Fashion appears in the Berlinische Galerie collection in a diversity of ways. Apart from the fashion photographs taken throughout the 20th century, its role in expressing and illustrating its times is reflected in many paintings and drawings. The works selected here span a period from the fashion reform movement around 1900 to avant-garde creations in present-day art. This show picks up a dialogue between images and garments that has persisted down the ages. It sheds light on how artists relate to fashion through a variety of themes:

Fashion in and from images is brought to life here, for example by combining the photograph taken by Herbert Tobias in 1954 with the superb evening gown by German designer Heinz Oestergaard. Photos by Sibylle Bergemann of the Prenzlauer Berg district in East Berlin are accompanied by garments like Angelika Kroker’s coat for “All-Kinds-of Fur”.

Artists wearing fashion and flaunting clothes are making a statement. George Grosz and other Dadaists liked to style themselves as besuited English gentlemen. Hannah Höch embraced “New Woman” chic, as her snazzy outfit of 1925–1927 reveals. Art and attitudinal clothing also merged in the 1980s in queer photography by Rolf von Bergmann, drawings by Tabea Blumenschein and metal jewellery by Reiner Hirsekorn.

Fashion as a medium in contemporary art is often associated with the conceptual approach. Examples are Wiebke Siem’s serial hat sculptures of the 1980s and Alexandra Hopf’s textile interpretations dating from 2016–2018 of designs for uniform clothing by Russian Constructivists.

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