10 Fashion Exhibitions to See in 2023
Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse
Until April 16, 2023, NGV International, Melbourne
This exhibition explores the work of the legendary boundary-pushing fashion designer. Over 100 looks are featured, alongside historical artworks from the collections of NGV and LACMA, offering an unprecedented insight into the designer's myriad artistic reference points. The juxtaposition of garments and artworks aim to highlight McQueen’s creative process and capacity for storytelling.
The exhibition features examples from some of the designer’s earliest and most acclaimed collections, including the controversial Highland Rape (autumn-winter 1995–1996) and poetic The Widows of Culloden (autumn- winter 2006–2007), which both take inspiration from McQueen’s ancestry and Scottish history. In-depth presentations of Deliverance (spring-summer 2004) as well as his final complete collection, Plato’s Atlantis (spring-summer 2010), are also a highlight.
Thierry Mugler: Couturissime
Until May 7, 2023, Brooklyn Museum, New York
Travelling retrospective that explores the edgy universe of the visionary French designer who created bold silhouettes using unorthodox techniques and materials
In the 1970s, Mugler defined trends with his acclaimed “glamazon,” a chic, modern woman whose style evolved from the hippie fashions of the 1960s. In the 1980s and ’90s, he galvanized the renaissance of haute couture through his provocative collections and theatrical fashion shows, which involved grandiose locations and the era’s most iconic models.
The exhibition includes an expanded section dedicated to fragrance, centered on Mugler’s scent Angel.
Gianni Versace Retrospective
Until May 7, 2023, Groninger Museum
In Gianni Versace Retrospective, the Groninger Museum brings to life the career of the eccentric Italian fashion designer, one of the most influential couturiers in history. The colourful, daring exhibition takes visitors inside a world of extravagant garments and lavish catwalk shows where clothes, pop music and design come together in spectacular fashion.
One highlight of the exhibition is the dress that sparked a media frenzy and made the actress Liz Hurley world-famous overnight is part of the largest-ever exhibition of the fashion designer’s work. The revealing black silk Versace creation with giant gold safety pins up the sides perfectly illustrates the impact Gianni Versace had as a designer. Another exhibition highlight is a catwalk showcasing key looks from Versace’s 1991 Freedom collection. The Freedom fashion show turned supermodels Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista and Christy Turlington into global sensations.
Along with couture pieces, Gianni Versace Retrospective includes books, advertising images, and other objects that show the Italian designer’s versatility and impact.
Designing Women: Fashion Creators and Their Interiors
Until May 14, 2023 The Museum at FIT, New York
This exhibition explores the profound connections between the worlds of modern high fashion and interior decoration of leading female designers from the 1890s to the 1970s such as Jeanne Paquin, Lucile, Jeanne Lanvin, Madeleine Vionnet, Pauline Potter (later Baroness Pauline de Rothschild), Coco Chanel, Elsa Schiaparelli, Ann Lowe, Mary Quant, Carolina Herrera, and Anna Sui.
Garments are juxtaposed with photographic images of the most compelling interiors created for these celebrated designers These range from luxe couture salons and apartments designed by the leading architects and interior decorators of their time to modest ateliers and homes decorated by designers themselves.
“Fashion designers have avidly incorporated interior decoration into their personal and professional lives,” said Patricia Mears, MFIT deputy director and curator of the exhibition.
Examples such as Coco Chanel’s sumptuous Paris pied-à-terre and Anna Sui’s whimsical New York apartment validate the belief that few disciplines exemplify the gracious art of living better than fashion and interior decoration.
Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams
Until May, 28, 2023, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
The celebrated exhibition gets a new scenographic narrative as a tribute to Japanese culture The major retrospective spotlights more than seventy-five years of the House of Dior, from the artistic influences of the founding couturier to the various Artistic Directors who have succeeded him: Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferré, John Galliano, Raf Simons and Maria Grazia Chiuri.
