MoMA to open 'Items: Is Fashion Modern?' exhibit in October

By

Obi Anyanwu

Published
Jul 20, 2017

The Museum of Modern Art announced last year the opening of “Items: Is Fashion Modern,” the museum’s first fashion-focused exhibition in over 70 years. The exhibition was originally slated to run from December 10, 2017 to April 1, 2018, and has been moved to October 1, 2017 to January 28, 2018.

 
Organized by Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator and Director of R&D, and Michelle Millar Fisher, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Architecture and Design, Items: Is Fashion Modern explores the design, manufacturing, and functionality of garments and accessories that have had an effect on the 20th and 21st centuries, as well as its relationship with culture, labor, technology, economy and politics.
 
In 2016, the MoMA held an Items: Is Fashion Modern panel discussion to discuss how the designs we wear shape us and the worlds we inhabit. Antonelli moderated the panel that included Penny Martin, Editor-in-Chief of The Gentlewoman; Lagos Fashion and Design Week Founder Omoyemi Akerele; Alphonso D. McClendon, Associate Professor of Design at Drexel University; and Kim Hastreiter, Co-founder and Co-Editor-in-Chief of PAPER Magazine.

Approximately 111 items will be on view at the exhibit, including Levi’s 501 jeans, the Casio watch, the Little Black Dress, and ancient styles like the kippah and the keffiyeh.
 
Items: Is Fashion Modern will be located on the sixth floor of the MoMA this fall.