The Museum at FIT (MFIT) presents Art X Fashion, a comprehensive exploration of the dynamic relationship between fashion and fine art. Featuring over 140 garments, accessories, textiles, photographs, and artworks from the museum’s permanent collection, the exhibition aims to challenge traditional hierarchies of visual culture, positioning fashion and art as parallel influential expressions of social, intellectual, and creative forces. Organized by Dr. Elizabeth Way, curator of costume and accessories at MFIT, the show runs from February 18 to April 19, 2026.
Art X Fashion invites viewers to engage with the enduring question: “Is fashion art?” Utilizing the theoretical framework developed by art and fashion historian Dr. Christopher Richards, the exhibition highlights how fashion has historically partnered with fine art, from the drama of Rococo and Neoclassicism to the bold experimentation of Surrealism, Pop Art, and postmodernism. Richards notes that fashion’s innovation, craftsmanship, and cultural impact qualify it as art, illustrated by designers including Martin Margiela, Rei Kawakubo, Iris van Herpen, Charles Frederick Worth, Paul Poiret, Elsa Schiaparelli, and Christian Dior.
The show also examines how artists use fashion as an expressive tool. Work by figures like Salvador Dalí, Pablo Picasso, Sonia Delaunay, Fabrice Simon, Ralph Rucci, Scott Barrie, and Hussein Chalayan demonstrate how art informs design, while contemporary artists such as Kerry James Marshall, Cat Chow, Mary Ping, and Tavares Strachan explore the fluid intersection of these worlds. Historical examples, including artist-flâneurs depicted by Manet, Degas, Renoir, and Caillebotte, illustrate how fashion communicated modernity and artistic identity in the 19th century.
Art X Fashion further showcases how designers draw inspiration from fine art, demonstrating how artists’ aesthetics are reinterpreted on the body through Yves Saint Laurent’s Mondrian dresses, Eric Gaskins’ trompe-l’oeil beadwork, and Christian Francis Roth’s bold abstractions. Collaborations by designers like Gianni Versace, Franco Moschino, Grace Wales Bonner, Louis Vuitton, Isabel and Ruben Toledo, Vivienne Tam, and Thebe Magugu bridge luxury, culture, and artistic practice.
By tracing these intersections, Art X Fashion intends to emphasize fashion’s enduring dialogue with art and its cultural significance. “Whether you decide that fashion is art or not, fashion’s strong and mutual relationship with fine art is undeniable,” said Way.
The exhibition is accompanied by the Art X Fashion Symposium on March 27, featuring designers, curators, and artists discussing how fashion and art have been intertwined throughout their histories.
The Museum at FIT, accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, is New York City’s only museum devoted exclusively to fashion. Its collection spans more than 50,000 garments and accessories, and its mission is to advance knowledge and appreciation of fashion as a critical cultural force.
To learn more, visit fitnyc.edu.
Salvador Dalì and Baccarat for Elsa Schiaparelli, Le Roy Soleil perfume bottle (1946), molded glass and aluminum, France
