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On or outside the runway, fashion can conjure up psychoanalytic questions that are spoken or subliminal. And in autumn, the Museum of the Fashion Institute of Technology will stage the first exhibition on immersion in the cultural history of fashion and psychoanalysis.
From five years of research, “dress, dreams and desire: fashion and psychoanalysis” with psychoanalytic concepts about the body, sexuality and the unconscious, inserts almost 100 looks from 19th century to the present. The exhibition will be seen from September 10th to January 4th.
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Fashion fans will be a broad part of designer creations by Azzedine Alaia, Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, Willy Chavarria, Bella Freud, John Galliano for Christian Dior, Jean Paul Gaultier, Rei Kawakubo by comme des Garçons, Alexander McQueen, SonMain, Rei Kawakubo, Olivier, Sonmain, ReiMain Find Olivier, Sonmain, Rei Kawakubo, Olivier, Rei Kawakubo, Olivier, Rei Kawakubo, Olivier, Rei Kawakubo, Olivier, Rei Kawakubos. Elsa Schiparelli, Jeremy Scott for Moschino, Jun Takahashi by Undercover, Gianni and Donatella Versace, Viktor & Rolf, Grace Wales Bonner, Vivienne Westwood and Yohji Yamamoto.
The orchestration monitors the director and chief curator of Mfit, Valerie Steele, who was called the nickname “The Freud of Fashion” by fashion critic Suzy Menkes. The unprecedented show is intended to reflect the museum’s commitment to the original investigation and creative thinking about the cultural meaning of the dress. To mention unnecessarily that there is a lot to unpack. Those who want to dive deeper must wait until November to publish Steele’s accompanying book about the exhibition.
Steele said: “Fashion is a primary lens through which we see ourselves – and as others see us. Far away from being superficial, fashion can be viewed as a” deep surface “, which communicates our unconscious wishes and fears, whereby none of us is fully aware. attract. “
The exhibition is set up chronologically and thematically, starting with a historical view of the relationship between fashion and psychoanalysis. In a suitable opener, the introductory gallery around 1900 will throw a light on Sigmund Freud’s personal style. Visitors will also find a primer about his radical ideas for sexuality and unconscious and its problematic theories about the “excitement” and “narcissistic” relationship with fashion.
From there, gallery visitors will get a look at the 1920s and 1930s when psychoanalysis was associated with sexual and personal freedom, especially with regard to women and sexual minorities, according to the preliminary material. In contrast to Freud, the British psychoanalyst and experimental psychologist JC wings envied the freedom of women to decorate themselves and to expose themselves. One of the contemporaries of wings Joan Riviere, who ended up with an increasing cohort of female psychoanalyst, theorized that femininity was a “masquerade” that was necessary by male prejudices.
In advance, pressing material for the exhibition suggests that “it is generally recognized” that most psychoanalysts, especially in the United States, were “virulent homophobic and misogymer” in the 1950s. A shift occurred in the second half of the 20th century, when some feminists and LGBTQIA+ custody stopped to reject Freud as “the enemy” and demanded more integrative and liberatory psychoanalysis.
While this historical area gives visitors reason to linger, more fashion lies ahead of us. The exhibition then has a closer look at topics that refer to different types of fashion, as they are seen through the lens of psychoanalytic ideas about dreams, desire, sexual difference and death. Building the idea that Freud interpreted most of the dreams as disguised sexual wishes, there will be connections such as Moschino’s chocolate -Bar -Bar -Bar as a sign of pleasure principle with the incentive, looking for pleasure and avoiding pain.
Those who have never taken psychology 101 will also learn how Carl Jung, in contrast to eternal archetypes, interpreted dreams from the collective unconscious. While many designers prefer the female prototype of a queen or a lover, in September 2008 Rick Owens created a more esoteric collection that was dedicated to the “priest of longing” that was the antithesis of Hollywood glamor.
In the MFIT, visitors will also learn how Freud later went “about the fun principle” to develop a psychoanalytic theory called “The Death Drive”, also known as “Thanatos”. It is characterized by aggression and destruction. There will be references to Josephus Thimister’s anti-War-Haute-Couture collection, which in January 2010 debut-“1915: bloodshed and opulence”, which supported the Bolshevik revolution and its consequences. Another collection that stimulates thinking was undercovers Takahashi One with roses and razor blades. Some may read this as eros – life and love – against Thanatos – as death and destruction.
With the positive body positivity and identity with many in the fashion industry, the exhibition also becomes the development of the body image and personal identity by Jacques Lacan’s theory of the mirror stage. In addition, there will be indications of Didier Anzieus concept of the skin -go – as in self -feeling, which is initially formed by the sensations on the skin. The jacket with embroidered Rocococo handheld mirrors designed by Elsa Schiparelli can also be seen. It could be seen as a sign of ambivalence compared to its reflection or body image, which was generated by the internalization of the other’s view.
Dress scientists recently borrowed from Anzie’s skin -go to consider clothing as a changeable, renewable second skin that offers physical and psychological protection. Visitors will continue to go into psychoanalytic ideas about the object of the desire, sexual fetishism and the movement in the direction of non-bober and gender fluid dress, and how this affects the openness of the Society for Sexuality and Gender.
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