Fashion Exhibitions You Should Not Miss This Year

We spend so much time obsessing over what is new in stores, but some of the best fashion moments right now are happening in museums. There are so many exhibitions at the moment that let you experience designers and their work in a completely different way. These are the ones on my list this year.

The Antwerp Six

MoMu – Fashion Museum Antwerp, Belgium

Dirk Bikkembergs, Ann Demeulemeester, Walter Van Beirendonck, Dries Van Noten, Dirk Van Saene, and Marina Yee are basically the reason Belgian fashion exists as a concept in the cultural consciousness. Forty years ago, these six designers, all graduates from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, rented a van. They packed their collections, drove to London for the British Designer Show, and shocked the whole industry.
A city nobody had thought of as a fashion capital was suddenly on the map. This is the very first exhibition dedicated to the group as a whole, which is kind of mind-blowing when you think about their collective impact and legacy.

Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art

V&A South Kensington, London

The V&A is bringing together over 200 pieces spanning the entire universe of Schiaparelli, from Elsa's surrealist beginnings in the 1920s, all the way through to Daniel Roseberry's wildly exciting contemporary revival of the brand. It’s basically a full journey through how Schiaparelli went from art-meets-fashion chaos to one of the coolest revivals happening right now.

Azzedine Alaïa and Christian Dior

Fondation Azzedine Alaïa, Paris

When an exhibition gets extended because too many people want to see it, you want to find out what the fuss is all about! This exhibition puts Alaïa and Dior in conversation, and what emerges is this surprisingly intimate portrait of how much one designer shaped the other. Alaïa collected 500 Dior pieces over his lifetime, and many of them are right here in the show, which tells you everything about the depth of that admiration.

Vivienne Westwood: Rebel, Storyteller, Visionary

The Bowes Museum, Durham, UK

The Bowes Museum and Vivienne Westwood go way back, but this is actually their biggest Westwood exhibition ever. They’ve brought together pieces you almost never get to see, some from private collections, plus items from the museum’s own archive. It mainly focuses on the twenty-year period from the ’80s to the 2000s, which is when she transformed from a bold punk rebel into one of the most iconic British designers ever.