Past Exhibitions 2020-21

The Roaring Twenties and The Swinging Sixties
Virtual Exhibition
March 15, 2021 

The Fashion Institute of Technology's School of Graduate Studies and The Museum at FIT (MFIT) launched The Roaring Twenties and The Swinging Sixties, a virtual exhibition comparing the fashions of the Twenties and Sixties, both periods of significant crisis and change. Organized by students of FIT's Master of Arts program, Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory, and Museum Practice, the exhibition features 26 objects from the permanent collection of MFIT and fashion illustrations from FIT's Gladys Marcus Library Special Collections and College Archives (SPARC). It is supplemented with archival photographs that further demonstrate the parallels between the fashion of the two decades. The process of creating an exhibition is a unique experience and a key feature of the Fashion and Textiles Studies graduate program at FIT. For the first time, this student-led project was presented solely online, with the class working together remotely. 

The Twenties and the Sixties each brought about new ideas of the "modern woman" which impacted fashion in remarkably similar ways. These similarities are explored through six thematic sections: Twenties Nostalgia; Dreams and Discontent; Obsession with Youth; Music Mania; Cultural Appropriation; and Mode and Modernity. The shared spirit of the times, whether in art, music, technology, social movements and upheaval, or cultural inspiration, is highlighted by paired objects with discernible visual similarities.


Mila Schön dress, linen, circa 1968, Italy, gift of Mrs. Donald Elliman, 78.208.2

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