Exhibitions

Current Special Exhibitions Gallery September 10, 2025 – January 4, 2026

Dress, Dreams, and Desire: Fashion and Psychoanalysis

Learn More
photograph of seated woman wrapped in translucent tulle, eyes covered with embroidered eyes, pearls for teeth, and holding a pink knit doll

Dress, Dreams, and Desire: Fashion and Psychoanalysis is the first exhibition to explore the complex relationship between fashion and psychoanalysis. Curated by Dr. Valerie Steele, director of The Museum at FIT, the exhibition will feature approximately 100 looks by designers such as Alexander McQueen, Elsa Schiaparelli, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Gianni and Donatella Versace, John Galliano for Christian Dior Haute Couture, Rick Owens, Thierry Mugler, Vivienne Westwood, and many more. Described by Suzy Menkes as "the Freud of Fashion," Steele has spent more than five years working on this exhibition and the accompanying book, which draws on the evolution of psychoanalytic ideas about sexuality and the unconscious, with sections devoted to themes such as the mirror stage, the skin ego, desire, and sexual difference.

Image: Photograph by Elizaveta Porodina of artist Alisa Gorshenina. Courtesy of photographer.

 

Upcoming Museum Lobby October 18 – November 9, 2025

The Age of CI: The Rise of Creative Intelligence in an AI-Driven World

chrome 3d flower object with text, "10.18-11.09, FIT Creative Technology and Design, The Age of CI, The Rise of Creative Intelligence in an AI-Driven World"
Human creativity is on the cusp of a revolution. In this new era, design transcends aesthetics and style, becoming a strategic practice grounded in empathy and insightful problem framing. The creatives of the future will be those who can envision groundbreaking solutions while harnessing AI to remove production barriers and achieve transformative results.

This exhibition explores a future where AI is not a replacement for human creativity but its ultimate amplifier. By surpassing the limits of individual skills and production speed, AI enables us to concentrate on what truly sets us apart: Creative Intelligence (CI).

Welcome to the Age of CI.

@newcreatives.info

 

UPCOMING Special Exhibitions Gallery February 18 – April 19, 2026

Art X Fashion

tshirt with red sleeves and printed illustration of black man wearing a green shirt with red sleeves
Art X Fashion is a major exhibition exploring the entangled and shifting relationship between fine art and fashion—typically considered a "decorative" or "applied" art. Curated by Dr. Elizabeth Way, curator of Costume and Accessories, and featuring 140 garments, textiles, and accessories from The Museum at FIT’s permanent collection, this exhibition traces fashion and art's parallel aesthetics from 18th-century rococo to late-20th-century postmodernism. Utilizing the theoretical framework developed by art and fashion historian Dr. Christopher Richards, Art X Fashion invites viewers to consider the much-asked question, "Is fashion art?" through historic and contemporary examples. Further themes explore the overlapping art-and-fashion work of artists, such as Salvador Dalí, Sonia Delaunay, Kerry James Marshall, Antonio Lopez, and Pablo Picasso, and fashion designers, including Hussein Chalayan, Issey Miyake, Paul Poiret, Elsa Schiaparelli, and Vivienne Tam, as well as the ways artists use fashion to shape their identities and expand their cultural significance.

Image: Wales Bonner X Kerry James Marshall, cotton T-shirt reproducing "Lost Boys: AKA Black Sonny" (1993) by Kerry James Marshall, spring 2023, museum purchase, 2022.55.1
shoes a-z book cover

Looking for a longer read?

Find something on our list of publications!

Museum Publications

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?
Floor-length evening dress on a mannequin in color block, layered chiffon tiers.
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!
Catch up on past exhibitions

 

Visit MFITSupport MFITJoin our Mailing List