‘Dress Up’ Review: Unraveling the Many Layers of Fashion and Identity

Sparkling with sequins, beads, jewels, and rhinestones, the newest exhibition at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts is a nod to the innate desire to style oneself. “Dress Up,” created by Curator of Fashion Arts theo tyson and Curator of Jewelry Emily Stoehrer, is an exploration of clothing and jewelry as a channel for self-expression and communication. The exhibit draws over 100 works and pieces from the MFA’s extensive collection of 20th and 21st-century accessories, clothing, and photographs. Blurring the distinction between the use of jewelry and clothing in fashion, “Dress Up” features the intersections of fashion and fine arts to creatively contemplate the evolution of style personally, politically, and culturally.

The first room greets visitors with three mannequins adorned in elaborate outfits. In a room to the left, viewers are met by a sequined dress with a Mickey Mouse pattern in addition to a photograph of Madonna wearing Minnie Mouse ears on the wall to the left. This motif of childhood Disney icons evokes a sense of nostalgia, serving as a reminder that the desire to dress up is rooted in childhood — from imagining oneself as a favorite television character or stealing a parent’s oversized lab coat and stethoscope. The display emphasizes the role of fashion in one’s development and styling later in life.

On the opposite wall is a display of extravagant accessories. Among these are Native American necklaces often culturally identified with status or community and worn in everyday and ceremonial settings. Popular fashion figures like Iris Apfel, known for her flamboyant style, layered multitudes of these necklaces collected during her many travels — shown on a mannequin to the left of the jewelry.

While this display of the progression of accessorization prompts important reflections about its relation to contemporary fashion, the juxtaposition of Native American necklaces and non-Indigenous figures — who, despite being non-Native American, are still associated with their jewelry in popular culture — seemed prepared to spark a dialogue about the incredibly relevant issue of cultural appropriation within fashion.

Dressing up, whether in traditional cultural dress or a T-shirt representing a favorite band, is a quintessential part of one’s outward expression. For this reason, fashion is the medium of choice through which many people of marginalized identities criticize popular culture. “Dress Up” recognizes the crucial role of fashion in identity politics by showcasing works such as Danielle Simone’s “The Dragon Sisters x Timothy Westbook,” a photo-reproduction of dresses made from American and French flags as a nod to the origin of the Statue of Liberty and a challenge to the current state of the American ideals of freedom and patriotism.

As fashion is inextricable from capitalism and consumer culture, “Dress Up” also fashion through an anthropological lens with photographs like Jessica Craig Martin’s “A Day in the Life, Gramercy Park Hotel, New York” and objects by fashion houses like Marc Jacobs. The exhibition offers commentary on retail therapy and overconsumption as a result of mass production and increased accessibility to fashion, a phenomenon that continues to ring true through the perpetual cycle of fast fashion.

In the room to the right of the mannequins, the exhibition delves into celebrity culture, a world indubitably bound to that of fashion. Theatrical, stage-like settings are placed in the center and corner of the room with a variety of clothing worn by iconic personalities like Donna Summer and Anna May Wong. Whereas the former room traverses one’s direct relationship with fashion, this space explores the third-party role celebrities play in the relationship between the general consumer and the fashion industry.

Especially in film and TV, where viewers are encouraged to identify with particular characters, styling choices are made deliberately to develop the identities of those characters. Famous pieces like the Manolo Blahnik Mary Janes and flower brooches worn by Carrie Bradshaw in “Sex and the City” are also seen in this gallery of the exhibition.

With the development of celebrity culture came a side of fashion that remained relatively inaccessible to the general public, opening up a market for costume jewelry and ready-to-wear clothing in the mid-20th century that allowed consumers to similarly participate in Hollywood glamor. On one of the gallery walls is a wide-ranging display of costume jewelry from concurrently popular firms such as Coro, Miriam Haskell, Kenneth Jay Lane, and Schriener — many of which are still coveted today by vintage jewelry collectors.

The exhibition’s journey through the realms of fashion, from everyday wear to celebrity-inspired glamor, culminates in a meditation on how these varied elements of style collectively shape our cultural landscape.

“Dress Up” at the MFA Boston is ultimately an innovative navigation of the versatility and ubiquity of fashion — even to those who consider themselves far removed from the industry. The exhibit introduces new perspectives to clothing and jewelry, acknowledging their stakes in political, cultural, and personal identities.

“Dress Up” will be on display until Sept. 2 in the MFA’s Henry and Lois Foster Gallery.