Madame Grès, silk taffeta evening gown, circa 1965 — the sleeve in detail.
Details
January 24 – August 25, 2024
The Museum at FIT
Fashion and Textile History Gallery
New York, NY
Links & Downloads
What is a “statement sleeve”? The fashion media has regularly used the term for less than a decade, yet many of us can conjure images of what it describes: a sleeve style that is exaggerated, embellished, elaborately constructed, or otherwise eye catching to the extent that it defines a garment. Statement sleeves have been spotted on innumerable fashion runways in recent years, with no sign of waning. From puffed to ruffled, split to sheer, there is a style for everyone.
Statement Sleeves, curated by Colleen Hill, showcased nearly eighty fashion pieces from The Museum at FIT’s permanent collection — the majority of which were on display for the first time — and featured the works of renowned designers such as Balenciaga, Tom Ford, Schiaparelli, and Vivienne Westwood. They were organized thematically or by complementary aesthetics rather than chronology. The exhibition highlighted how sleeves serve as a vital mode of self-expression that reflects our gestures and movements, showcased their ability to indicate specific fashion eras and their related trends, and proclaimed their role as signifiers of status, taste, and personality.
On making it
It’s always difficult for me to identify the moment when I say, I need to do this exhibition. The Louise Todd Cope book [Sleeves: A Treasury of Ideas, Techniques and Patterns] was definitely part of it, but I had also been thinking a lot about the statement sleeves we’ve seen on the runway over the past ten years and even my personal wardrobe.
During lockdown when we were always on Zoom calls, my typical work uniform tended to be a plain sweater or top and a patterned skirt — which looked really boring on screens. I began looking in my own closet to find things that had statement sleeves so I could express myself from the shoulders up.
All of these ideas together helped to inspire the exhibition.
Colleen Hill
From an interview with Lindsay Alexander, “Fashionably Late: Last Chance to See Statement Sleeves,” Mixed Prints, August 15, 2024.
More views
An installation view — the gallery, from its entrance.
A leg-of-mutton sleeve, in close view.
One contemporary sleeve, at the far end of the run.
Photo and caption to come.
Photo and caption to come.
Photo and caption to come.
Press
The curator “has shown that sleeves are a vital mode of self-expression and are signifiers of status, taste and personality. Sleeves also situate a garment within a specific historical period or connect it to an inspirational era, thus the educational component is one of the exhibit’s strengths.”
Susan Hannel, “Statement Sleeves” · January 2025
“Designers themselves acknowledge they’re always looking through history to be inspired by old ideas that can be made new and now. But rather than hew to a chronology of sleeves, Colleen Hill . . . has focused on variations, which has the benefit of showing how ideas — and lotsa fabric — ebb and flow over time.”
Nancy McKeon, “A Long, Billowing History of Sleeves” · March 5, 2024
“To start her granular survey, Hill decided to introduce visitors to the ‘fundamental forms’ of sleeves — kimono, dolman, angel. More recent versions include the shoulder pads of the nineteen-eighties (favored by Princess Diana, Margaret Thatcher, Diane Keaton) by heavyweight designers like Mugler and Armani.”
André Wheeler, “Sleeves Gone Wild!” · March 4, 2024