By Richard Read

Need a break from the summer heat? Do you live in Los Angeles, or are you planning to visit soon? Then take our advice and set aside an afternoon to visit the Petersen Automotive Museum for a stroll through its newest exhibition, Automotivated: Streamlined Fashion and Automobiles.

As you might have guessed from the snazzy shot above (or from the show title), Automotivated is all about wheels and wearables, centering largely on vehicles from the Art Deco period. The rides on display include a 1913 Mercer Raceabout, a 1938 Delahaye 135MS Figoni et Falaschi Roadster, and numerous sleek, exotic models made in-between.

Just as important are the sleek, exotic fashions that were inspired by the cars and the Deco aesthetic — fashions made in the ateliers of legendary designers like Nina Ricci, Jeanne Lanvin, and the one, the only, Coco Chanel. (Did you involuntarily clutch your pearls just now? It’s okay, we all did.) Not only the outfits outstanding, but they provide some incentive for your non-gearhead pals to tag along.

If any of you saw the Automotivated exhibit at the Phoenix Art Museum in 2007, this is similar — in fact, the two museums are producing the current show together. (We love collaboration.) However, we’d expect this one to be a little larger, given the size of the local donor pool and Los Angeles’ thriving car culture.

For info-starved types, or for anyone needing a distraction this Thursday afternoon, check out the Petersen website and/or skim the full press release below. Automotivated: Streamlined Fashion and Automobiles opens Saturday, July 24 and runs through January 23, 2011.

SEE AUTOMOBILES AND FASHION INTERSECT AT THE PETERSEN AUTOMOTIVE MUSEUM

Automotivated: Streamlined Fashion and Automobiles opens July 24, 2010

(LOS ANGELES, June 1, 2010)  More attention has been devoted to the design of apparel and automobiles than to any other objects.  To celebrate this important link, The Petersen Automotive Museum and Phoenix Art Museum have collaborated on a new exhibit opening at the Petersen on Saturday, July 24, 2010.

Automotivated: Streamlined Fashion and Automobiles will reach from the early 1900s to the height of the Art Deco era to examine the automobile’s influence on fashion, fashion’s influence on the automobile, and the joint and unexpected influences between both.  Cars ranging from a 1913 Mercer Raceabout to a 1938 Delahaye will be displayed with complementary clothing styles of the era to illustrate how each discipline has been shaped by ongoing innovation, changing tastes, and evolving trends.  Together, they will reveal how style-conscious individuals embraced cars as fashion accessories and how they ultimately came to consider their vehicles to be additional layers of clothing that were as essential to proclaiming their financial and social status as their hats, gowns, and jewels.

Automobiles on exhibition include:

1913 Mercer Raceabout
1923 Mercedes 28/95 Targa Florio
1926 Rolls-Royce Town Landaulet
1937 Jaguar SS-100
1934 LaSalle Series 350 Convertible Coupe
1937 Cord 812 Cabriolet
1937 Delage D8-120 Coupe Aerosport
1938 Delahaye 135MS Figoni et Falaschi Roadster

The automobile-inspired clothing drawn from Phoenix Art Museum’s fashion design collection will range from bulky but protective dusters, hats, gloves and other accoutrements created in the early days of the automobile to the stylish gowns, stoles, capes, dresses and ensembles that developed in the Art Deco period. As the streamlined forms of the automobile came to be highlighted, so did the streamlined forms of the human figure. Undergarments designed to accentuate the human form in order to compliment the clothing that was draped over them will be exhibited to provide an inside look at what it took to streamline society. Automotivated: Streamlined Fashion and Automobiles showcases designs by Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, Sophie Gimbel, Nina Ricci, Hattie Carnegie, and Jeanne Lanvin.

The Petersen Automotive Museum Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)(3) charity. The Museum is located at 6060 Wilshire Boulevard (at Fairfax) in Los Angeles.  Admission prices are $10 for general admission adults, $5 for seniors and students with ID, and $3 for children ages 5 to 12. Museum members and children under five are admitted free. Covered parking is available for $2 per half hour with an $8 maximum for Museum visitors. Museum hours are Tuesday through Sunday from 10am to 6pm. For general Museum information, call 323/930-CARS or visit the Museum’s Web site at: www.Petersen.org.

Founded in 1966, Phoenix Art Museum’s fashion design collection is notable for its quality and comprehensiveness and is comprised of more than 5,000 objects of American and European men’s, women’s and children’s dress and accessories dating from the late 17th century to the present.  Phoenix Art Museum is one of only a handful of art museums in the country with a long and continuous active fashion program.  To learn more visit www.PhxArt.org.