The Fashion Institute of Technology displayed their modern and contemporary collection, Fashion A-Z; these designs are part of the Museum’s permanent collection. The title of the Museum’s collection also suggests a sort of “fashionable alphabet.” Curators of the Museum wanted to achieve a entirely new innovative way of displaying fashion, therefore the work is exhibited in a dark room with spotlight, without sequence. The “dark room” also projects previous designers of older centuries who incorporated art into film.

Upon entering the “dark room” the viewer is dazzled with a Giorgio Armani Prive evening gown. The aesthetics of this gown were overall hard to achieve. The designer had to embed several Swarovski crystal elements. The materials that achieved such a bold taste of elegance were sheer silk and diamond leaves. Referring back to the curator’s goal, each design alongside each other didn’t particularly achieve anything, there wasn’t essentially a story. However, each design alone signifies the designer’s distinct aesthetic, as in a Donna Karan “Valentino Red” evening gown that shows Karan’s strength in the art of draping. Imagining the mannequin as a Charlize Theron or Marilyn Monroe, the onlooker lucidly sees the sensuality and body strength of the women wearing the dress.

Power was essentially the underlying theme of the exhibit. Oscar de La Renta’s evening light green and gold silk taffeta ensemble, created circa 1978, belonged only on a women who fit the character of a great matriarch. The bouffant sleeves highlighted a theatrical sense of feminism. Critics also attribute the use of such bold colors to De La Renta’s roots in the Dominican Republic. Sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy were among the ranks of Cavalli, Prada, and Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel. Designers of Rodarte, the sister’s pieces showed their strength in craftsmanship, as designers are fundamentally skilled artisans. The dark inspiration, yet feminine, created through the use of black lace, gauze, net, and burgundy and black leather, made a strong statement; the women were in charge here.

Of course an exhibition of Fashion A-Z isn’t a “fashion alphabet” without having a Chanel. The inclusion of works by Coco Chanel indefinitely made the exhibit. What better way to combine female strength and feminist than with the women who started it all? The exhibition showed a variation of Chanel’s little black dress,which has modernly been defined as an essential for women world round.  The subtle yet bold use of the shade black was a silent weapon for the designer who lived in an era of male domination.