The Quad Cities’ version of the Met Gala will take over the Putnam Museum & Science Center Grand Lobby on Saturday, Nov. 14, as a new “Dynasty & Design” gala will raise money for a big fashion exhibit next November.
Michele Darland, Putnam vice president of development, has already sold out the exclusive, 130-guest event at 6:30 p.m. that Saturday, with tickets going for $70 a person; $500 a table, and Champagne VIP Service for $800 (including bottle service, your own server, and a private lounge just for you).
The Putnam is capping admission to the gala, and has sold out the 130 seats it’s offered, likely cutting it off there, she said Friday, Nov. 6.
“We're going for quality, not quantity, and we are at capacity logistically with all of the things we want to do. So we're sold out and we're planning one heck of an event,” Darland said.
“Come dressed as though you own the penthouse, the fashion house and the room,” says the Putnam description of the gala. “Sequins. Statement jewelry. Bold silhouettes. There’s nothing out of bounds and nothing too fierce.”
Guests will help make the Putnam’s 2027 fall fashion exhibition possible. Slated for November 2027 through Valentine’s Day 2028, the Putnam is working to bring dozens of high-fashion textiles, all worn by celebrities like Liz Taylor and Joan Collins and created by designers like Nolan Miller and Mark Zunino.
Darland launched the museum’s focus on fashion this past June, with the Putnam’s Collection Couture Club.
“The idea started with the fact that we have such an extensive textile repertoire, inventory, that I thought, it can't come out all the time because of dust or light. But it can come out for 90 minutes, and I thought, why not create a club where we can do programming around our textile art, textile collection?” she said Friday.
The club (open to anyone, but currently comprised of all women) meets every other month through December of 2027 in the hopes that the club will want to continue for the next year. The club currently has 58 women, who pay $100 for 18 months, and meet for a variety of programs.
In October, for the Halloween program, Darland organized “clothes that could kill you with— we brought out a hat that had arsenic. We brought hoop skirts that caught on fire,” she said.
“The members of Collection Couture absolutely love the programming. Our curators put on one heck of a program. So it's a little bit of social, a little bit of program. Then being part of this Collection Couture, you put on white gloves, and can actually touch the textiles.”
“We have stunning bridal gowns from the wealthiest socialite to a farmer's wife, and they're all beautiful and all different,” Darland said of the Putnam collection.
The programs have included wedding dresses, trousseau pieces, and work uniforms, and the next one on Dec. 2 will feature evening gowns from the Gilded Age (1870 to 1900), and on Feb. 3, 2027 will be Japanese kimonos as a teaser for the Putnam’s future Japanese Friendship Doll Exhibit (next March).
“It's also the groundswell of investment that we're using to start this fashion exhibit for 2027,” Darland said of the planned 2027-28 exhibit. “The Collection Couture members definitely help support the creation and production of this exhibit coming.”
This show will feature 30+ costumes of notable Hollywood actresses and personalities worn either on the set of movies and TV or on the red carpet. This exhibit will show the creativity and strength of women and the designers who clothed them.
Collection Couture Club is the Putnam Museum’s new members-only fashion and textile circle, built for people who want more than labels and lookbooks. This is where you move from spectator to insider, stepping directly into the collection where the most compelling garments and textiles are kept, the pieces almost no one gets to see.
Member benefits include:
Collection Viewings Intimate, private access to garments and textiles rarely seen on display, the kind of pieces that reshape your understanding of fashion’s lineage.
Couture Sessions Conversations with conservators who reveal how history, craftsmanship, and contemporary aesthetics collide.
Collection Conversations Behind-the-scenes looks at the world of collecting, why certain pieces matter, how collections are built, and what it takes to preserve them.
Famous Davenport native designer
Darland got the idea for the major exhibit to feature Davenport Central alum Rene Horsch, a 58-year-old fashion designer based in Los Angeles, who first made it big in the ‘80s.
