Isabel Toledo: Fashion from the Inside Out

Last night, The Museum at FIT celebrated the opening of Isabel Toledo: Fashion From the Inside Out, a mid-career retrospective of the designer’s work from the 1980s to present.  I was traveling home from Monaco, so unfortunately I could not attend.  Contributing writer Rebecca Prusinowski stopped by, however, and has reported below on my behalf.  The exhibition sounds really wonderful.  Curators Valerie Steele and Patricia Mears always do a beautiful job, so I will be sure to visit upon my return to New York…

There was frenetic activity (and cases of empty wine bottles) in the lobby of The Museum at FIT last night.  Cuban-American designer Isabel Toledo and her husband Ruben were busy greeting and posing with an endless throng of industry well-wishers.  Isabel has quietly produced some of fashion’s most innovative — and wearable — designs for the past two decades.  The retrospective at FIT highlighted her unique creative vision with a display of 70 looks from over the years.

Located downstairs from the party, the exhibition began with a glossy timeline, charting the evolution of Toledo’s work from 1985 onward.  It included shots from her first plaid collection and magazine spreads to the iconic image of First Lady Michelle Obama wearing Toledo’s designs at this year’s Presidential Inauguration.  “The dress” stands front and center, and will be shipped off to the Smithsonian when the show closes in September.

Walking the exhibition, it is extraordinary to observe how different each of Toledo’s collections can be.  The Museum showcases the broad and beautiful array of Toledo’s experiments with shape, texture, color and technique.  The gorgeous Wave dresses made of eggplant and charcoal silk taffeta (Spring/Summer 2006) are a world away from the Caterpillar dress in black rayon jersey (Spring/Summer 1998).  Much of her work, like the Armor Trench Coat in a dazzling silver and black acetate silk (from Fall/Winter 2004), seems ahead of its time.

Above all, Toledo’s love for creating and her commitment to craftsmanship are evident.  In the program, she notes, “I’m a seamstress.  The seamstress is the one who views fashion from the inside!  That’s the art form, really — the technique of how it’s done.”  From the gorgeous watercolor murals by Ruben Toledo surrounding the perimeter of the exhibition space to the detailed synopses of the designer’s work, FIT has done an excellent job of presenting this art form.