We all incorporate fashion in our day-to-day lives but rarely stop to appreciate the art of fashion. As a fashion capital, New York City offers many exhibits where visitors can appreciate the creativity and skill that go into crafting unique pieces of clothing. These exhibitions, presented by famous museums, each deliver a different take on fashion history. From Barbie dresses to Haute Couture, check out five fashion exhibits on view now or coming soon!
1. Statement Sleeves, The Fashion Institue of Technology
Curated by Colleen Hill, Statement Sleeves at the Fashion Institute of Technology provides a short history of bold sleeve designs. Over 80 pieces from designers like Schiaparelli and Vivienne Westwood are on display. This eye-opening exhibit illustrates how a seemingly utilitarian element of clothing—the part that covers our shoulders and arms—can be used as a form of self-expression. The exhibit is arranged in different themed sections such as Puffs and Folds, Pleats and Ruffles, and Embellishment and Adornment. Each section contains sleeves from various eras that illustrate a specific texture or style, such as a flashy silver ruffle or a dramatic draping rainbow sleeve. Located in Chelsea, Statement Sleeves sheds light on a usually subtle and often overlooked part of clothing and demonstrates how it can be used as a source of empowerment.
On view through August 25, 2024.
2. Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion, The Met
For this year’s spring exhibition, the Costume Institute of The Met Museum presents Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion. The exhibition features 220 carefully selected garments and accessories. Multi-sensory elements, including visuals, scents, and sounds, make this a uniquely immersive experience.
The collection illustrates the story of The Nightingale and the Rose, a short story by Oscar Wilde written in 1888. As you walk through the galleries, an excerpt from the story read by actress Elizabeth Debicki can be heard over the loudspeakers. Wilde’s story contains similar themes to A Garden of Time by J. G. Ballard, a 1962 novel that served as the Met Gala theme this year. Both stories explore our connection to nature and nature’s ephemerality. In the exhibit, we see these themes embodied by the delicate fashions on display that are too fragile to be touched or worn. Interactive elements, like tubes that pump earthy aromas into the air, nature sound effects, and computerized videos that show the garments in motion, revive each “sleeping beauty”.
On view through September 2, 2024
3. Africa’s Fashion Diaspora, Fashion Institute of Technology
Ensemble; cape in blue & brown hand cut cotton & silk lace; multi-colored polka dot & stripe blouse in silk charmeuse; black crepe pants in wool & silk
Africa’s Fashion Diaspora is a new exhibit coming to the Fashion Institute of Technology’s Museum at FIT in September. The exhibit explores the history of fashion and how it has shaped international Black diasporic cultures.
Articles of clothing on display are arranged by nine different themes such as Reaching for Africa, Mothers and Motherlands, A Black Atlantic, and more. It is the first exhibit of its kind to explore Black consciousness, Afrocentricity, Pan-Africanism, and other related movement through the lens of fashion. Garments on display were made throughout the 20th and 21st centuries by designers from across the African diaspora and right here in New York City. One New York designer with works on display is Fabrice Simon, a Haitian immigrant who ran his family’s New York fashion business during the 1980s and incorporated Haitian beadwork into his designs.
On view September 18, 2024 – December 29, 2024
4. Barbie: A Cultural Icon, Museum of Arts and Design
The Museum of Arts and Design’sBarbie: A Cultural Iconexhibition features 250 vintage dolls and a life-sized showcase of fashion designs. Everything a fan would want to see—from a life-size Barbie Ultra ‘Vette™ to the first Black Barbie—is on display. Visitors will get an inside look at the articulated fashions created for the fashionable doll.
Created by Karan Feder, the exhibit also includes photo experiences for fans and over 50 historical objects. The exhibit beautifully demonstrates and celebrates the impact of Barbie and fashion, appealing to fashion and doll lovers alike.
On view October 19, 2024 through March 16, 2025.
5. Worth & Mainbocher: Demystifying the Haute Couture
Worth & Mainbocher: Demystifying the Haute Couture, a virtual exhibitpresented by the Costume Institute of the Museum of the City of New York (MCNY), takes you back in time to 19th-century Paris and the birth of Haute Couture. The exhibit is a 119-garment digital gallery that illustrates the perfection of Parisian haute couture, a luxurious approach to fashion created by designers Charles Fredrick Worth and Main Rousseau Bocher in 1860.
The gallery contains images of impeccable pieces created by the two designers and worn by real New York women. Each piece is accompanied by an explanation of its history, notes on its design, and who wore it. The purpose of this exhibit is to acknowledge the craft and artistic vision of the House of Worth and Mainbocher.