“He went out to L.A., landed with Nolan Miller, and became his assistant,” Darland said, noting the Putnam exhibit will be called “Working the Set, Walking the Red Carpet.” It will feature dresses made famous by TV stars Joan Collins, Linda Evans, Linda Gray and Donna Mills, as well as historic Quad Cities women.
Miller (1933-2012) was a fashion and jewelry designer, best known for costume design on the hit ‘80s series “Dynasty.”
Horsch will be at the Nov. 14 gala, which will be a year before the 2027 fashion exhibit kickoff. “Basically, it's where fashion meets philanthropy,” Darland said.
Angie Sharp will emcee the gala, which will feature an auction of 10 gowns to be part of the exhibit, with winners sponsoring them for the display. They will be featured on mannequins during the gala.
“If you want, if you bid for Linda Evans, you will be acknowledged in the exhibit. So that's how we're raising money for the exhibit, is by a live auction of these dresses,” Darland said. “But you don't get to take them home.”
The gala will feature a DJ playing ‘80s hits, and the atmosphere will be high glamour and camp, she noted.
“We’ll be recreating a dynasty, high drama, high glamour excess of the '80s with shoulder pads and sequins and a red carpet and white leather furniture, specialty cocktails,” Darland said.
“Rene will be greeting guests, and just the gowns themselves are such a gorgeous ornament to the evening. So very curated and elevated, and we have some surprises for the guests. We have actors coming as Joan and Linda, and there's just gonna be camp drama.”
Nolan Miller met future TV impresario Aaron Spelling in an L.A. flower shop in the ‘50s. Spelling (1923-2006) was the producer behind TV hits “Charlie’s Angels,” “The Love Boat,” “Dynasty,” and “Beverly Hills, 90210.”
“And one said to the other, whoever makes it big first brings the other along. And that's why Nolan Miller is the designer for all of Aaron Spelling's shows,” Darland said. “I believe Nolan Miller did not have any children, and he was a relatively young man when he passed, and he bequeathed all of his archives to Mark Zunino.”
Zunino was Miller’s assistant and they worked together on “Dynasty” (1981-1989), which co-starred Collins and Evans.
Horsch is Collins’ top stylist, Darland said. “He and Joan, anytime Joan has something, he travels to Saint-Tropez to prepare her for a photograph, a photography session. He puts up her Christmas tree in LA. So René is Joan's stylist of choice.”
“This is all part of our major 160th for 2027 leading into '28, where it's the major fashion exhibit,” she said of celebrating the Putnam’s 160th anniversary in December 2027, when the museum plans to unveil its dinosaur skeleton. “It's going to be just major things happening. Major, major year.”
Triceratops fossils (being excavated in Wyoming) will make the Putnam Museum and Science Center the only place in Iowa where visitors can see a full dinosaur skeleton, becoming a permanent addition to the museum’s over 250,000-item collection.
Putnam powers people’s curiosity
Todd Michael Hirst of Davenport is a Putnam member and a member of the “Dynasty & Design” Gala Committee.
“I studied history in undergrad, and I've always been kind of fascinated just by people and ideas that shape an era. So really, that's what kind of drew me to the project, because I became aware of it through Michele,” he said Saturday.
Hirst knows members of the Collection Couture Club, while he's not in it himself.
“There are members of that group who are really accomplished, like really accomplished seamstresses and tailors, for them to be able to put on the gloves and examine the stitching of these historical garments and really get into the details,” he said.
“That was interesting because it's this way of inserting yourself just into these ideas. Then really the creativity and the detail and what it really took to bring that to life,” Hirst said. “It's an idea of discovery. You know, that's what the Putnam represents to me. Like, if you'd asked me if I was like looking for an exhibition about Nolan Miller, I probably would have said no. But the Putnam really gave me that reason, I'd say, to be curious.”
“The Putnam has been helping people kind of explore the world,” he added. “So for me, it's cool to see a local institution is still finding fresh ways to do that. And so it's neat too that a local institution for us that has so much history that introduced me to something unexpected, just felt really cool, felt really like something that was worth supporting.”
