Collections
The Museum is aggressively building its permanent collection, focusing on "directional" fashion, i.e., the kind of fashion that makes fashion history. The permanent collection of The Museum at FIT currently includes more than 50,000 garments and accessories, dating from the eighteenth century to the present, with particular strength in modern and contemporary women’s fashion. Represented are the major figures in fashion history, such as Azzedine Alaïa, Cristóbal Balenciaga, Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, Christian Dior, Halston, Charles James, Norman Norell, Paul Poiret, Yves Saint Laurent, and Vivienne Westwood as well as contemporary avant-garde designers, such as Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons and Rick Owens. Among the 15,000 accessories there are more than 4,000 pairs of shoes alone, including examples by Manolo Blahnik, Ferragamo, Perugia, and Roger Vivier. There are also 30,000 textiles, dating from the fifth century to the present, including the work of artists and designers such as William Morris, Salvador Dali, Raoul Dufy, and Junichi Arai. A small archive of fashion photography contains works by Louise Dahl-Wolfe and John Rawlings.
Museum exhibitions draw on these collections and are open free of charge to the public. Access to collections in storage is limited, however, to design members.
The Museum at FIT has relationships with many museums to which it lends objects from our specialized collections. Past loans include those to the Yeshiva University Museum (for an exhibition on American Jewry in the Garment Industry), the Museum of the City of New York (for an exhibition on African-American designers), the Musée de la Mode et du Textile (for a retrospective on Cristóbal Balenciaga), The Victoria & Albert Museum (for exhibitions on Surrealism and maharajas), and the Imperial War Museum (for an exhibition on camouflage). The Museum at FIT collaborated with the Chicago History Museum on the exhibition Chic Chicago: Treasures from the Chicago History Museum, which was jointly curated by MFIT and CHM staff and was on view at both institutions from 2007 to 2008.
Museum exhibitions draw on these collections and are open free of charge to the public. Access to collections in storage is limited, however, to design members.
The Museum at FIT has relationships with many museums to which it lends objects from our specialized collections. Past loans include those to the Yeshiva University Museum (for an exhibition on American Jewry in the Garment Industry), the Museum of the City of New York (for an exhibition on African-American designers), the Musée de la Mode et du Textile (for a retrospective on Cristóbal Balenciaga), The Victoria & Albert Museum (for exhibitions on Surrealism and maharajas), and the Imperial War Museum (for an exhibition on camouflage). The Museum at FIT collaborated with the Chicago History Museum on the exhibition Chic Chicago: Treasures from the Chicago History Museum, which was jointly curated by MFIT and CHM staff and was on view at both institutions from 2007 to 2008.
