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2 min read<\/p>\n2 min read<\/p>\n
Fashion exhibitions are widespread today, but in 1985, the idea of dedicating a major museum exhibition to a luxury fashion house was a novel concept. That year, Steps Through Work. Fendi \/ Karl Lagerfeld 1985 opened at Rome’s Galleria Nazionale di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, offering a look inside the creative world of Fendi and celebrating the first two decades of Karl Lagerfeld’s partnership with the Roman maison. Four decades later, that landmark exhibition is returning in tandem with the presentation of creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri\u2019s first couture show<\/a> for the house.<\/p>\n Running through October 25, 2026, After Steps Through Work was conceived by Chiuri and curated by fashion scholar Maria Luisa Frisa. Revisiting an exhibition that has largely existed only in archival photographs and memories, Chiuri transforms it into a living document, asking what it means to experience fashion history in the present. By adding the word “After” to the original title, she creates a conversation across generations that explores how the ideas behind the original exhibition continue to resonate today.<\/p>\n Giorgio Benni<\/p>\n The project also serves as a tribute to Karl Lagerfeld, whose 54-year collaboration with Fendi helped define the identity of the house. Long before fashion exhibitions became cultural blockbusters, Lagerfeld approached exhibition-making with the same curiosity and imagination that characterized his design work. His original concept invited visitors beyond the finished garment, revealing the creative process through sketches, prototypes, research, and experimentation.<\/p>\n Faithfully recreating that experience required both historical research and contemporary interpretation. While many of the original exhibition structures have been reconstructed, not every object from 1985 could be recovered. Where necessary, archival reproductions stand alongside surviving works, creating an exhibition that balances historical accuracy with the realities of preserving fashion history.<\/p>\n Giorgio Benni<\/p>\n Visitors move through a sequence of thematic galleries including Sample Boards, Kaleidoscope, Design Frameworks, Theater, Comb, Video, Sketches, and Computer. More than 250 archival materials, including paper models, sample boards, preparatory studies, sketches, historic garments, films, interviews, and original exhibition documents drawn from both the Fendi archive and the museum’s collection, offer an intimate portrait of the house’s creative universe. Highlights include Jacques de Bascher’s 1977 film Historie d’Eau as well as newly presented interviews with Paola Fendi, Ida Panicelli, and art historian Arturo Carlo Quintavalle.<\/p>\n The exhibition concludes by revisiting the critical debate sparked by the original 1985 presentation, when bringing fashion into an art museum was still considered progressive. Contemporary press coverage, displayed alongside archival documents, reminds visitors just how radical the exhibition once seemed.<\/p>\n In revisiting Lagerfeld’s original vision with After Steps Through Work, Chiuri honors his legacy while demonstrating that the most enduring ideas continue to evolve with each new audience.<\/p>\n Carly Witteman is Town & Country\u2019s Associate Fashion Editor, covering luxury style, jewelry and timepieces, beauty, and arts and culture while styling various photoshoots and projects for print. You can find her on Instagram at @carlymaewitteman, where she\u2019s probably posting about a Broadway show, her new favorite pair of shoes, or her current read.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2 min read Fashion exhibitions are widespread today, but in 1985, the idea of dedicating a major museum…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12823],"tags":[4709,37309,99,12850,8655,98,4955,103,37308,30755,13516],"class_list":["post-59927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fendi","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-6e717ae6-d35c-4718-bffc-2cd8d19ee00f","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-fendi","tag-issyndicated-false","tag-locale-us","tag-lvmh","tag-read_time-2","tag-shorttitle-fendi-revisits-landmark-exhibition-40-years-later","tag-sponsored-false","tag-subsection-fashion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Two](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/be94c672-042d-462b-b493-7a60f4b9321b.jpg\" "\\"Two")
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