Film series: Fit for Duty
Cornell Cinema is pleased to partner with the Cornell Fashion + Textile Collection to present "Fit for Duty," a five-part film series exploring how military service shapes individual identity during and beyond active duty.
The series centers military dress as a sartorial site for exploring questions of identity and transformation. It touches how issues of race, gender, class, and more intersect with military service across various branches and in conflicts from World War II through today.
The series will begin in November 2025 and continue into the spring semester.
"Fit for Duty: Form and Function in Military Dress" is an interdisciplinary exhibition on form, function, and service that explores how military uniforms have evolved in aesthetics, silhouette, material, and visual symbolism—shaping ideals of discipline, identity, and design. Presented across two campus sites, the exhibition connects historical military dress to contemporary fashion, student design, and veteran storytelling.
The exhibition is on view Rachel Hope Doran '19 and Terrace Level Vitrines at the Human Ecology Building and Wortham Museum at Barton Hall from November 11, 2025 through March 2026.
Special thanks to Catherine Blumenkamp, Associate Director of the Cornell Fashion + Textile Collection (CF+TC).