The Museum at FIT Unveils ‘ Power Mode: The Force of Fashion’
Fifty items are featured in “Power Mode: The Force of Fashion,” including a few recent acquisitions by the Museum at FIT.
Clothing can pack a punch, as evidenced in the Museum at FIT’s new exhibition “Power Mode: The Force of Fashion.”
While big-shouldered Eighties-friendly power suits might immediately come to mind, that is only one of the emboldening styles that is on view in the Fashion & Textile History gallery through May 9. Visitors are meant to mull over the roles fashion plays in establishing, reinforcing, and challenging power dynamics within society. Many of the 50 objects from the museum’s permanent collection are being shown to the public for the first time, including an oversized Marc Jacobsdesigned suit that Lady Gaga wore last year and a Thom Browne shrunken suit that’s similar to the style worn by LeBron James during last year’s NBA playoffs.
Set up as a curatorial exploration more than a comprehensive overview, “Power Mode” is broken down into five categories - military uniforms, suits, status, sex and resistance. Emma McClendon, associate curator of costume at The Museum at FIT, who organized the show, said, “Power gets used so much in relation to fashion and there are so many ways people think about power and fashion. There is no way that we can show every possible example of a garment that might be considered powerful. Instead this show — through the themes — is trying to explore and examine the various multifaceted ways that power is expressed in clothing.”
While military uniforms like the 1945 World War II “Ike” jacket or the militaryinspired, like a fall 2010 Burberry ensemble, may be obvious choices, the suit section features the expected power suit, and the more unexpected prison suit. Vetements’ DHL $250 shirt is another new acquisition that is on view. That design by former creative director Demna Gvasalia was an immediate sellout and is one of McClendon’s favorite looks in the show. A “biting twist on the branded status dressing of contemporary high fashion,”