Fashion and Surrealism was one of FIT’s most popular and influential exhibitions. “The Surrealist preoccupation with the body . . . lends itself to fashion, said Richard Martin, adding: “Fashion is where Surrealism still lives.” Key Surrealist tropes included bodies and parts of bodies, as well as mannequins and chess pieces, often in a state of transformation and charged with Freudian symbolism. Thus, there were hats in the shape of shoes, shoes in the shape of feet, and garments featuring disembodied eyes, associated with the libido for looking.
Publication
Fashion and Surrealism by Richard Martin, Rizzoli NY, 1987