Bolt ThreadsThe Museum of Modern Art’s first exhibition dedicated to fashion design since 1944 presents garments and accessories that have had a profound impact on global culture over the last century.
In Items: Is Fashion Modern?, a total of 111 pieces span everything from the Little Black Dress and Levi’s 501 jeans, to the hoodie, the bikini, the stiletto and the Sari. About 30 of the items are also complemented by a new prototype, however – a commissioned or loaned piece inspired by advancements that signify where the industry is moving next.
These have been created by designers, artists, scientists, engineers, and manufacturers – those able to respond to the idea of these “indispensable items” with pioneering materials, approaches, and design revisions. Included is a t-shirt featuring the first lab-grown leather from bioengineering firm Modern Meadow; a dress woven from artificial spider silk by Bolt Threads marking a new partnership with designer Stella McCartney; and a new take on a customizable Breton shirt by 3D knitting company Unmade.
There’s also a fibre-optic Richard Nicoll dress on loan, created by wearable technology company XO, in partnership with Disney, as well as newly conceived versions of the pencil skirt, the biker jacket, the jumpsuit and more. Meanwhile, a wider zone in the exhibition devoted to new technologies and visions of the future, also features Issey Miyake’s A-POC and Pierre Cardin’s Cosmos Collection along with Gore-Tex, the leotard, and the Moon Boot.
Paola Antonelli, the MOMA’s Senior Curator for the Department of Architecture and Design, and its Director of Research and Development, shared her insights on the forward looking aspect of the exhibition and what it means for the future of fashion…
RA: What was your intention in including the new “prototypes” alongside certain established items in the exhibition?
PA: One of my favorite parts of my job over the years has been shaping platforms for the public to engage with emerging and established contemporary designers, and that’s certainly the case here with the new prototypes. I also really wanted audiences to think of the future while they contemplated the 111 typologies in terms of their present and historical past.
The Museum of Modern Art’s first exhibition dedicated to fashion design since 1944 presents garments and accessories that have had a profound impact on global culture over the last century.
In Items: Is Fashion Modern?, a total of 111 pieces span everything from the Little Black Dress and Levi’s 501 jeans, to the hoodie, the bikini, the stiletto and the Sari. About 30 of the items are also complemented by a new prototype, however – a commissioned or loaned piece inspired by advancements that signify where the industry is moving next.
These have been created by designers, artists, scientists, engineers, and manufacturers – those able to respond to the idea of these “indispensable items” with pioneering materials, approaches, and design revisions. Included is a t-shirt featuring the first lab-grown leather from bioengineering firm Modern Meadow; a dress woven from artificial spider silk by Bolt Threads marking a new partnership with designer Stella McCartney; and a new take on a customizable Breton shirt by 3D knitting company Unmade.
There’s also a fibre-optic Richard Nicoll dress on loan, created by wearable technology company XO, in partnership with Disney, as well as newly conceived versions of the pencil skirt, the biker jacket, the jumpsuit and more. Meanwhile, a wider zone in the exhibition devoted to new technologies and visions of the future, also features Issey Miyake’s A-POC and Pierre Cardin’s Cosmos Collection along with Gore-Tex, the leotard, and the Moon Boot.
Paola Antonelli, the MOMA’s Senior Curator for the Department of Architecture and Design, and its Director of Research and Development, shared her insights on the forward looking aspect of the exhibition and what it means for the future of fashion…
RA: What was your intention in including the new “prototypes” alongside certain established items in the exhibition?
PA: One of my favorite parts of my job over the years has been shaping platforms for the public to engage with emerging and established contemporary designers, and that’s certainly the case here with the new prototypes. I also really wanted audiences to think of the future while they contemplated the 111 typologies in terms of their present and historical past.
PA: New technology is often connected to future utopia and dystopia in quite extreme ways in the public imagination – the things that get reported on are robotic garment production and its potential toll on human labor, or the cataclysmic effect that raw material production (eg. cotton) or processing (eg. leather) has on the environment. These are very important and will absolutely shape our future.
The future is also going to be greatly shaped by those who participate in the fashion industry – not as designers or those close to the end of the chain per se (models, marketers, consumers), but those who are making the clothes, who are predominately women. These women are reshaping whole economies and social hierarchies, slowly and determinedly, and this is why conversations about fair labor and worker safety are of interest an importance to me. They have such knock on effects.
RA: Are there any specific items you think look set to be most heavily impacted by new technologies?
PA: We have a manmade spider silk dress in our show, a collaboration between Stella McCartney and Bolt Threads; we also have a bioengineered leather t-shirt in the exhibition from Modern Meadow. Synthetic biology holds such potential for fashion – and for the areas where it may draw impact away from, for example reliance on animals or petrochemicals.
RA: What sort of individuals are bringing these advancements to the fore, and how do you see them shaping the industry ahead?
PA: Well, Modern Meadow is helmed by Suzanne Lee who is a designer; Stella McCartney, also a designer, took Bolt’s radical textile and ran with it, shaping it into something beautiful. As usual, I see designers as the shapers of the future, whether though physical prototypes or products, or through weavigng narratives that inspires others in different fields to push the envelope further.
Items: Is Fashion Modern? is on view October 1, 2017, through January 28, 2018.