Same Exhibition, Just Not as Great
As a title, the Great Designers was provocative, but perhaps it was a bit misleading.
When the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology introduced a two-part survey of its holdings last month, many of the journalists who covered its opening asked its curators the obvious question: Just who are you saying is great? And more than a few designers probably wondered, hey, what about us?
The exhibition is themed alphabetically, with representations of 50 designers from Alaïa to Zoran. While it was intended to focus its audience on the vast holdings of the museum, it rather had the effect of suggesting the curators were pronouncing those included as the greatest designers of the last two centuries. After some consideration, the museum announced on Friday that it is closing the exhibition until Tuesday, while it changes the name to Fashion, A-Z: Highlights from the Collection of the Museum at F.I.T.
“It has become evident that the title does not accurately reflect the theme of the exhibition,” the museum said in a statement. “Because the exhibition was curated exclusively from the museum’s permanent collection, the selection is not a qualitative statement about modern designers, but rather a display of the range of the museums holdings from the 20th and 21st centuries.”
The second part of the exhibition, planned to open May 23, will include a different group of designers than those already on display and will reflect the name change.
When the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology introduced a two-part survey of its holdings last month, many of the journalists who covered its opening asked its curators the obvious question: Just who are you saying is great? And more than a few designers probably wondered, hey, what about us?
The exhibition is themed alphabetically, with representations of 50 designers from Alaïa to Zoran. While it was intended to focus its audience on the vast holdings of the museum, it rather had the effect of suggesting the curators were pronouncing those included as the greatest designers of the last two centuries. After some consideration, the museum announced on Friday that it is closing the exhibition until Tuesday, while it changes the name to Fashion, A-Z: Highlights from the Collection of the Museum at F.I.T.
“It has become evident that the title does not accurately reflect the theme of the exhibition,” the museum said in a statement. “Because the exhibition was curated exclusively from the museum’s permanent collection, the selection is not a qualitative statement about modern designers, but rather a display of the range of the museums holdings from the 20th and 21st centuries.”
The second part of the exhibition, planned to open May 23, will include a different group of designers than those already on display and will reflect the name change.
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