“Designing Women: Fashionmakers and Their Interiors,” the first exhibition showcasing the connection between the worlds of modern couture and interior decoration, will take place at The Museum at FIT from November 30 to May 14.
More than 60 garments and accessories from 40 designers, including Coco Chanel, Elsa Schiaparelli, Ann Lowe, Mary Quant, Carolina Herrera and Anna Sui, will be accompanied by small interior photographers, as well as a selection of large-scale drawings created exclusively for the exhibition of artist and FIT Adjunct Associate Professor of Illustration Bil Donovan.
Interiors range from luxurious salons and couture apartments designed by the leading architects and interior decorators of their day, to modest workshops and houses decorated by the designers themselves.
“Fashion designers have avidly incorporated interior decorating into their personal and professional lives,” said Patricia Mears, MFIT Deputy Director and curator of the exhibition. “While there have been many articles and books documenting this phenomenon, ‘Designing Women: Fashion Creators and Their Interiors’ is the first exhibition to explore the connection between these intertwined disciplines.”
Barbara Hulanicki for Biba’s Day Dress, London 1970
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Examples include Chanel’s sumptuous Paris pied-à-terre and Sui’s whimsical New York apartment. In the 1960s, Quant commissioned Terence Conran to design her boutique called Bazaar. The exhibition begins with objects dating back to the 18th century, while the main focus is on the highly innovative period between 1890 and 1970.
The exhibition also includes the work of fashion designers who did their own decorating, such as American sportswear designer Bonnie Cashin, and several fashion designers who left the field to become decorators, including Barbara Hulanicki and Carolyne Roehm, as well as Pauline Fairfax Potter. , later known as the Baroness de Rothschild. While her French home, Chateau Mouton, was a masterpiece of modern interior decoration, so was the modest New York City apartment she lived in years earlier while working as head designer for Hattie Carnegie’s house.
Source: news.google.com