Reflections of … Mary Wilson & the Supremes

Note from the TS Editors:  This exhibit closed on August 18, 2013.

“No one, no one gets the prize” sang Diana Ross on one of her most famous solo albums of her career, “The Boss,” but in fact, Mary Wilson got it.  Over Mary’s career as a Supreme she amassed a collection of costumes that now fills two floors of the African American Museum in Philadelphia and is currently on display through August 18.  The costumes bring to life the memory of one of the most famous singing groups in American history.

The African American Museum frames the exhibit of Mary Wilson’s costumes within the Great Migration of Afro-Americans moving from the rural south to big northern cities like Chicago and Detroit.  From 1910 to 1970 over 6 million black Americans moved north from the south, forever changing the face of our country.  The Supremes were a bi-product of that movement.  Coming out of the Brewster projects in Detroit, their story is a rags to riches tale. Their collaboration with Motown music producer, Berry Gordy, shot them to fame and they became role models for young black women everywhere.

The exhibit now showing at the African American Museum celebrates the Supremes’ historic imprint on American history and pop culture, music, fashion, and women’s history through a ground-breaking new display.  Come See About Me: The Mary Wilson Supremes Collection features over forty of the Supremes’ most glamorous gowns along with rarely seen video footage, archival images, album covers, and other three-dimensional artifacts.

The gowns tell the story of an important era:  the Supremes and the society they helped to transform.  The Supremes embodied style, class and integrity at a time when these were the only attributes that African Americans could legitimately claim in American society.  The grace and confidence that the Supremes personified would inspire a nation and continue to serve as a shining example of modern black womanhood—American womanhood,” says Dr. Neal, guest curator, who is an expert on African American music history and pop culture.

The exhibit showcases the dresses worn by Diana Ross and the Supremes which were designed by Hollywood designers including Bob Mackie, Michael Travis, and Pat Campano.  In the beginning their costumes were bought at local department stores, but as their fame increased so did their budget. Their stage wardrobe was a major expense.  In the 1960s, their lavish outfits, trimmed with beading and thousands of sequins, cost as much as $2,000 each.  Mackie designed for Liza Minnelli, Tina Turner, Cher and Barbra Streisand while Travis is known for designing the infamous “Butterfly Gown” that is part of the exhibit.  That dress was featured on the cover of the Supremes’ final studio album entitled Cream of the Crop and was worn during TCB, a Motown Productions television special with the Temptations in 1968.  In the disco era, from the mid-1970’s to 1981, well known designer Pat Campano designed the Supremes’ cat suits and costumes.

Mary Wilson, who was the only Supreme that was in the group from the start in 1960, through the Diana Ross years and up until the group disbanded at the end of the 70’s, collected the costumes over the years with the hope of an exhibition like this. Previous locations where some of the gowns were displayed include the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, the Royal Albert Hall in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Grundy Art Gallery in Blackpool, England. This uniquely curated exhibit is being presented as a major experience by the African American Museum in Philadelphia.