So last night I finally went to see the Fashion Drive exhibition at the Kunsthaus (still on until 15 July): http://www.kunsthaus.ch/fashion-drive/en/ The Swiss Textile Collection, of which I am a member too, had organised a tour with the curator, Catherine Hug. It was to be just an hour but stretched to about one and a half hours in the end - and we could have gone on for longer without a problem! The exhibition is about "Extreme clothing in the visual arts" and spans from the 16th century to today. I wouldn't call all the clothing shown extreme, but it certainly is an interesting idea and gives some interesting insights. As I love art, not just fashion, I was also delighted to see many well-known pieces of art, some of which rarely leave their usual homes, exhibited here. Including the portrait of Marie-Antoinette in the scandalous "shepherdess" dress... Rather intriguing were also the Swiss portraits from the 16th to 18th century of well-todo city people which show some unique looks (and for those I did definitely not have enough time). There were also some paintings from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna - which for a change I know well, but love to see anyway. You can see a bit of what's exhibited on the website, also the themes and chapters of the exhibition. I did not have time to see everything in-depth as the tour focused on certain things of course, and after that there was not a lot of time left to explore more (though it was quiet by then and I could take some photos without people). I will probably go back for another round, to take it all in in my own time. But for now, here are some photos: Cod-pieces... 15th century - detail of a lady of Elizabeth I.'s court. The idea of slashing the skirt diagonally is fantastic, but also the way it is painted is just... incredible! 17th century Spanish court fashion 18th century gown. The 18th century clothes shown here, I understand, all come from the same private collection here in Switzerland, and were all found in pristine condition in an old French chateau. More 18th century. The painting is from the early 18th century and shows a lady from Zurich. Her whole outfit is intriguing - but that headdress! Such a change to what one usually knows as fashion from the time - shown also in the dress to the right. Drool-worthy late 18th century man's suit. The embroidery! I just love suits like this one. Cartoons lampooning fashions and fashion extremes from their time are also in abundance in this exhibition, mostly late 18th to mid-19th century. Well, there was a lot to make fun of - like this French cartoon, early 19th century. More cartoon fun. Again, lampooning Empire style fashion in France. This one here shows a street scene ca. late 18th century. And one from 1830. We all had a good laugh about this one! Dandies... Tango dress by Madeleine Vionnet. Child's dress by Wiener Werkstätte. Incredibly, the Swiss Textile Collection owns the original printing plate for this fabric print (see https://www.instagram.com/stc_swisstextilecollection/ - they posted it). 1920s. Sketches by Natalia Goncharova. Schiaparelli. 1930s, prototype dress by Giacomo Balla (someone I've never heard of before, but definitely worth exploring more about him in this exhibition!). It goes on up to "modern" fashion, and there were some YSL Mondrian dresses on show too - but I guess to me the historical part was the most interesting . Maybe also because modern art is less my thing.
Yes, the tour was private as in only being offered to Swiss Textile Collection members, but it was during regular opening hours. What I found very irritating though that there was a normal visitor who kept following us from about halfway through. I mean, we had paid extra for this tour...
