"Some people need sequins—others don't." So quipped legendary costume designer Edith Head as press covered arrivals to the 1955 Academy Awards. In truth, no one needs sequins, which are definitively decorative. They have long been desired, or disparaged, but rarely considered in depth. This exhibition looks below the surface to explore the significant historical, social, cultural, technological, and environmental dimensions of sequins. Glamorous and tacky, luxe and disposable, feminine and fluid—these seemingly superficial elements embody tensions worth reflecting on.
That is the curatorial statement for "Sequins: Flash and Substance," the exhibition opening September 8 at the Goldstein Gallery in McNeal Hall on the University of Minnesota's St. Paul campus. Running through December 4, the show draws more than thirty objects from the Goldstein Museum of Design's permanent collection, featuring American designers like Roy Halston, Mollie Parnis, Bob Mackie, and BruceGlen alongside pieces from Mexico, China, South Korea, and Pakistan. Organized by curator Jean McElvain and director Aidan O'Connor, with research support from PhD candidate Anuje Farhung, the exhibition is supported by the Kusske Design Initiative at the College of Design.
The exhibition arrives as the Goldstein Museum of Design celebrates its fiftieth anniversary. Founded in 1976 as the Goldstein Gallery, the museum was renamed in 2000 to reflect its expanded academic role. It honors School of Home Economics faculty members Harriet and Vetta Goldstein, whose vision and teaching shaped the institution.
The sisters' personal travel collections from the 1920s and 1930s formed the seed of what has grown into a 36,000-object archive. The museum's world dress collection began in 2004 with 659 pieces donated by the International Institute of Minnesota, and today the collection spans decorative arts, furniture, textiles, graphic and industrial design, and costume and fashion accessories.
The sequin itself has a history as rich and layered as the garments it adorns. The exhibition explores the ornament's deep historical roots, its technological evolution, and its cultural significance across centuries and continents. Featured designers like Bob Mackie and Mollie Parnis represent the enduring appeal of sequined fashion.
The exhibition's curators are interested in more than glamour. They explore the environmental dimensions of sequins alongside the social tensions embodied in them: glamorous and tacky, luxe and disposable, feminine and fluid. The show asks visitors to consider why these seemingly superficial elements have persisted across cultures and millennia, and what they reveal about human desires for status, beauty, and self-expression.
The Goldstein Museum of Design has been working to make its collections and spaces more accessible. Director Aidan O'Connor describes the museum as part of the "public front door" to the University of Minnesota's St. Paul campus. "We are looking in and looking out," she said. Internally, the museum provides design students with direct object-based research and exhibition space. Externally, it collaborates across disciplines—campus radio station Radio K (KUOM) produced a sequin-inspired playlist for this exhibition, and the museum has connected with agriculture faculty through its vintage Corn King dinnerware. The museum also consulted with the University's Office of Native American Affairs to ensure its collection of Indigenous objects and textiles, some dating to the Goldstein sisters' 1920s Southwest travels, complies with the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). NAGPRA Coordinator Dylan Goetsch reviewed and evaluated the collection one by one.
The opening reception on Thursday, September 10, from 5 to 7 p.m., launches the museum's fiftieth anniversary programming, which continues throughout the 2026-27 academic year. The exhibition itself runs through December 4, with extended Thursday gallery hours until 7 p.m.
What would the Goldstein sisters think of the museum today? Marilyn DeLong, professor emeritus of the School of Design who taught at the University for fifty years, recalls that community connection has been central to the museum since its earliest days, when community members sat on the Goldstein Gallery founding board. Former student Peg Deppe, now a fiber arts instructor and author, credits skills learned in museum exhibit work as remaining useful throughout her career. The sisters, who lived together in St. Anthony Park for much of their university careers, would likely appreciate an exhibition that takes something as seemingly frivolous as a sequin and treats it with the seriousness of design scholarship. Sequins may be definitively decorative, but as this exhibition demonstrates, they are also definitively meaningful.