The best “cabinets of curiousities,” which came into vogue 500 years ago among the wealthy, entertained visitors with the familiar, provoked them with the horrific, and even, should the visitor choose to notice, hinted at novel ways of seeing the world. Such rooms paved the way for modern museums. At the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, in New York City, an exhibition now focuses on fashion’s presence in historical cabinets. The museum’s curator of costume and accessories, Colleen Hill, who organized the show of nearly 200 pieces, says few people have studied that presence but it ranged from Italian shoes to chainmail to the costumes of indigenous people. Feathered objects were a favorite. And mermaids—specimens that were actually a fish tail sewn to a monkey’s torso—were all the rage. —Peter Saenger