hollywood, Harlem, suburbia, and Paris all helped shape the visual culture of the cocktail party. Contributing scholars include Joanne Dolan Ingersoll, Curator of Costumes and Textiles, Museum of Art Rhode Island School of Design; Clare Sauro, Curator and Director of Historical Collections, Drexel University; Kristina Wilson, Assistant Professor of Art History, Clark University; Susan Hannel, Associate Professor of Textiles, Fashion Merchandising, and Design, University of Rhode Island; and Gretchen Fenston, milliner and registrar, Condé Nast Archive.

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