From the aesthetics of transportation mechanisms themselves to the clothing and accessories worn by bodies in motion, fashion affects and is affected by the transit swarm. “Fashion in Transit” explores how the fashioned body moves through space: sliding, swimming, riding, rolling, walking, flying, carrying, and orbiting. The exhibition features garments, textiles, artworks, and archival materials from the Cornell Fashion + Textile Collection, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation Archives, and a number of other collections from Cornell and beyond.
This exhibition draws inspiration from the Cornell Council for the Arts’ 2020-2021 Biennial theme, “Swarm.” The transit swarm of fashioned human bodies around, across, above and through physical space takes myriad forms: on foot, horseback, sled, wheelchair, boat, railway, car, bus, subway, airplane, spacecraft, and many more. We consider the interplay between fashion and transportation to visualize how clothing and accessories may enable bodies to move through space and across time.
Image Credit: Christine McDonald, MFA '22
