Pushing the boundaries

The way fashion explored new territories is the focus of a new exhibition at the Fit in New York

Exploring new territories is always been one of the many defining characteristics of fashion. Mirroring mankind’s desire to explore unknown territories, from
the Arctic and the Antarctic to outer space, fashion has been always interested in travelling into unchartered territories in order to find new sources of inspiration and new creative stimulus. The wonderful ‘Expedition: Fashion from the Extreme’ exhibition at the Museum at FIT, the gallery space within the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, explores how fashion has used different wild natural environments as a muse. The starting point are the plains of the Serengeti in order to illustrate the way safari clothing influenced fashion as perfectly summarised by the Spring/Summer 1968 collection by Yves Saint Laurent. The other key environments of the exhibition are the Artic and the highest mountain ranges: indigenous Siberian and Artic clothes sit alongside pieces inspired by the polar landscapes and by extreme mountaineering by Madame Grès, Jean Paul Gaultier, Isaac Mizrahi, Yohji Yamamoto, Karl Lagerfeld’s for Chanel, Charles James, Norma Kamali and Junya Watanabe. The expedition continues into the deep seas with looks with clear references to scuba diving and surfing by Junko Koshino, Versace, Thom Browne, Ohne Titel and Alexander Mc- Queen among others.
Last but certainly not least is space, the final frontier that inspired designers like Pierre Cardin, André Courrèges, Paco Rabanne, Helmut Lang and Hussein Chalayan to create futuristic space-inspired outfits, more often than not made of silver and shiny or highly technic materials. ‘Expedition: Fashion from the Extreme’ can be visited until the 6th of January 2018.