MoMA’s Big Fall Fashion Exhibition is A Cabinet of Curiosities

MoMA opens its doors this weekend to its first fashion exhibition since 1944 and only its second in the museum’s history, this being a subject more usually embraced by the Met. Items: Is Fashion Modern? is an exhaustive plumb of the last century to unearth some of its most iconic sartorial paraphernalia: from Rudi Gernreich’s genderless clothing of 1969 which boldly foresaw what we’re only just beginning to confront as a society or Colin Kaepernick’s number 7 jersey which, although acquired over a year ago, encapsulates our nation’s most up-to-the-minute concerns to YSL’s phenomenally successful Touche Eclat or Gossard’s Wonderbra, responses to society’s more intimate struggles. The cultural significance of the bandanna, the do-rag, and the sari, are explored next to fanny packs, Spanx, and Ginger Spice’s Buffalo boots.