Exhibitions

Shoes: Anatomy, Identity, Magic highlights more than 300 pairs of shoes from the museum's permanent collection of 5,000 shoes. Following the success of the MFIT exhibitions Shoes: A Lexicon of Style (1999) and Shoe Obsession (2013), this exhibition provides its own rich narrative on the enduring cultural significance of shoes, while showcasing the museum's world-class collection of footwear. The museum's earliest shoes date from the 17th century (a pair of high-heeled men’s shoes). The most recent are spectacular 21st-century footwear. Labels featured include Alaïa, Manolo Blahnik, Chanel, Ferragamo, Christian Louboutin, Alexander McQueen, Prada, Noritaka Tatehana, Iris van Herpen, and Roger Vivier, among others.


Image: Jimmy Choo for Anya Hindmarch, evening mules, circa 1998, England, gift of Virginia Barbato, 2017.72.2

The exhibition, curated by Dr. Valerie Steele and Colleen Hill, will be accompanied by a lavishly-illustrated companion book, published by Taschen, similar to Fashion Designers, A-Z: The Collection of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (now in its third edition).

Modern female fashion designers ardently incorporated interior decoration into their professional and personal lives. This phenomenon became increasingly evident beginning in the late nineteenth century, as more women founded important couture houses in Paris, London and New York. At the same time, the field of interior decoration became a viable profession, thanks in large part to innovative ladies on both sides of the Atlantic.

Designing Women: Fashion Creators and Their Interiors is the first exhibition to explore the connection between these disciplines. Approximately 70 garments from The Museum at FIT’s permanent collection are on view alongside photographic images of the most compelling interiors created for leading female fashion designers from the 1890s to the 1970s. Featured creators include Jeanne Paquin, Lucile, Jeanne Lanvin, Madeleine Vionnet, Pauline Potter (later Baroness Pauline de Rothschild), and many others.

Presented chronologically, the selection of objects and images include a diverse range of spaces, from luxe couture salons and modest ateliers to private homes. Together the fashions and photographs address how and why interior decoration became such an integral part of fashion’s leading designing women.

Curator: Patricia Mears

Image: Paquin, evening cape, pink silk chiffon and metal sequins, 1897, France, museum purchase, P83.19.7