Dress Up

“Playing dress up begins at five and never truly ends.”—Kate Spade

Fashion allows us to take on different roles, choosing clothes, jewelry, shoes, handbags, and other accessories to transform the way we are seen and the way we see ourselves. One’s choice of dress can make a political statement, express a mood or communicate personal identities. Through more than 100 works from the MFA’s collection, “Dress Up” celebrates 20th- and 21st-century style with fashions by Alexander McQueen, Bob Mackie, Pauline Trigère, Patrick Kelly, and Oscar de la Renta; jewelry from designers like Hattie Carnegie, Lanvin, Elsa Peretti, Schreiner, and Trifari; accessories by designers like Thom Solo; illustrations; and photographs by Cecil Beaton and Martin Parr.

Looking at jewelry as fashion and fashion as jewelry, this exhibition removes the delineation between the two to focus on how they play an integral and inseparable role in self-fashioning. Objects with beads, sequins, and sparkles blur the lines between fashion and jewelry while at the same time extending and expanding our ideas about them. From a jeweled brooch or shoe, to an heirloom ring or little black dress, each selection can represent a variety of stories and lived experiences.

Thematic sections explore child’s play, identity politics and more, and feature myriad new acquisitions—including shoes and dresses from the collection of Donna Summer, an ensemble by Project Runway alumna Korina Emmerich and local jewelry artist Tiffany Vanderhoop, and a ring by Of Rare Origin, a version of which was worn by poet Amanda Gorman at the 2020 US presidential inauguration. Spectacular loans include an Iris Apfel ensemble from the Peabody Essex Museum and cuff bracelets designed by Fulco di Verdura for Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, which she was photographed wearing throughout her life.