A new multimedia exhibit at CMU explores women's empowerment through the clothing we wear.  Its called Trappings:  Stories of Women, Power and Clothing and its the work of two artists (one local, one not so much) - Renee Piechocki and Tiffany Ludwig, who collaborate under the sobriquet Two Girls Working.

This public art piece grew out of the ultimate old-school icon of American woman -- the Tupperware party format .... the artists worked with a host who invited friends, thus ensuring a wide range of women sharing their power stories.

Among the 50 or so interviewed locally:

Jan Gallaway, a member of the Pittsburgh Puffins recreational hockey team, feels powerful in her uniform -- and also when she takes off her helmet to reveal the 40-something mom underneath to the shocked boys at the ice rink.

Cecile Springer, retired head of her own consulting firm, feels it wearing a gold pin that was a gift from her late mother-in-law, the well-known union activist Maida Springer-Kemp.

Heather Arnet, executive director of The Women and Girls Foundation of Southwest Pennsylvania, feels it in the purple cape she bought with her own earnings at age 16. The cut reminds her of the purple sash worn by suffragists like her great-grandmother, not to mention Wonder Woman, her childhood heroine.

Teen-ager Dana Jacobs of Philadelphia, interviewed at YouthWorks Inc., feels it in slacks and a sweater because in them, "I'm ready for anything, you know, for job interviews and if you go in a store, ain't nobody going to watch you."

Rebecca Newlin, posing with a hammer, feels it in her Habitat for Humanity T-shirt because "women can put up a drywall and that's what really gives me a lot of motivation."

And Valerie Archier feels it in the blue suit her mother bought her for job interviews because "it totally transforms me when I put it on."

I'm not sure if I feel powerful in any clothing.  Probably something I wear to work, but I'm usually pretty self-conscious and disengage from feeling any connection with the clothes I wear.  Ask Ledcat who shakes her head in dismay as I whirl around the house bemoaning all the negative aspects of my assorted items of clothing.  Wow ... I really cannot think of something that makes me feel powerful.  Now that's something to chew upon.

Where: Miller Gallery, Purnell Center, Carnegie Mellon University When: 11:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Tuesday-Sunday, or by appointment. Information: 412-268-3618.