Reinvention and Restlessness: Fashion in the Nineties
Organizing an exhibition on 1990s fashion could be considered an arbitrary pursuit. Styles do not begin and end in a neat, ten-year cycle. Nevertheless, those working in fashion鈥攄esigners, historians, journalists, and others鈥攖end to define each decade by a handful of prevailing silhouettes or a few important designers, attempting to convey the feeling of an era in a concise way. Fashion curators also partake in this 鈥渄ecade-ism.鈥� Part of a curator鈥檚 role is to identify and confirm what many people already know about fashion, but it is also to challenge such notions, highlighting the nuances and contradictions that characterize dress as a complex form of expression. There is perhaps no better decade than the 1990s to explore the fast-paced and sometimes incongruous nature of fashion trends.
Reinvention and Restlessness: Fashion in the Nineties considers this compelling period in fashion鈥攁 time that was filled with hope for the future and yet fraught with anxiety. It documents a decade that not only heralded the end of a century but also the end of a millennium. The exhibition engages with eight important trends that helped to define the decade, focusing on themes that stimulated excitement and change.
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Organizing an exhibition on 1990s fashion could be considered an arbitrary pursuit. Styles do not begin and end in a neat, ten-year cycle. Nevertheless, those working in fashion鈥攄esigners, historians, journalists, and others鈥攖end to define each decade by a handful of prevailing silhouettes or a few important designers, attempting to convey the feeling of an era in a concise way. Fashion curators also partake in this 鈥渄ecade-ism.鈥� Part of a curator鈥檚 role is to identify and confirm what many people already know about fashion, but it is also to challenge such notions, highlighting the nuances and contradictions that characterize dress as a complex form of expression. There is perhaps no better decade than the 1990s to explore the fast-paced and sometimes incongruous nature of fashion trends.
Reinvention and Restlessness: Fashion in the Nineties considers this compelling period in fashion鈥攁 time that was filled with hope for the future and yet fraught with anxiety. It documents a decade that not only heralded the end of a century but also the end of a millennium. The exhibition engages with eight important trends that helped to define the decade, focusing on themes that stimulated excitement and change.
