New Acquisitions
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Gabriela Hearst prioritizes environmental, economic and social initiatives. Her commitment to these principles has led to benchmarks for others in the industry to emulate. This multicolor crochet dress, for example, is from Hearst's spring 2022 collection which spotlighted collaborations and craftsmanship. It was produced by artisans from the Madres & Artesanas Tex cooperative in Bolivia, and represents fashion that embraces social inclusion, integrity of materials, and economic empowerment. Crochet can only be done by hand, and this is a particularly complex and varied design. One of its makers, Marlene Lozano, describes the work as "exciting, like a puzzle, but it’s beautiful!"
This dress was on view in the 2023 exhibition ¡Moda Hoy! Latin American and Latinx Fashion Design Today and in the 2025 exhibition Fashioning Wonder: A Cabinet of Curiosities.
T-shirts and hoodies have been blank canvases for messages of protest and rebellion since the 1950s. They are especially visible in hip hop culture and act as a barometer of current times. In 2020, DJ D-Nice’s Club Quarantine black hoodie—marking his COVID-era Instagram dance parties—symbolized both the vulnerability of Black lives and the way hip hop could provide comfort and community.
This sweatshirt was on view in the 2023 exhibition Fresh, Fly, and Fabulous: Fifty Years of Hip Hop Style.
British designer Grace Wales Bonner's collaboration with renowned American contemporary artist Kerry James Marshall builds a cross-diasporic network that also fuses fashion and art. She states, "His artistic achievements opened my eyes to the real power and liberating possibilities of image making. By so elegantly centralizing the Black figure in his work, Kerry showed me just how different things could be, how ideals of beauty can be challenged, and how it is possible to gracefully infiltrate the canon and change it from within." Their collection supports Study and Struggle, a Mississippi organization combating anti-Black racism and mass incarceration.
This t-shirt was on view in the 2024 exhibition Africa's Fashion Diaspora
Latin American designers often respond to political events through their work. In 2020, a collaboration between Willy Chavarria and K-Swiss called attention to the inhumanity of U.S. immigration policies.
This sweatshirt was on view in the 2023 exhibition ¡Moda Hoy! Latin American and Latinx Fashion Design Today
Below are the types of objects in the collections of The Museum at FIT.
The accessories collection consists of approximately 15,000 objects that date from the mid-17th century to the present day. The collection has a particularly strong emphasis on designer accessories from the second half of the 20th century.
The accessories collection is supported by the Solomon-Sloan Endowment Fund, which was established in 2005 to facilitate the acquisition, conservation, documentation and exhibition of accessories.
- The footwear collection contains more than 4,000 pairs of shoes, boots and sandals. It includes examples by designers such as Manolo Blahnik, Roger Vivier, Herbert Levine, and Salvatore Ferragamo.
- The millinery collection contains more than 3,000 hats by famous milliners such as Caroline Reboux, Lilly Daché, Halston and Philip Treacy. There are also many examples from designers such as Christian Dior, Balenciaga and Jacques Fath.
- The handbag collection includes fine examples by luxury houses such as Hermés and Gucci as well as examples by Roberta di Camerino, Judith Leiber and Bonnie Cashin for Coach.
- Other accessories include fans, gloves, belts, hosiery and costume jewelry.
The Costume Collection consists of more than 50,000 objects dating from the mid-18th century to the present. The strength of the collection lies in its 20th-century holdings and, particularly, in couture and ready-to-wear women's clothing. The collections are currently being computerized to facilitate research.
- The costume collection includes fashion by designers such as Azzedine Alaïa, Balenciaga, Chanel, Comme des Garçons, Dior, Galanos, Halston, Charles James, Norell, Paul Poiret, Yves Saint Laurent, and Vivienne Westwood.
- The Halston Archives and Study Room hold designs, patterns, and related records documenting this important designer's life work.
- The menswear collection features some 2,000 garments ranging from formal to activewear, including suits, coats, vests, and uniforms.
- Also included are swimwear, lingerie, outerwear, and knitwear.
The Textile Collection consists of more than 30,000 textiles dating from the fifth century to the present, and includes the work of artists and designers such as Junichi Arai, Salvador Dali, Raoul Dufy, and William Morris.
- The textile collection includes apparel and home furnishing fabrics, embroideries, and shawls.
- The collection also includes a number of ribbon sample books.
- The J.B. Martin Velvet Room archives handwoven and production velvets spanning a 125-year period.
The Photography Archive features the work of fashion photographers Louise-Dahl Wolfe (1895-1989), who produced 86 cover images and thousands of interior shots for Harper’s Bazaar magazine, and John Rawlings (1912-1970), who had more than 200 Vogue and Glamour magazine covers.
Image: Louise Dahl-Wolfe photograph of model Sandra Payson. Featured in Harper’s Bazaar, March 1947, page 205, gift of Louise Dahl-Wolfe, 74.84.54
For those looking for the Herman Landshoff collection, the archive has been transferred
to:
Munchner Stadtmuseum
Sammlungsleiter Fotomuseum
St.-Jakobs-Pl. 1
80331 Munchen
The contact for the collection is:
Dr. Ulrich Pohlmann
Tel.: 089/233-22948
Fax.: 089/233-27969
email.: [email protected]