“The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) presents fashion after Fashion, an exhibition that seeks to redefine the term “Fashion” by presenting the work of six designer teams who are thinking—and making us think—about fashion anew. Featuring some of the most innovative work being produced in the context of contemporary fashion, with new commissions by Eckhaus Latta and Alexa Karolinski, ensæmble, Lucy Jones, Ryohei Kawanishi, Henrik Vibskov, and SSAW Magazine, fashion after Fashion focuses on commissioned, site-sensitive installations to offer an experience that is immersive, affective, and mentally stimulating. With no mannequins in sight, the exhibition considers fashion as an expanded field of practice that is determined by concept and context, incorporating performance, photography, video, and sculpture.
The exhibition uses “fashion” (in the lowercase) to signal a more reflective, concerned, and creative process that is not determined solely by commerce and passing trends. The practitioners included in fashion after Fashion call into question the state and nature of “Fashion” (in the uppercase) and challenge some of its main constructs, including the myth of the individual designer as author, short-lived and commodity-driven products, gendered dressing, ideal bodies, and waste.” — MAD
Installation views of fashion after Fashion. Photos by Jenna Bascom. Courtesy of the Museum of Arts and Design.
According to curator Hazel Clark, “fashion after Fashion brings to attention fashion practices that are creative, thoughtful, performative, and socially concerned rather than focused on the short lived commodification and standardization of products, designers, bodies, images, and lifestyles.”
“By featuring commissioned site-specific works, not garments and artifacts, fashion after Fashion channels a current ethos in design,” said curator Ilari Laamanen. “The focus is on collaborative and interdisciplinary practices. We highlight the process, not the product.”
fashion after Fashion is co-curated by Hazel Clark and Ilari Laamanen in collaboration with the Finnish Cultural Institute in New York and Parsons School of Design, The New School, New York, with support from MAD’s Assistant Curator Barbara Paris Gifford and Curatorial Assistant and Project Manager Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy.