[title]
In the year 2025, how we dress is still the highest form of free self expression—and the role that gender plays in fashion has broken norms, especially in the last decade. In a new exhibit from The Museum at Fashion Institute of Technology, the road to this gender fluid fashion is examined, beginning in the 1900s.
Explore body image, dreams, desires, sexuality and the unconscious in almost 100 items of dress as part of the new, free exhibition "Dress, Dreams and Desire: Fashion and Psychoanalysis" on view through January 4, 2026. This work explores the history of designers such as Azzedine Alaia, Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, Willy Chavarria, Bella Freud, John Galliano for Christian Dior, Vivienne Westwood, Gianna and Donatella Versace, Alexander McQueen and more.
RECOMMENDED: The best museum exhibitions in NYC right now
Organized both chronologically and thematically, the museum begins by tracing the historical relationship between fashion and the lifelong process of developing a self-image. The exhibition digs into Jacques Lacan's theory of the mirror stage and Didier Anzieu's concept of the skin ego, or a sense of self formed through sensations on the skin. Another major theme is our collective movement toward nonbinary and gender-fluid ideas and the ability to be open in society.
For example, as you go through the exhibit, you can see there are no clear lines between what is "masculine" or "feminine" in these dresses. Large spikes and cones protrude from the body of dresses, top hats get a sexy twist and men's jumpsuits that take on feminine qualities. There's even a dress made completely of cohesive, but coarse hair (a possible nod to Victorian traditions of male wigs, or the use of haircloth in garments for women).
The introductory gallery opens with Freud's personal style circa 1900, as well as his radical ideas about sexuality and his problematic theories about women's "exhibitionistic" and "narcissistic" relationship with fashion. The show then takes visitors through the 1920s and 1930s and the history of sexual and personal freedom for women and sexual minorities. As you continue on, you'll see influences from more progressive psychoanalysts, like Joan Riviere, who theorized femininity was a "masquerade" necessitated by male prejudice.
This exhibition was curated by MFIT Director and Chief Curator Dr. Valerie Steele, who was dubbed "the Freud of Fashion" by critic Suzy Menkes.
"Fashion is a primary lens through which we see ourselves—and how others see us. Far from being superficial, fashion can be regarded as a 'deep surface' that communicates our unconscious desires and anxieties, with none of us fully aware of the messages we send," said Steele in a statement. "Psychoanalysis provides important clues about the power and allure of fashion, as well as the ambivalence and hostility that fashion also attracts."
The exhibition is the culmination of five years of research and dedication to creative thinking and inquiry. It also coincides with the release of Steele's exhibition companion book in November.
You can visit "Dress, Dreams and Desire: Fashion and Psychoanalysis" for free now until January 4, 2026 at The Museum at FIT, located at 227 W 27th St. in Manhattan.