March 1999

 Charles Kleibacker’s career highlights a unique combination of credentials. His writing skills, his polished use of words, are a result of his early jobs: newspaper reporter and advertising copywriter (he holds a degree in journalism from the University of Notre Dame).

Then, it was on to his great passion: the design and construction of women’s clothes. With ups and downs in learning the business, he ultimately landed design positions in New York and Paris. In 1960, he opened his own New York design studio, selling until 1986. His interest in, and dedication to, the fit and construction of fine garments brought him numerous assignments as consultant and designer-in-residence to colleges and universities across the country. His rapport with students shone brightly and continues today as he visits Mount Mary College in Milwaukee, Kent State University in Ohio and The Ohio State University, just to mention a few. His cross-country tours of fashion presentations for DuPont, Vogue Magazine, American Silk Mills, the Taubman Company invariably brought in standing-room-only audiences.

Today, Kleibacker’s passion is the collection-preservation of 20^th century Dress and curating exciting museum exhibitions of the same. His slide presentation: 20th Century Dress: as History, as Engineering, as Art, has won wide acclaim. His approach to work is meticulous, energetic, demanding…with its share of humor. I know: I’ve worked with Charles Kleibacker over 20 years…never dull, always rewarding!

With Diana Vreeland’s 1973 exhibition of Balenciaga designs at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the world of seriously and beautifully produced clothing found public response. Such meaningful Dress achieved a respect: as history, as education, as art.

Today, across the country, such museum exhibitions prove outstanding in the large audiences they attract. Clothing exhibitions are not only income-generators for museum attendance, but also for the museum café, the museum shop, museum lectures, museum movies, etc.

Finding an educational theme for a clothing exhibition and presenting the carefully selected researched items in a thought-out, designed arena…this is work that requires time and a meticulous attention to detail. A curator of clothing exhibitions ties up loose ends and exploratory shifts that make the most of historic background, imagination based on fact, an eye for the dramatic visual, a respect for a particular designer’s work and attitude, a careful grooming of the objects. It’s a tight rope walk. I like the walk.