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Museums are welcoming more fashion than ever

From New York to Saudi Arabia, curatorship has found a new world to explore

Museums are welcoming more fashion than ever  From New York to Saudi Arabia, curatorship has found a new world to explore

On November 21, the exhibition Christian Dior, Designer of Dreams opened at the Saudi National Museum in Riyadh, taking visitors on a journey through the creative history of the French maison. Following successful runs at the Brooklyn Museum in New York and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the exhibition has now arrived in Saudi Arabia, fostering a dialogue with the host country's culture. This cultural exchange inspired curator Florence Müller and scenographer Nathalie Crinière in designing several rooms. Among these, one room draws inspiration from the city of Al-'Ula, featuring garments evoking the hues of the sun and desert, while another pays homage to Riyadh’s natural environment—its name in Arabic means “The Gardens”—through custom scenography. In recent years, fashion exhibitions have seen significant growth. Museums, traditionally reserved for historical or artistic expressions, are increasingly embracing a discipline that, until not long ago, was confined to shop windows or exclusive runway events.

Olivier Flaviano, during his tenure as director of the Yves Saint Laurent Museum in Paris and now heading La Galerie di Dior, the permanent museum of the Parisian maison, remarked that «fashion is increasingly exposed to the public, and I believe that, in a sense, fashion itself is becoming an art. Thanks to these major exhibitions, we are helping to elevate fashion's status.» This growing interaction with exhibition spaces highlights the fashion world’s intent to democratize, making it accessible to a wider audience traditionally excluded. The incorporation of fashion into cultural spaces and its subsequent accessibility also seem to represent a natural evolution of the role glamor has assumed over time. Far from being merely functional or a symbol of prestige and status, fashion today transforms into a mirror of social change, establishing itself as a significant cultural phenomenon. The exhibition Real Clothes, Real Lives, inaugurated at the New York Historical Society last September, exemplifies this. Spanning over two hundred years of history told through women’s garments, the exhibit demonstrates how a piece of clothing can reflect the habits and visions of specific eras. «Every thread and piece of fabric displayed in this exhibition offers significant clues about the women who wore these garments,» explains Anna Danziger Halperin, associate director of the New York Historical Society. Thus, the length of a skirt becomes a symbol of a specific historical period, while the silhouette of a jacket reveals information about the wearer’s social status.

Creatively, fashion increasingly aligns itself with an artistic discipline, with collections becoming the product of a narrative and an expression of a designer’s storytelling ability. For instance, Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto, dedicated to the French designer and exhibited at the V&A Museum in London and later at the Power Station of Art in Shanghai until November 24, traces the evolution of the Parisian maison, highlighting how its historical creative archive continues to influence contemporary design. Reflecting on Chanel’s narrative consistency, the brand's president, Bruno Pavlovsky, observed, «I believe that in today’s world, it is very important to address the same topic from different perspectives, to tell the same story in various ways. This is also the creativity that Chanel has consistently practiced for a long time.» Thanks to museum spaces, fashion succeeds in enhancing its conceptual dimension, transcending the boundaries of tailoring and commercial relationships with clients to establish itself as a universal language.

@dovecotstudios Discover the colourful and playful textile prints of Andy Warhol, a previously unknown area of Warhol’s early career and what is thought to be the foundation of his iconic Pop art career! Andy Warhol: The Textiles | Until 18 May 2024 | Monday to Saturday 10:00 - 17:00 Image credit: Andy Warhol Artworks 2024 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by DACS, London. Used with permission of Warhol Foundation. Image by Phil Wilkinson. #AndyWarhol #AndyWarholTextiles #WarholTheTextiles #DovecotStudios #Warhol #WarholExhibition #TapestryStudio Hey Lover - The Daughters Of Eve

In 2024, numerous museum exhibitions have been dedicated to fashion. In the United Kingdom, beyond the exhibition devoted to Coco Chanel, the V&A also hosted Diva, showcasing signature looks worn by international entertainment icons such as Tina Turner, Cher, and Rihanna, as well as Naomi In Fashion, an exhibition tracing supermodel Naomi Campbell’s career through some of her most iconic photos, open until April 6, 2025. At the Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh, Andy Warhol: The Textiles, dedicated to the recent discovery of garments created by the American artist early in his career, was on display. In the United States, the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York also presented fascinating exhibitions like Statement Sleeves, exploring prominent sleeves, and Africa’s Fashion Diaspora, narrating the African diaspora through fashion. New York also saw great success at the MET’s Costume Institute with Women Dressing Women, a showcase dedicated to 20th- and 21st-century female designers, and Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion, the theme of the latest MET Gala.

@metmuseum Don’t hit snooze—today’s the day! Get a sneak peek of our new exhibition “Sleeping Beauties: Awakening Fashion,” which opens to the public this Friday, May 10 and will be celebrated tonight at The Met Gala. Which garment are you most excited to see in the exhibition? #MetGala #ReawakeningFashion #FashionTikTok original sound - The Met

The success of the MET Gala, with its major exhibitions, has provided fashion with opportunities to rethink its artistic offerings. On one hand, museum spaces have created new opportunities to engage with VICs (Very Important Clients, a segment of the luxury clientele that, despite representing a small percentage of the global population, accounts for a significant portion of brand sales); on the other hand, the MET Gala’s fame has also contributed to a rediscovery of historical archives. This rediscovery represents a return to the original intentions of a fashion house and its aesthetic identity, as well as an invitation to reassess its relevance in the fashion industry and popular culture. Exhibitions are often accompanied by coffee table books—collectible items symbolizing the conceptual value of the garments and ideas displayed behind glass cases. In this new dimension, wearing a garment is now just one part of the experience, which perhaps is no longer even essential. Instead, the ability to demonstrate one’s participation by purchasing collectibles at museum shops or attending exhibitions, conferences, and other exclusive events becomes the true proof of belonging to the world of fashion.