Top 15 Fashion Exhibitions in 2015
Jeanne Lanvin, Alexander McQueen, Cristóbal Balenciaga, Dries Van Noten and Iris van Herpen will all get the “museum” treatment, with retrospectives of their creations sometime given an added twist, to focus on one aspect of their creation (Balenciaga and lace, Van Noten’s inspirations).
Two must-see exhibitions in 2015 will be “Chinese Whispers: Tales of the East in Art, Film, and Fashion,” opening at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in May and “Shoes: Pleasure and Pain,” opening at the V&A in London in June.
Here are my picks :
PARIS
Museum of Immigration History
Fashion Mix: French Fashion, Foreign Designers
Now until May 31, 2015
A major exhibition in partnership with the Palais Galliera, which highlights the important contributions made by foreign designers to French fashion over the last century and underlines the diversity that typifies the French fashion school.
LONDON
Design Museum
Women Fashion Power
Now until April 16, 2015
An exhibition that examines how women — be they from the spheres of politics, culture, business or fashion — use different approaches to dress to make statements about their status and personalities.
BATH, UNITED KINGDOM
Fashion Museum
The Great Names of Fashion
January 31, 2015 - January 1, 2016
The history of fashion is sign-posted by an handful of designers whose work has shaped the look of their generation. With 20 outfits, primarily glamorous evening gowns, this exhibition aims to showcase the crème de la crème of 20th-century fashion with works by Elsa Schiaparelli, Christian Dior, Balenciaga, Lanvin, Schiaparelli and Vionnet, to name a few
NEW YORK
Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT)
Yves Saint Laurent + Halston: Fashioning the 70s
February 6 - April 18, 2015
A curatorial exploration that analyses the contributions of the two influential designer to fashion in the 1970s, when at the height of their careers they both crafted a new chic that became synonymous with the glamorous lifestyle of the decade.
PARIS
Les Arts Decoratifs
Deboutonnez la mode!
February 10-July 19, 2015
An opportunity to discover fashion and savoir-fair of various craftsmen (ceramist, glass makers, embroiderers) through 3,000 buttons, dating from the 18th to 20th century. The exhibition will also look how designer are using the simple button to transform it into a fashion accessory, underlying and structuring a silhouette
ANTWERP
MoMu Fashion Museum
Dries Van Noten
Feb 13 – July 18, 2015
An exhibition that offers insight into the famed Belgium designe’s creative world and his many art sources of inspiration.
NEW YORK
Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT)
Lauren Bacall: The Look
March 3 – April 4, 2015
A celebration of the star’s unique style with outfits she wore in the 1960s and 1970s, including pieces by Marc Bohan, Pierre Cardin, Norman Norell, Yves Saint Laurent, and Emanuel Ungaro.
PARIS
Palais Galleria City of Paris Fashion Museum
Jeanne Lanvin
March 8-August 23, 2015
A retrospective dedicated to Jeanne Lanvin (1867-1946), the designer who started the celebrated house of Lanvin, today a cult favorite thanks to its current artistic director Alber Elbaz. Having first started with a millinery shop, Lanvin moved onto children’s clothes before making dresses for their mothers. In the 1920s, she expanded to home décor, menswear, furs and lingerie, launching her signature fragrance, Arpège, in 1927.
LONDON
Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty
March 14 - July 19, 2015
The “savage” quality of Lee Alexander McQueen’s earlier designs will come into better focus at the London leg of this momentous exhibition, which will be “edited and expanded” to feature 30 additional garments, as well as a new section that explores the late designer’s early and often controversial shows from the 1990s.
CALAIS, FRANCE
Museum of Lace and Fashion Cristóbal Balenciaga, The lace magician
April 18 – August 31, 2015
An exhibition that presents many creations by the celebrated designer, all using lace, offering the opportunity to discover also the craftsmanship of Marescot, Dognin, Brivet, famous name in the lace industry.
NEW YORK
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Chinese Whispers: Tales of the East in Art, Film, and Fashion
May 7 to August 16, 2015
How China has fuelled the creative imagination of designers all over the world from Paul Poiret and Christian Dior to Yves Saint Laurent and John Galliano, resulting in layers of cultural translations, re-translations, and, of course, mistranslations.
The exhibition will showcase haute couture pieces alongside traditional Chinese costumes, paintings, porcelains, as well as other Chinese art and films.
LONDON
V&A
Shoes: Pleasure and Pain
June 13, 2015 –January 31, 2016
An exhibition looking at extreme footwear ranging from a sandal decorated in pure gold leaf originating from ancient Egypt to the most elaborate designs by contemporary makers.
PARIS
Les Arts Decoratifs
Korean Fashion
September 19, 2015, February 14, 2016
Celebrating Korean fashion and its sources of inspiration.
ATLANTA
High Museum of Art
Iris van Herpen
November 2015 through May 2016
An exhibition celebrating the highly sculptural works of the cutting-edge Dutch fashion designer, who was the first to successfully embrace 3D-printed fashion. The retrospective will cover 15 collections from 2008-2015, all displayed on custom mannequins and accompanied by music and videos from her multimedia runway shows for a full-on visual and visceral immersion.
SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS
Peabody Essex Museum
December 5, 2015 - March 6, 2016
From vibrant street clothing to exquisite haute couture, this exhibition will celebrate the visual range, creative expression and political nuance of Native American fashion, and also examined how non-Native designers adopt and translate traditional Native American design motifs in their own work, including Isaac Mizrahi's now iconic Totem Pole Dress.
As first published on BLOUINARTINFO.COM