The coming fashion exhibit is “a piece of Hollywood's creative history that's coming here to our Quad Cities, to Davenport. And it's going to give people a chance to really encounter that work that's up close and also kind of discovering really all the stories that are behind it,” Hirst said. “I thought, wow, this is really interesting that the Putnam is creating that opportunity for discovery in our own community.
“I've always felt like a good museum, you know, it helps you discover interests that you didn't maybe know you had and gives you reasons to be curious,” he added. “I appreciated that the Putnam and then the exhibit and even the gala itself really just prompted me or provoked me or gave me reasons to be curious.”
Hirst, a finance insurance executive, said clothing “tells us a great deal about the time, like what people admired and how they expressed themselves, and even what maybe success was supposed to look like.”
“For me, as a kid growing up in the '80s, which was all about glitz, it felt like with Miller and his designs, there's a way to explore the relationship between the Hollywood fantasy being back then, but then also like everyday aspirations,” he said. “It's a really fascinating piece of cultural history. I feel like for the gala itself it's giving permission people to have a little fun with glamour, dress up, make an entrance, enjoy the evening.
“But there's also this purpose behind it again, which is finding discovery, feeling inspired, and then helping to bring this really cool, frankly really just different planned exhibition,” Hirst said.
“I wonder too, like what does the gala and what does the exhibit thereafter kind of enable the Putnam to do with just these really interesting and unique ideas? Like that feels lasting to me, like a way to a way to make people in our community curious. There's a lasting kind of benefit to that.”
The gala committee represents the importance of volunteers, and their time, talent, and treasure, he noted.
“And our role as committee members has been really with time and talent. A lot of folks with a lot of great ideas about how to position the gala and the exhibit,” Hirst said. “It's been really cool because it's a pretty diverse group, and we've got people from a number of different backgrounds. And it's just been a real treat to be part of it and to see these folks come together.
“Everybody's really passionate about just this idea that's so different. Everybody's passionate about the Putnam, and they're really passionate about our Quad Cities,” he said. “So the vibe has been terrific with the committee from day one. So it's been really neat; I'm grateful that I got to be part of it.”
From Diana to literary heroines
The last major fashion exhibit at the Putnam was “Literary Heroines” (October 2018-January 2019), which brought to life strong female protagonists from celebrated novels, each displayed in period‑accurate clothing and accessories drawn from the museum’s extensive textile and costume collection.
“That's when we realized we have treasures within our own walls. Why aren't we using them?” Darland said. “And that's the first time I think we did an exhibit using every single— using artifacts within our own walls, and it was magnificent.”
She also has fond memories of an even bigger fashion event at the Putnam (for which she volunteered), on Princess Diana (including her 1981 wedding dress). The four-month exhibit -- "Diana: A Celebration" – ended in January 2014, after selling over 40,000 tickets, with guests coming from 42 different states.
The Nov. 14 gala will be unusual for the Putnam to solely focus on fundraising for bringing a world-class exhibit here. “And it’s coming from within our walls,” she said. “We've always had textiles in our exhibits, but this one is solely highlighting our textiles. It's showcasing how lovely and deep our textiles are.”
From the Met Gala (an annual fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute in New York) to big fashion exhibits worldwide, showcasing clothing has become profitable for museums, Darland said.
“They're popping up because they realize that they are attracting an audience that might not come to a museum regularly. But they'll come to see the fashion,” she said. “So research has shown, and this is why I proceeded to present it to Cindy (the Putnam CEO), the admission is bumped up about 30% more, more traffic than general in museums. If you have a fashion exhibit, it should spike 30% more admission.”
“It's a universal interest, whereas someone who might say, oh, history and science, I'm not a fan, but I'll go to see Joan Collins' dress,” Darland said. “If you were a kid growing up, I mean, in the television era, you can relate on the most basic level.”
The Nov. 14 Putnam schedule will be:
- 6:35 p.m. – Cocktails and Hors D’Oeuvres
- 7:30 p.m. – Program
- 8 p.m. – Auction
- 8:30 p.m. – More Cocktails & Carousal
For more information on getting into the gala, you can email mdarland@putnam.org.
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