Exhibitions
Current
Special Exhibitions Gallery
September 18 - December 29, 2024
Africa's Fashion Diaspora
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Africa's Fashion Diaspora examines fashion as a medium of storytelling and as a vital way for designers to contribute
to longstanding and evolving ideas of transnational Black cultural spaces. Whether
described as Négritude, Pan-Africanism, the Black Atlantic, Black consciousness, or
Afrofuturism, Black thinkers and creatives, from philosophers to writers, musicians,
and visual artists, have theorized cultural connections between diverse communities
of African descent. This exhibition explores designers from Africa, the Americas,
and Europe who interpret and construct the culture of their distinct localities and
communities for an international audience and/or reach across geographies to tie Black
cultural practices together through their designs.
Examples include South African designer Sindiso Khumalo's textile print inspired by American abolitionist Harriet Tubman, British designer Grace Wales Bonner’s tuxedo informed by the court of Emperor Haile Selassie in Ethiopia, and French designer Olivier Rousteing's collection for Balmain based on Black American cowboys. Through approximately 60 ensembles, textiles, and accessories, Africa's Fashion Diaspora illustrates how fashion designers have contributed to international dialogues to chronicle, evaluate, and expand modern ideas of Blackness.
Africa's Fashion Diaspora is curated by MFIT associate curator Elizabeth Way.
Image: Sindiso Khumalo, printed cotton dress detail, spring 2021, South Africa, museum purchase, 2023.32.1
Examples include South African designer Sindiso Khumalo's textile print inspired by American abolitionist Harriet Tubman, British designer Grace Wales Bonner’s tuxedo informed by the court of Emperor Haile Selassie in Ethiopia, and French designer Olivier Rousteing's collection for Balmain based on Black American cowboys. Through approximately 60 ensembles, textiles, and accessories, Africa's Fashion Diaspora illustrates how fashion designers have contributed to international dialogues to chronicle, evaluate, and expand modern ideas of Blackness.
Africa's Fashion Diaspora is curated by MFIT associate curator Elizabeth Way.
Image: Sindiso Khumalo, printed cotton dress detail, spring 2021, South Africa, museum purchase, 2023.32.1
Current
Museum at FIT Lobby/Goodman Resource Center
November 2 – December 8, 2024
This Must Be The Place
The Fashion Institute of Technology and the Museum at FIT proudly present the Photography
and Related Media BFA Junior exhibition: This Must Be The Place. This collection, from 42 students, showcases photo based installations ranging from
the documentation of intimate life, directed staged narrative tableaus, and visual
representations of conceptual ideas. This vast scope of work reflects contemporary
trends of fine art photography, showcasing individual creative vision, while reflecting
the time and place we all inhabit.
This Must Be the Place is a student led exhibition, produced and created in the Photographic Concepts and Exhibition course where throughout the semester, students produce photographs to push their technical and creative abilities, as well as working collaboratively in committees to bring this show to life.
Image: Coral Day, Jan Edward, Fabiana Torres
This Must Be the Place is a student led exhibition, produced and created in the Photographic Concepts and Exhibition course where throughout the semester, students produce photographs to push their technical and creative abilities, as well as working collaboratively in committees to bring this show to life.
Image: Coral Day, Jan Edward, Fabiana Torres
Upcoming
Special Exhibitions Gallery
February 19 – April 20, 2025
Fashioning Wonder: A Cabinet of Curiosities
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Fashioning Wonder: A Cabinet of Curiosities explores the fascinating and longstanding connections between cabinets of curiosities
and fashion. Also known as wunderkammern, cabinets of curiosities were precursors to the modern museum, and many included
examples of clothing. Nearly 200 garments and accessories represent the breadth of
objects collected within the cabinets, and they are further selected to pique curiosity
through their rarity, beauty, or originality.
An introductory gallery examines the history of cabinets of curiosities, explaining their significance to the Age of Exploration, their ties to colonialism, and the need to think more critically about contemporary museums and their objects. Within the main gallery, selections are organized into ten themed cabinets that highlight the connections between fashion and the natural world, fine art, human anatomy, and illusion. The immersive exhibition design also allows for interaction with objects, encouraging visitors to identify unusual or obsolete objects and to engage with the sensory appeal of fashion.
Fashioning Wonder: A Cabinet of Curiosities is curated by MFIT Senior Curator of Costume Dr. Colleen Hill.
Image: Mary Katrantzou, "Flyphoon" dress, spring 2019. Courtesy Mary Katrantzou.
An introductory gallery examines the history of cabinets of curiosities, explaining their significance to the Age of Exploration, their ties to colonialism, and the need to think more critically about contemporary museums and their objects. Within the main gallery, selections are organized into ten themed cabinets that highlight the connections between fashion and the natural world, fine art, human anatomy, and illusion. The immersive exhibition design also allows for interaction with objects, encouraging visitors to identify unusual or obsolete objects and to engage with the sensory appeal of fashion.
Fashioning Wonder: A Cabinet of Curiosities is curated by MFIT Senior Curator of Costume Dr. Colleen Hill.
Image: Mary Katrantzou, "Flyphoon" dress, spring 2019. Courtesy Mary Katrantzou.
UPCOMING
Museum Lobby
February – March 2025
All That Glitters...
FIT's School of Graduate Studies, in collaboration with The Museum at FIT, presents All That Glitters…, a new exhibition conceived and organized by graduate students in FIT's MA Fashion and Textiles Studies program. All that glitters is not always gold—it can be any medium that catches the light, shines, and reflects. The post-World War II era saw a blossoming of new textiles and technologies that changed the relationship between fashion materials and light. All That Glitters… explores surfaces that shine, focusing on themes of material production, social and financial values, and conservation. It examines not only the bright side of these materials, but also their darker side–including their environmental impact and their use in protests, such as "glitter bombing."
Image: Paco Rabanne, evening dress, 1969, France, gift of Montgomery Ward, 81.48.2
MFIT on the Road
The Museum at FIT often loans objects from its permanent collections to other institutions
for use in exhibitions. Check out what venue is featuring MFIT on the road.
What's traveling?
Stephen Burrows evening dress, polyester, 1973, USA, gift of Mrs. Savanna Clark, 99.15.1
There’s no shame in living in the past
We have an archive of over ten years of exhibition websites. Take some time to explore
our curatorial history!