2012 Fashion Exhibitions : I Wish I Could See Them All

The 10 Exhibitions I won’t want to miss in 2012 are all related Fashion. Given the record-breaking success of last year’s Alexander McQueen retrospective at the Met, museums decided to put more fashion in their halls. While any museum would be hard-pressed to recreate the magic that was “Savage Beauty,” more fashion exhibits are popping up all over the world and several big ones are already on track to debut next year.

Savage Beauty : Alexander McQueen and his creative world!

The following introduction from the Met Museum Site was so interesting and explains everything you need to know about the amazing talent of McQueen. There is a great video with scenes from his inspirational fashion shows, if you want to see it click here!

“McQueen always started every collection with an idea or a concept for the runway presentation before the fashions. After the concept, he would have this elaborate sort of storyboard with these various references from art, from film, from music—his influences from everywhere. There’s a famous story about how he was watching Friends one day, and Joey was wearing a green sweater, and Joey’s green sweater inspired an aspect of his collection. So he was such a sponge that inspiration came from everywhere. The actual creative process in terms of the clothes themselves were often designed directly on the mannequin during a fitting. So fittings, for McQueen, were incredibly important.

I think that McQueen saw life cinematically, and I think that that approach to life was something that you see very clearly on the runway. So his interest in extreme weather conditions was part of that sort of dramatic view of life. And I think that one of the reasons why he loved nature so much was because it was so unpredictable. They were spontaneous; it was something that one can never control, and I think that was always something he liked to show in his collections.

And if today’s piece in WWD on museums “getting fashionable” is any indication, they are. Harold Koda, curator in charge of The Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, told the trade, “Clearly the critical as well as popular success of the McQueen show suggests that fashion design has a more secure place in the precincts of an art museum.”

List of Fashion Exhibitions for 2012

From Diana Vreeland to James Bond to the CFDA, here’s a list of fashion exhibitions you won’t want to miss in 2012. (Click the links to get more details)

1. What: “Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada: On Fashion”
Where: The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
When: May 10 – August 19

2. What: “Christian Louboutin,” a retrospective of the designer
Where: Design Museum, London
When: March 28 – July1

3. What: “IMPACT: 50 Years of the CFDA”
Where: The Museum at FIT, New York
When: February 10 – April 17, 2012

4. What: “Ballgowns: British Glamour Since 1950″
Where: Victoria and Albert Museum, London
When: May 19, 2012 – January 26, 2013

5. What: “Yves Saint Laurent — The Retrospective”
Where: Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado
When: Opens March 25

6. What: “Louis Vuitton Marc Jacobs,” a retrospective of Jacobs’ work at LV
Where: Les Arts Décoratifs, Paris
When: March 9 to September 16

7. What: Diana Vreeland
Where: Fortuny Museum, Venice, Italy
When: March 2012

8. What: “Fifty Years of James Bond Style” with pieces from Giorgio Armani, Prada, Oscar de la Renta and other designers
Where: The Barbican, London
When: April 2012

Also planning to stage retrospective exhibitions next year are Chloé and Balmain, though no further details are known at this time.

2012 Fashion Exhibitions : I Wish I Could See Them All!!! Which one are you most excited to go see?