“My husband calls this the war room,” said Tessa Suplee, striding past spinning mobile planes toward the closet. The doors are thrown open, revealing over a dozen military uniforms. A gas mask sits next to rows of combat boots that have seen the sands of Afghanistan.
Suplee retired from a 26-year career as an Air Force nurse in July. For her, being a working woman meant the most obvious kind of uniform: military. But her most recent Air Force uniform, along with her mother’s Navy jacket, aren’t in the “war room.” They’re on display at her alma mater, the State College of Florida, for its newest costume exhibition.
Organizers Joe Loccisano and Ken Erickson have gathered more than 60 uniforms for the exhibit “Art of the Costume: Working Women in Uniform,” which opens Aug. 26. Most of them came from local residents, adding some intense emotions to the group.
Recently retired Air Force nurse Tessa Suplee contributed the uniform she wore in Desert Storm in 1990 to the costume exhibition at State College of Florida. Many of the military uniforms on display belonged to her or her mother, who was in the Navy. PHOTO SUBMITTED BY SUPLEE.
“When you wear a uniform, it’s basically a costume to present an image,” Erickson said. “We tried to represent a wide spectrum of women — and this is what people in Manatee and Sarasota county had that they wanted to share with us.”
Flight attendant uniforms beckon attendees into the exhibition space in the Neel Performing Arts Center. Some uniforms are as expected: nurses, maids, waitresses, policewomen. Others are more unusual: An actual Weeki Wachee mermaid; ancient Ybor cigar roller outfits; an extravagant trapeze outfit from (you guessed it) Dolly Jacobs.
“The whole idea behind this is, ‘How do you define what constitutes a uniform?’” Loccisano said. “It was a challenge to look at not what was typical. Because if you had to wear it to work for your job, that’s technically a uniform.”
One 93-year-old U.S. Marine veteran, Pauline Adams, almost didn’t let the exhibition borrow her uniform — because she wanted to be buried in it, and she “might need it back.”
“I said, ‘Ma’am, if you need it back, we will be sure to get it to you,’” Erickson said, smiling.
The exhibition’s also a got a Playboy bunny suit on display – one of only three on public display in the country, according to Erickson. There are very few in circulation that aren’t owned by Playboy so this is super neat.
The exhibit is small, but each piece has so much history that it seems bigger. Each uniform was worn, used and loved by a working woman. Some are nearly 100 years old, and walking around the space really feels real. There are frayed elbows on a judge’s robe, stains on a maid’s apron, military hats and jackets that are decades out of date but kept in as pristine condition as possible.
The “Art of the Costume: Working Women in Uniform” exhibition, which opens Friday, is the fourth in a series of costume exhibitions at the State College of Florida. Most of the uniforms were supplied by women in the Sarasota and Manatee communities. STAFF PHOTO/ DAHLIA GHABOUR.
Marilyn Eshoo and Marie Buchanan were both Eastern Air Lines flight attendants until the company went bankrupt. Both share a pride in what they said was the best job they ever had. They even volunteered to help Erickson and Loccisano iron all the uniforms before they were placed on the mannequins.
Buchanan said that she was pleased that the exhibition considered her flight attendant uniform as “something of value.”
“Some people think we’re just waitresses in the sky,” she said. “We’re more than that. And it’s an honor to recognize that we are women of the working class and we do represent something. To have my uniform here is an honor.”
The exhibition also opens on Women’s Equity Day, which Erickson and Loccisano said was completely a happy accident.
It’s about respect, they said, and honoring what women have contributed to this country. Plus, this exhibition is free and open to the public, Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. It’s not one to miss.