The Museum at FIT's new show 'Is Fashion Art?' questions to relax

Last week, Wes Gordon sent a series Women of the art world down the runway at Carolina HerreraFall 2026 show. Painter Amy Sherald, photographer Ming Smith, and sculptor Rachel Feinstein, among others, were asked to put down their paintbrushes and cameras and represent the community of women shaping the modern landscape of art. It was perhaps the first time art and fashion converged on a major stage, and it won't be the last. Museum opened at Fashion Institute of Technology on Wednesday, 18 February art x fashionA new exhibition exploring the intersection between the two disciplines.

“This has been in the air for a very long time (it may be the greatest achievement of the century),” says the show's curator, Dr. Elizabeth Way. After all, one need only look to Rachel Scott, who was heavily inspired by Cuban artist Wifredo Lam for her most recent collection. Maria Grazia Chiuri made frequent use of art and artists in her work at Dior, championed by Jonathan Anderson. Loewe Craft Awards, and of course, The upcoming Met Gala and Costume Institute exhibition, costume art.

“You can see it has a very, very long history, but it remains strong and contemporary,” he says. art x fashion It reflects this ongoing relationship, featuring 140 garments, accessories, textiles and visual art pieces dating from the late 18th century to the present. With the help of MFIT's vast collection, they present fashion and art as parallel creative forces. Initially, the inspiration was the deceptively simple question, “Is fashion art?” Must have originated from. But Way's research extends far beyond that question. The show aims to explore the relationship between the two creative forms rather than attempting to define anything.

Art x Fashion begins with a 19th-century salon-style gallery, laid out in chronological order to track the roots of art history and scholarship. Starting in the 1800s, when genre painters amassed historical fashion collections to dress their models, the story continues to postmodernism in the '80s, when the lines between pop culture, fashion, and art really began to blur.

He says, “Fashion did not follow fine art in its aesthetics, but both mediums evolved from the same cultural ideology.” The costumes, hung alongside masterpieces from the Rococo, Romanticism and Art Nouveau periods, prove that both forms expanded together, reacting to the push and pull of the outside world and each other.

art x fashion Admittedly, it focuses on a Euro-centric view of fashion and art, limited by space and time (dissecting the worldwide history of art and fashion is an almost impossible task) as well as resources (MFIT's collection is similarly Euro-American). But they cite global influences, especially when discussing embroidery, an art form that came to Europe by way of Asia.

Part of the exhibition examines innovative design. They present three garments that “challenge what we accept as clothing, as clothing, and how they interact with the body”: a deconstructed suit by Aggie and Sam; a bulbous, patchwork look from Comme des Garcons; And Iris Van Herpen's acrylic glass splash dress. The final piece, Van Herpen's Gown, reflects sculpture more than style when presented on a headless mannequin, the perfect choice to encapsulate the exhibition's thesis.

They explore cultural influences in the next section, particularly on Dior's New Look and, conversely, punk style. The exhibition presents two archetypes of each contrasting style and their respective impacts on the world of fashion. “One, the emerging garment, flowed downwards, and one came from the streets and dripped to the top.”

The show also showcases famous artists who work as designers (Salvador Dali designing ties, Pablo Picasso making home textiles) and as designer-artists (the growing popularity of art school, where future designers study next to artists of different mediums and always internalize their practices).

The exhibition concludes with a look at fashion's engagement with art in three complex ways. First, focusing on reproductions, brands such as Moschino, Versace and most recently Grace Wales Bonner, who sold clothes featuring famous works to the public. Although still worth more than that to some, this practice allows your average person to own an Andy Warhol or Kerry James Marshall, and even wear it on their back. We also look at designers who have reinterpreted fine art, resulting in some of the show's most eye-catching pieces. There's Alexander McQueen's Givenchy dress, inspired by an 1833 Paul Delaroche painting, Execution of Lady Jane Grey, and Yves Saint Laurent's Mondrian Shift, among others.

In the last place, they present perhaps the most obvious relationship between art and fashion at present: collaboration. Of course, Louis Vuitton's Murakami is speedy, as the French house – including former creative director Marc Jacobs and beyond – has long set the tone for how luxury brands can work with and support artists and the art world. They also allow lesser-known pieces to shine in this section, like a tunic dress from Thebe Magugu featuring work by graphic designer Fathu Nembilwi.

art x fashion Could fill ten galleries, possibly more. The topic is vast and ever-changing, but still relevant, as proven by recent New York Fashion Week art-adjacent moments. For Way, the MFIT collection – with only one acquisition and a handful of loans – served as her guide for exploration. “That helped curate it,” she says of the archival parameters. Speaking of which, there's a breathtaking satin, hand-pleated hat on view art x fashion. When you see it, you will have no problem believing that it is definitely art And Outfit.

art x fashion Will be displayed at the Museum of Fashion Institute of Technology from 18 February to 19 April 2026.