For a status-craving aristocrat living 500 years ago, few things impressed guests more than a “cabinet of curiosities.” Often a room or rooms rather than a case or cupboard, these “cabinets” were filled with objects rare, beautiful, and bizarre, from Greek statuary to a preserved human baby’s head (complete with lace cap), from gilded nautilus shells to four-faced clocks. The best of them 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.
Next Wednesday, the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, in New York City, returns the favor with “Fashioning Wonder: A Cabinet of Curiosities,” an exhibition that focuses on fashion’s presence in historical cabinets.
