Skin + Bones: Parallel Practices in Fashion and Architecture uses the work of forty-six designers and architects to explore the common visual and intellectual principles that underlie architecture and fashion. Both disciplines necessarily center the human body, but they also encode and situate it in social relations and identity. For example, Hussein Chalayan’s Between collection (spring/summer 1998) examines the parameters of bodily concealment and propriety in relation to the burka, a traditional garment worn by some Muslim women. Other projects in the show, like Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall (1987–2003) and Rei Kawakubo’s Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body collection (spring/summer 1997), demonstrate a similar interest in enveloping, “skin”-like forms; additional themes of the exhibition included the use of architectonic geometries, similarities in the creative process, and other stylistic affinities between architecture and fashion.
Skin + Bones features projects by Comme des Garçons, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Eisenman Architects, Zaha Hadid, Herzog & de Meuron, Maison Margiela, Alexander McQueen, Issey Miyake, OMA / Rem Koolhaas, SANAA, Isabel Toledo, Bernard Tschumi, Junya Watanabe, Vivienne Westwood, Yohji Yamamoto, and more.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue.
Skin + Bones: Parallel Practices in Fashion and Architecture is organized by Brook Hodge, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.