fashion after Fashion at MAD

In 2015, fashion trend forecaster and authority Li Edelkoort declared “the end of Fashion as we know it,” and in her “manifesto for the next decade” provided “ten reasons why the fashion system is obsolete.” In doing so, she echoed a sentiment shared by fashion industry insiders, journalists, pundits, and scholars alike—from reporter Teri Agins, author of the 2000 book The End of Fashion, to fashion theorist Barbara Vinken, who coined the term “postfashion” to describe the contemporary zeitgeist. As the world of fashion continues to evolve, the term “fashion” itself demands redefinition.

fashion after Fashion presents the work of six designers who are thinking—and making us think—about fashion anew. The exhibition features some of the most innovative work being produced in the context of contemporary fashion, focusing on commissioned, site-sensitive installations to offer an experience that is as immersive and affective as it is mentally stimulating. Encompassing sculptures, installations, and video pieces by Eckhaus Latta, ensæmble, Lucy Jones, Ryohei Kawanishi, Henrik Vibskov, and SSAW Magazine, it presents fashion as an expanded field of practice that is determined by concept and context, and whose practitioners work collaboratively and creatively between and across areas of design and art.