Exhibitions
Current
Fashion and Textile History Gallery
January 24 – August 25, 2024
Statement Sleeves
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Whether puffed, ruffled, split, or sheer, statement sleeves have been a ubiquitous
fashion trend for the past decade. These dramatic, contemporary creations can enliven
and update a wardrobe, yet many current sleeve styles have cycled in and out of fashion
for decades, if not centuries. Although sleeves can be especially challenging to make,
they also inspire countless creative ideas.
Statement Sleeves takes an original approach to the history of fashion. The selected garments date from the 18th century to the present, but they are not presented chronologically. They are instead organized by type. Following an introduction to basic sleeve shapes–from gigot to raglan–visitors will encounter the myriad ways in which designers have reinterpreted and remixed sleeves through variations in material, shape, embellishment, and even functionality. More than sixty styles, all from the museum's permanent collection, emphasize how sleeves hold the power to define a look–in both the past and present.
Image: Madame Grès, evening gown (detail), navy blue silk taffeta, circa 1980, France, gift of Mrs. Mildred Hilson, 82.234.3
Statement Sleeves takes an original approach to the history of fashion. The selected garments date from the 18th century to the present, but they are not presented chronologically. They are instead organized by type. Following an introduction to basic sleeve shapes–from gigot to raglan–visitors will encounter the myriad ways in which designers have reinterpreted and remixed sleeves through variations in material, shape, embellishment, and even functionality. More than sixty styles, all from the museum's permanent collection, emphasize how sleeves hold the power to define a look–in both the past and present.
Image: Madame Grès, evening gown (detail), navy blue silk taffeta, circa 1980, France, gift of Mrs. Mildred Hilson, 82.234.3
Upcoming
Various Locations
May 14 – 26, 2024
FIT School of Art and Design 2024 Graduating Student Exhibition
Learn More about Exhibition Locations
The 2024 Graduating Student Exhibition presents the work of more than 600 student graduates in 16 areas of study from the School of Art and Design. The work is the culmination of each student’s unique experience in FIT’s diverse, challenging, and demanding undergraduate art and design programs. Featuring juried, award–winning, and thesis projects, this presentation is the manifestation of several years of research, experimentation, critical thinking, and artistic proficiency. The Graduating Student Exhibition advances the college’s philosophy that integrates practice in industry with theory and teaching inside the studio.
Upcoming
Special Exhibitions Gallery
September - December 2024
Africa's Fashion Diaspora
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. The Museum at FIT, 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. The Museum at FIT, museum purchase, 2023.32.1
Upcoming
Special Exhibitions Gallery
February–April 2025
Fashioning Wonder: A Cabinet of Curiosities
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. More than 150 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 Katranzou, "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 Katranzou, "Flyphoon" dress, spring 2019. Courtesy Mary Katrantzou.
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!