Dressing the Body
Silhouettes & Fashion
Museu del Disseny
Located between Barceloneta (Barcelona’s beach and waterfront area) and El Poblenou, Museu del Disseny is a design lover’s dream.
Featuring four floors of exhibitions – some temporary, some available all year round – the museum houses a magnificent collection of ceramics, fashion, decorative arts and textiles. If you head up to the 3rd floor of this impressive space, you will find yourself at the entrance of what I consider one of the most visually comprehensive fashion history lessons I have ever encountered.
Where the Magic Begins
Where the Magic Begins
The exhibit itself is not large, but the museum uses every single inch of space so resourcefully that it gives the impression you are walking through a carefully constructed time machine.
Your journey begins in the year 1550.
Women’s fashions in the early 16th century consisted of a long gown worn over an undergown. The traditional style during this time period featured an open, square-necked gown with long sleeves fitted smoothly over a tight corset and a farthingale – an underskirt that created a desired shape and enlarged the lower half of the body.
Men’s fashion consisted of multiple layers – including a linen shirt with a mid to high neckline (this changed towards the end of the century). A doublet, or a close-fitting jacket, was always worn over the linen shirt and allowed it to be shown below. Hose and a front-opening overgown often completed the look. In colder regions or during cold months, the overgown was often fur-lined for warmth.
The Evolution of Fashion
The Evolution of Fashion
Each era highlights the evolution of fashion over time, with specific attention brought to both men and women's fashions and how these changed from decade to decade depending on the world events that went on around them.
The First Fashion Show
The First Fashion Show
One of the most noteworthy facts that was highlighted was the origin of the first "fashion model" and the fashion show as we know it today. As someone who has worked in fashion, producing fashion shows for almost 2 decades, this was incredibly interesting to learn about!
According to the museum’s history, an English designer named Charles Frederick Worth revolutionized the fashion world. He was the first designer who used live models to promote his collection to high society.
He was also the first designer to sew his own branded labels into his garments. This, along with word-of-mouth from his high society clientele gave him immense notoriety in circles worldwide.
Charles Frederick Worth ultimately raised the bar so that designers could become arbiters of what people should be wearing, changing the course of fashion history forever.
Decades Leading to Today
Decades Leading to Today
Pret-A-Porter
During the 1960's there was a radical sociocultural break, as the young rebelled and challenged the established canons of beauty and daring new styles made audacity the norm.
Pret-A-Porter refers to a series signed by prestigious designers reflecting the new changes in society, aimed at a wider market. The term stands for clothing sold ready-to-wear as opposed to made to measure.
The Price of Beauty
The Price of Beauty
As you make your way from decade to decade, the sad reality of just painful fashion was for many women becomes clear.
Wired corsets, inflated skirts and uncomfortable undergarments, including crinolines (cage-like frames worn beneath dresses) drastically affected not only their posture but their health. In the early 1900s, women wore S-shaped corsets, which came to be known as Edwardian Corsets. These corsets pushed the abdomen back, threw the breasts forward and arched the back, giving women an S-shape figure and severely deforming the body in the process.
By the constriction of the waist, the live and all the abdominal contents are pushed downward,
below their normal position and their functions are greatly interfered with. The effects of this pressure upon the stomach are most disastrous and cause a host of digestive and nervous troubles. There is very frequently a prolapsus of the kidneys; the right one is more frequently prolapsed than the left, owing to the relation of the right kidney to the liver.
- Foundations Revealed
Highlights + Favorites
Highlights + Favorites
THE ROARING 20s
A beautiful era in fashion
HISTORICAL REFERENCES
Actual advertisements + images from the past
Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
I left the Design Museum’s Silhouettes and Fashion exhibit in complete awe.
In all my years of visiting museums and exhibits, there has never been one that taught me so much and captured the essence of the history of fashion in such an incredible way.
So, if you are in the area, please stop by and witness these amazing moments in time captured so perfectly by the Design Museum in Barcelona.
You won’t regret it!
For more information on tickets, opening hours and pricing, click here.
