It’s that time of the year when we keenly observe that twice-yearly migratory breed bound to ruffle the odd feather: The Pitti People. But Florence and its environs has always had a penchant for fashion, long before the trailblazing runway that shook Parisian couture to its core was held at Villa Torrigiani in February 1951. Two on-fleek fashion exhibitions this winter focus on the stuff of style: textiles.
Textiles and Riches at the Accademia
Admire a graceful wool dress on loan from the National Museum of Copenhagen, made in the mid 14th century and retrieved by archaeologists in Greenland; be mesmerized by Giovanni Baronzio’s Baptism of Christ, a striking tempera on panel from the National Gallery of Washington; wonder at a fragment of fabric showing phoenixes and vine leaves from Prato’s Textile Museum; and gaze at the Pourpoint of Charles de Blois, a silk and gold waistcoat from Lyon’s Musée des Tissus. Paintings on display in this exquisite exhibition curated by the Accademia’s director Cecilie Hollberg include the Coronation of the Virgin Mary and Four Angels by Gherardo di Jacopo, from the National Gallery of Parma, and a late 13th-century crucifix belonging to the Accademia and restored for the purpose of the show.
Tessuto e ricchezza a Firenze nel Trecento. Lana, seta, pittura
Galleria dell’Accademia, via Ricasoli 58, Florence
Until March 18, 2018 / Tuesday–Sunday 8:15am-6:50pm; closed Monday, December 25 and January 1 / 12.50 euro
Traces exhibition at Palazzo Pitti
Traces. Artful dialogues at Palazzo Pitti’s Museum of Fashion and Costume is not your usual winter fashion-forward exhibition; it furnishes a new take on a centuries-old exhibition space. Curated by Caterina Chiarelli, Simonella Condemi and Tommaso Lagattolla, the show places 107 exhibits under public gaze, featuring paintings and sculptures from the Renaissance mansion alongside couturier creations dating from the 1930s to the here and now. Mirrors play a key role in reflecting and expanding the decadent spaces, repeating the lines and hues of the clothing as well as amplifying the ambient light. No chronological order is implemented here; instead the invitation is to linger on the interaction between fashion as art and art as fashion.
Tracce. Dialoghi ad arte nel Museo della Moda e del Costume
Museo della Moda e del Costume, Palazzo Pitti, Florence
Until December 31, 2018 / Tuesday–Sunday, 8:15am–6:50pm, closed Mondays / 13 euro
