NEW ORLEANS.
Showcasing rare pieces from one of the world’s largest private collections of Alexander McQueen fashion, the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) presents A Queen Within: Adorned Archetypes, on view from February 21 through May 28, 2018. NOMA’s first major fashion exhibition will feature contemporary designers showcased in an immersive gallery presentation. This exhibition’s bold couture explores different archetypes of femininity, and how these mythic characters manifest through storytelling in fashion over the past decade.
Designer Alexander McQueen (1969–2010) was a master of building narratives through his collections and runway shows. Inspired by his sensitivity to historical and literary research, A Queen Within uses fashion to explore seven archetypal personality types of a Queen, or metaphorically, of a woman: The Mother Earth, Sage, Magician, Enchantress, Explorer, Heroine and Thespian. These themes are derived from recurring motifs in myths and fairy tales of world literature. The story of each feminine archetype—its powers, its weaknesses, its significance—is articulated in A Queen Within through pioneering fashion, photography, and artwork.
“The designers featured in A Queen Within showcase the competing, complimentary and often contradictory roles within the ideals of contemporary womanhood,” said Susan Taylor, the Montine McDaniel Freeman Director of NOMA. “The exhibition explores the complicated symbolism used by avant-garde designers while bringing a major fashion exhibition to New Orleans. This exhibition definitively demonstrates that fashion is art.”
February 21st – May 28th, 2018. One Collins Diboll Circle, City Park. New Orleans, LA 70124
Photos: New Orleans Museum of Art / Roman Alokhin