The exhibition retraces Christian Dior’s fascination with the creative richness of Japan, which inspired his collections from the outset.
Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty
May 5–July 16, 2023, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
A major retrospective of the iconic designer who passed away in 2019, which will examine the designer’s stylistic vocabulary as it was expressed in through lines—aesthetic themes that appear time and again.
The exhibition will explore Lagerfeld’s complex working methodology, tracing the evolution of his fashions from the two dimensional to the three dimensional, said Curator Andrew Bolton, “The fluid lines of his sketches found expression in recurring aesthetic themes in his fashions, uniting his designs for Balmain, Patou, Chloé, Fendi, Chanel, and his eponymous label, Karl Lagerfeld, creating a diverse and prolific body of work unparalleled in the history of fashion.”
DIVA
June 24, 2023 –April 7, 2024, V&A Museum, London
From the Opera goddesses of the Victorian era to today’s global megastars, DIVA will celebrate the power and creativity of iconic performers, exploring and redefining what it means to be a diva and how this has been subverted or embraced over time across opera, stage, popular music, and film. Featuring fashion, photography, design, costumes, music and live performance drawn from the V&A collection and loans from across the world, the exhibition looks at how the performer has intersected with society and driven change through their voice and art. It will consider how the diva has been reclaimed and redefined and will examine the external and internal forces that contribute to shaping and worshipping the diva.
Andy Warhol: The Textiles
March 31 – September 10, 2023, The Fashion & Textile Museum
An exhibition exploring the beautiful and fascinating textile designs by the influential pop artist and icon Andy Warhol.
Discover the unknown and virtually unrecorded world of textile designs by the influential pop artist and icon Andy Warhol. Dating from his early career as a commercial designer and illustrator in the 1950s and early 1960s, Warhol’s textiles are now considered an important part of his body of work. These designs added considerably to his ability as an artist, which was then almost entirely devoted to realising the demands and deadlines of professional clients, leaving limited room for fantasy and vision.
The exhibition includes over 45 of Warhol’s textile patterns from the 1950s and early 1960s, depicting an array of colourful objects – ice cream sundaes, delicious toffee apples, colourful buttons, cut lemons, pretzels and jumping clowns exhibited both as fabric lengths, some in multiple colourways, and as garments. Some of the most important manufacturers in American textile history are also represented, such as Stehli Silks, Fuller Fabrics Inc., and M Lowenstein and Sons.
Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto
16 September 2023 – 25 February 2024, V&A Museum, London
This exhibition will chart the evolution of Coco Chanel’s iconic design style and the establishment of the House of CHANEL, from the opening of her first millinery boutique in Paris in 1910 to the showing of her final collection in 1971.
At a time when Paul Poiret dominated the world of women’s fashionChanel went to Deauville in 1912, then to Biarritz and Paris, and revolutionised the world of Haute Couture, adorning the bodies of her contemporaries with what amounted to a fashion manifesto. The first part of the exhibition is chronological; it recounts her early beginnings with a few emblematic pieces, including the famous 1916 marinière, the sailor blouse, in jersey. The second part of the exhibition is themed around her dress codes: the braided tweed suit, two-tone pumps, the 2.55 quilted bag, black and beige naturally, but also red, white and gold… and, of course, the costume and the fine jewellery that were intrinsic to the Chanel look.
IRIS VAN HERPEN
November 29-April 28, 2024, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris
Organized as an immersive and sensory exploration into the designer’s universe, this retrospective will mergeg fashion, contemporary art, design and science, and revolves around eight themes that identify the very essence of one of the most avant-garde creators of her generation
Founded in 2007, and now a member of the Fédération de la Haute Couture, the Maison of Iris van Herpen is known for fusing technology and traditional Couture craftsmanship, as well as contemplating fashion as an interdisciplinary language and dynamic entity, which is frequently resonating in various collaborations with other creatives and thinkers, such as sculptor Anthony Howe, architect Philip Beesley or even more recently with the artist Casey Curran.