Renaissance to Runway: The Enduring Italian Houses

Through the majestic creations of more than 100 modern and contemporary Italian fashions and accessories in dialogue with Italian fine, decorative, and textile arts from the 1400s to the early 1600s, Renaissance to Runway: The Enduring Italian Houses examines the art historical inspirations that fuel recent creative Italian lexicon, expanding fantasies of the Renaissance, Mannerist, and early Baroque periods. The exhibition explores how families, or 'houses,' who ruled the states across the Italian peninsula, such as the Medici of Florence and the Sforza of Milan, used fashion as a form of power and influence, and connects this to modern Italian fashion houses.