The fashion exhibitions not to be missed in 2023

From New York to Tokyo, via London and Paris, that’s it the best fashion exhibitions of 2023 that will make us travel in the coming months.

In 1983, the New York Met hosted the exhibition Yves Saint Laurent: 25 years of design curated by Diana Vreeland. She was there first retrospective ever dedicated to a stylist.

Four decades later, there are many museums exploring the legacy of great designers, celebrating the history of fashion and analyzing its relationship to other arts such as painting, architecture, cinema and photography. This list is the prime example that exhibition halls are always a good reason to pack.

ALEXANDER MCQUEEN: MIND, MYTHOS, MUSE

Renowned for their conceptual and technical virtuosity, Alexander McQueen’s collections have synthesized his tailoring and tailoring skills with visual references spanning time, geography and the media.

The exhibition offers an overview of the designer’s sources of inspiration, his creative processes and his ability to tell stories through more than 120 garments and accessories and over 80 works of art ranging from painting, sculpture, textiles, prints, photography and decorative arts and help shed light on the interdisciplinary momentum that has defined his career.

(National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; through April 16)

AFRICA FASHION

A journey from the mid-20th century to today, celebrating the vitality and global impact of a fashion scene as dynamic and diverse as the continent to which it belongs.

(Victoria and Albert Museum, London; until April 16)

Thierry Mugler: VERY COUTURISTIC

After welcoming more than a million visitors in Canada, Germany, the Netherlands and France, the first retrospective dedicated to the world of Thierry Mugler concludes its tour in New York by exhibiting a hundred clothes (almost all for the first time), accessories , videos, photographs, sketches and a gallery dedicated to fragrances.

(Brooklyn Museum, New York; through May 7)

GOLD, LES ORS D’YVES SAINT LAURENT

From the first buttons that stood out on his jackets to dresses that seemed to be made entirely of gold, no collection escaped Yves Saint Laurent’s “golden” touch. Today, this brilliant exhibition explores the role of gold in the work of couturier through forty high fashion dresses and ready-to-wear, a selection of objects and accessories as well as showcases full of jewels.

(Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris, Paris; until May 14)

DESIGNING WOMEN: FASHION CREATORS AND THEIR INTERIORS

The deep links between fashion and interior design come together in this itinerary of over 60 pieces by 40 stylists (including Coco Chanel, Elsa Schiaparelli, Mary Quant and Anna Sui), accessories, large-scale drawings and photographs.

(The Museum at FIT, New York; through May 14)

CHRISTIAN DIOR: DESIGNER OF DREAMS

Staged with a new scenographic narrative created by architect Shohei Shigematsu and reinvented under the curatorship of Florence Müller, this exhibition highlights the sincere and unique ties between Dior and Japan.

(Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; through May 28)

1997 FASHION BIG BANG

The exhibition focuses on 1997, a decisive year in the history of contemporary fashion, which in addition to representing the culminating moment of fashion in the nineties, allowed us to enter the new millennium giving rise to a series of collections, fashion shows, new appointments, inaugurations and events that defined the fashion scene as we know it today. The impact of 1997 was such that it can be considered the springboard for 21st century fashion. The collection Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body by Comme des Garçons, the conceptual garments of Martin Margiela in the collection Stockman and Raf Simons’ redefinition of male beauty canons in Black Palms are just three of the milestones of 1997.

(Musée Galliera, Paris; from March 7 to July 16)

ANDY WARHOL: THE TEXTILES

The almost unknown universe of Andy Warhol’s fabric designs dates back to the beginning of his career as an illustrator and commercial designer in the 1950s and early 1960s. The exhibition includes more than 45 patterns by the pop artist that enclose an assortment of colorful objects: ice cream sundaes, delicious caramel apples, colored buttons, lemon slices, pretzels and clowns. Some of the most notable manufacturers in US textile history are also represented, including Stehli Silks, Fuller Fabrics and M Lowenstein and Sons.

(Fashion and Textile Museum, London; 31 March to 10 September)

KARL LAGERFELD: A LINE OF BEAUTY

The Kaiser of fashion will be the protagonist of one of the most anticipated fashion exhibitions of 2023, that of the Costume Institute of the Met and its famous gala, which will be held in the spring. The exhibition will explore the stylistic language of the fashion designer through the recurring aesthetic themes of his 65-year career.

(Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; May 5 to July 16)

GABRIELLE CHANEL. FASHION MANIFESTO

The first ever exhibition dedicated to the work of Coco Chanel in the UK traces the founding of house and the evolution of his iconic style, from the opening of the first hat boutique in Paris in 1910 to the presentation of his latest collection in 1971.

(Victoria and Albert Museum, London; 16 September 2023 to 25 February 2024)

IRIS VAN HERPEN

Towards the end of the year, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris will pay tribute to Iris van Herpen, now recognized as one of the most innovative figures of her generation. Organized as an immersive and sensorial journey into the Dutch designer’s universe, the retrospective blends fashion, contemporary art, design and science and questions the place of the body in space, its relationship with clothing and its environment, as well as the its future in a rapidly changing world.

(Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris; from 29 November 2023 to 28 April 2024)