“Looking back to the past can illuminate hopes for the future. Gender Bending Fashion is a project that reflects the current moment, celebrating designers and wearers who are challenging cultural norms through their work and personal sartorial choices. These trends, however, are not new,” said Michelle Finamore, Penny Vinik Curator of Fashion Arts. “This exhibition presents boundary-pushing contemporary designs alongside selections from the MFA’s rich collection of garments from the 20th century — illustrating that the conversation about fashion and gender has historic precedent and yet continues to evolve.”

Developed collaboratively by Finamore, Adam Tessier (Head of Interpretation) and Chelsea Garunay (Senior Designer), Gender Bending Fashion is organized thematically into three sections, placing historical and contemporary garments into dialogue throughout the exhibition. The first section, Disrupt, highlights moments over the past century when designers and wearers have upended the paradigm of suited men and skirted women that has traditionally been in place in Western culture. The second section, Blur, explores certain moments and contexts in which the division between menswear and womenswear has been blurred — including children’s clothing, military-inspired garb, sporting attire and 1960s unisex fashion. The final section, Transcend, features the work of contemporary designers that provide a glimpse of a new vanguard — one that is seeking to reframe conversations about fashion and gender entirely.

Right: Janelle Monáe in a Christian Siriano red evening suit, shirt and accessories at the 2018 Vanity Fair Oscar Party. Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images. Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

As a public engagement project, the exhibition team has created a digital album that highlights 10 individuals from the Boston area whose perspectives reflect and expand on the themes of Gender Bending Fashion. Their portraits — taken by local photographer Ally Schmaling — and quotes are featured in a digital animation presented on three large screens located between the Blur and Transcend galleries of the exhibition. Additional photographs and text from the project can be explored on interactive screens in the adjacent Lizbeth and George Krupp Gallery, which also offers a variety of books on fashion, gender and related cultural issues for browsing. Visitors are encouraged to share their responses to the exhibition using comment cards found in the Krupp Gallery, as well as on social media using #GenderBendingFashion.

Interpretation materials contextualizing the exhibition include a free takeaway brochure, written by Finamore, and a timeline that connects select moments over the past century relating broader culture to fashion and gender, with an invitation for visitors to sound off on events that matter to them in the Krupp Gallery. The Museum also consulted on interpretation with gender studies scholar Matisse DuPont; fashion and gender historian Chloe Chapin; Cei Lambert, Program Manager, and Ruben Hopwood, Coordinator of the Trans Health Program, both of Fenway Health, a Boston-based LGBT healthcare, research and advocacy organization; and Dr. Jo Trigilio, Senior Lecturer, Program Director of Gender/Cultural Studies at Simmons University, who also edited a glossary of terms relating to gender for the exhibition.  

Exhibition Highlights

• A striking dress from the “Annodami” collection (Spring/Summer 2017) by Italian designer Alessandro Trincone, which was worn by rapper Young Thug on the cover of his 2016 album JEFFERY
• A suit from the “One Woman Show” (Autumn/Winter 2003) by Dutch design duo Viktor&Rolf, a collection inspired by the distinctive androgyny — both on and off the screen — of actor Tilda Swinton. The garment is accompanied by audio from the runway show, which features Swinton reciting an original poem about individuality, and footage from the 1992 film Orlando, in which she plays a protagonist who seamlessly transforms from a woman into a man and back into a woman.
• Three pieces commissioned by the Museum especially for the exhibition: an ensemble from the “Boy Walks into an Exotic Forest” collection (Spring/Summer 2017) and floral metallic brocade dress (2017) designed by Alejandro Gómez Palomo, as well as a suit from the “Born Between Borders” (Spring/Summer 2014) collection designed by Walé Oyéjidé for Ikiré Jones
• Garments worn by actor Marlene Dietrich, a binary-blurring icon who communicated her idea that “I am at heart a gentleman” via tailored men’s attire: Fancy Pants (1950s) designed by actress, author and pants proponent Kay Thompson and an evening ensemble of tails and a top hat (1930) by Travis Banton, which appears in the 1930 film Morocco
• A red satin pantsuit with a skirt overlay (2018) custom-designed by Christian Siriano for Janelle Monáe
• An evening ensemble by Jeanne Lanvin (1930s) that shows an early example of experiments with trousers for women
• A tailored suit (2017) designed for a female attorney by Bindle & Keep, a Brooklyn-based company that has responded to a recent resurgence of interest in more traditionally “masculine” suiting for a range of genders and body types
• A Dandie Fashions jacket (1967) worn by Jimi Hendrix and a Freddie Burretti suit (1973) worn by David Bowie, which illustrate the 1960s–1970s “peacock revolution” in menswear that championed a brighter color palette and vivid psychedelic patterns
• Suits by Dries van Noten (2014) and Alessandro Michele for Gucci (2017), both worn by and on loan from Vogue’s international editor-at-large Hamish Bowles, which exemplify a contemporary resurgence of the “peacock revolution”
• Among the earliest garments in the exhibition: a bicycling corset (about 1895) and a women’s bicycling ensemble (about 1900) that conceals bloomers beneath a removable front panel fashioned to give the appearance of a skirt
• Ready-to-wear clothing by Anvita Sharma of Two Point Two Studios and Fabio Costa of NotEqual, designed to be worn interchangeably by people of all genders and sizes
• Three ensembles and runway footage from “Unisex Couture” (Fall/Winter 2012) by Rad Hourani, the first designer in history invited by the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture to show a unisex collection during Paris Fashion Week
• Shoes by Boston-based designer Thom Solo, including a pair worn by Lady Gaga in 2017

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