Jean Paul Gaultier, jumpsuit, multicolored nylon and spandex with Op-Art cyber graphic print, 1996, France, museum purchase.
Digital technology continues to transform the promotion,
fabrication, and basic design of fashion. From 3-D printing to
advancements in sewable electronics, designers are creating garments
that can play music, answer telephone calls, and even monitor the
wearer’s heartbeat. In recent years, social media websites like Facebook
and Twitter have been redefining the limits of fashion branding.
The interplay of digital technology and fashion has only just begun. As fashion designer Hussein Chalayan has said, fashion “will renew itself through technology, new fibers, new ways of making clothes. Without risk, nothing changes the world.”
The Museum at FIT, accredited by the American Alliance of Museums,
is one of a select group of specialized fashion museums, including the
Musée de la Mode, the Mode Museum, and the Museo de la Moda. For the
100,000 people who visit The Museum at FIT each year, we work to create
exhibitions, programs, and publications that are both entertaining and
educational. The mission of the Museum is to collect, conserve,
document, exhibit, and interpret fashion. Founded in 1969, the Museum
was installed in the current building in 1974, and exhibitions began to
be presented in 1975.
