SCAD FASH: High fashion as an international language
SCAD FASH provides a permanent home for haute couture in Atlanta.
SCAD FASH Museum of Fashion + Film__ is exactly what one would expect out of the institution’s caliber: buttoned up as hell, pish-posh high-end everything — yet always erring on the side of cool. Even the gift shop is set up like a glamorous Buckhead living room, with a lounge designed for the “+ film” side of museum. The infamous high tuition costs are seemingly being put to good use. SCAD FASH is stunning and ultimately provides a resource for students and the community access to rare designs not trapped behind Plexiglas.
SCAD FASH’s current exhibition Be Yourself; Everyone Else Is Already Taken, the first U.S. exhibition of London-based artist, designer, and stylist Daniel Lismore, is a tour de force. Lismore’s eccentric personality is consistent throughout the exhibit; each outrageous ensemble is intricate and dizzying. The mannequins, complete with make-up painted on the faces to look like Lismore, face a terracotta army-meets-human chess game manner. In spirit of SCAD’s mission to utilize this new development as a teaching tool, Lismore spent several weeks in Atlanta installing his works and teaching students about each piece, asking for a hand with assembly.
Students are seriously integrated in this process, from hand beading and mending the collections, to getting hired on as docents, aka knowledgeable tour guides, in the museum. Docents wear matching lab coats (an ode to traditional ateliers) and use iPads to give visitors digital insight into the collections. Not too shabby of a gig for an undergrad.
“This is important,” curator Rafael Gomes says. “because now we have a museum dedicated to fashion and film and it’s amazing what we can do in the future. We had the opening with Oscar de la Renta - 10,500 attendees over the course of the exhibitions means people are very interested and hungry for culture. Lismore is a success and we are so thrilled it is getting good press, even Vogue gave a blessing. Beyond studying the collection, students are actually walking around helping put it together and work with very rare pieces.”
embed-1And it’s true — this is important — the most notable fashion exhibitions in the U.S. are usually at The Met or elsewhere in NYC. Atlanta’s usually a shoe-in for any mass-appeal traveling shows, but save Iris Van Herpen at The High, we get stiffed with fashion exhibitions.
Gomes is excited about Atlanta and the museum’s ability to bridge the gap between the public and the museum. He comes to Atlanta by way of London, with a decade’s worth experience working with Vivienne Westwood, most recently. He says he plans to get a car and start integrating himself in the Atlanta community. Because unlike NYC and London, where garment districts and public transportation are standard, Atlanta is the kind of place you gotta make work for you, at least transit-wise.
SCAD FASH is close to flawless, but so far lacks any true Atlanta representation or grit. That could be the point, and as more Atlanta designers emerge and evolve, then perhaps they will be in the museum one day.
Be Yourself; Everyone Else Is Already Taken runs through April 1 at SCAD FASH.