Cross-Pollination: ¡Moda Hoy!

Cross-Pollination: ¡Moda Hoy! was a collaboration between students at FIT and LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore. It was inspired by the Summer 2023 exhibition ¡Moda Hoy! Latin American and Latinx Fashion Design Today at The Museum at FIT. Talented students from both colleges engaged with works around three main themes, “Myth and Rituals,” “Beliefs and Economics of Care,” and “Activism and Resistance.” This exhibition was organized following the students’ design process. It celebrated each vital step from inspiration, imagination, and sketching, to the final product. Students created works of art that comment on and call for change in their communities.

Student curators also aimed to decenter traditional museum curation. They worked to shift the focus from the museum’s point of view, to the individual voices of the makers. The theme of hybridity served as an umbrella linking the students’ work and stories. In this exhibition, hybridity referred to the fusion and merging of cultures, resulting in the creation of something novel. The mingling of different faiths and religions, styles, and aesthetics expressed through clothing, underscored how fashion can not only serve as a tangible expression of a cultural synthesis, but also as inspiration foregrounding new talent.

Organizers

Fashion Institute of Technology | Art History and Museum Professions
Allysa Barnaba and Dina Pritmani, exhibition curators
Alexander Nagel and Andrea Diodati, FIT faculty members

The Museum at FIT | Education Department
Tanya Melendez-Escalante, Melissa Marra-Alvarez, and Zainab Floyd

School of Fashion at LASALLE College of the Arts, University of the Arts Singapore
Circe Henestrosa, Daniela Monasterios, Kathryn Shannon Sim, Charles Rezandi and Adrian Huang