Unveiling the Forms Behind Fashion

Though clothing is generally thought of in terms of the wearer, certain extreme and wonderful designs can exist independently as works of art. Demonstrating this point is the exhibition Form Follows Fashion, which shows how certain pieces from avant-garde designers and haute couture houses are really feats of engineering, craft, and technology. “Most shapes in fashion are quite conventional, following the human body,” says Valerie Steele, curator of the exhibit, which runs at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology through December 31. “These designers, on the other hand, seem to be interested in something further, something much more about formal qualities of dress and of form.”