Past

Isaac Mizrahi: An Unruly History

Mar. 18 – Aug. 7, 2016

Isaac Mizrahi: An Unruly History is the first museum exhibition to focus on the influential American fashion designer, artist, and entrepreneur. On view through August 7, the exhibition explores Isaac Mizrahi’s unique position at the intersection of high style and popular culture. While best known for his clothing designs, Mizrahi’s creativity has expanded over a nearly three decade career to embrace acting, directing, set and costume design, writing, and cabaret performance. Spanning his first collection in 1988 to the present day, An Unruly History weaves together the many threads of his prolific career, juxtaposing work in fashion, film, television, and the performing arts.

 

Isaac Mizrahi’s inventive and provocative style advances complex issues within the fashion arena, igniting a spirited discourse about high versus low, modern glamour, and contemporary culture. For example, his runway shows were cast with unconventionally beautiful models of all ethnicities dressed in Star of David belts, Western-wear infused handmade lace, Adidas sneakers in place of high heels, handbags worn as hats, or humble cotton undershirts paired with floor-length taffeta skirts. Uniting opposites is a Mizrahi signature, which arises in his many combinations of evening and sportswear, formal and casual, and couture and mass market.

Isaac Mizrahi: An Unruly History is organized thematically, exploring key trends in Mizrahi’s work — from the use of color and prints, to witty designs that touch on issues of race, religion, class, and politics. The core of the exhibition features iconic designs from the Isaac Mizrahi New York clothing label (1987 – 1998), the “semi-couture” collections (2003 – 2011), and the trailblazing line for Target (2002 – 2008). The show is comprised of 42 “looks” that include clothing, hats, jewelry, shoes, accessories, and costumes for the theater, the opera, and the Mark Morris Dance Group. Also featured are the designer’s original drawings, performance stills, and behind-the-scenes photographs. A bespoke multi-screen video installation showcases a variety of content drawn from film and television cameos and runway shows, as well as from the award-winning documentary Unzipped; the television program The Isaac Mizrahi Show; scenes from the cabaret LES MIZrahi; appearances on Project Runway; and the current QVC network show IsaacMizrahiLive!.

Isaac Mizrahi: An Unruly History is organized by Chee Pearlman, Guest Curator, with Kelly Taxter, Associate Curator, the Jewish Museum.

The exhibition was designed by Galia Solomonoff and Talene Montgomery of SAS/Solomonoff Architecture Studio. The exhibition graphics and catalogue were designed by J. Abbott Miller and his team at Pentagram.

#IsaacMizrahi

Download the free Isaac Mizrahi: An Unruly History mobile app audio tour for iOS and Android.

About Isaac Mizrahi:

Isaac Mizrahi (b. 1961) was born in Brooklyn, New York. Raised in a Jewish family, he attended the Yeshiva of Flatbush before transferring to New York City’s High School for the Performing Arts, followed by Parsons School of Design. He entered the New York fashion scene in the late 1980s; his clothing line, Isaac Mizrahi New York, debuted at Bergdorf Goodman in 1986. In 1989 he received the Perry Ellis Award for Emerging Talent and was named Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Womenswear Designer of the Year, an award he won again in 1991. Unzipped, a riotous, witty, and insightful documentary about the making of his fall 1994 collection, earned Mizrahi and director Douglas Keeve the 1995 Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival. When his fashion house closed in 1998, Mizrahi followed other passions in theater and dance, designing costumes and sets for Mark Morris and Twyla Tharp in addition to winning a 2002 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design for a Broadway revival of Clare Boothe Luce’s The Women. In 2003 he was the first fashion designer to launch a line of well-designed, affordable clothes in collaboration with Target.

Today he stars inIsaac Mizrahi Live! a call-in home shopping TV show that airs weekly on the QVC network. He also appears as a judge onProject Runway All Stars.Since 2013, Mizrahi has directed and narrated the annual Peter and the Wolf at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, directed and designedThe Magic Flute and A Little Night Music for the Opera Theater of Saint Louis, and worked the red carpet at the Oscars and Golden Globe Awards. He is currently at work on a television series and memoir.

 

In the Press
“… elevates his best works from design into art.”
— The New York Times

“A riot of color and texture that offers a real glimpse into a great American designer’s creative process…”
— Artnet

Isaac Mizrahi: An Unruly History is made possible by the Wilf Family Foundation, The Coby Foundation, Ltd., Xcel Brands, the May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, Inc., Target, and Friends of Isaac.

Endowment support is provided by The Peter Jay Sharp Exhibition Fund, The Skirball Fund for American Jewish Life Exhibitions, the Barbara S. Horowitz Contemporary Art Fund, and the Joan Rosenbaum Exhibition Fund.

Friends of Isaac

Co-Chairs:
Natalie Portman
Audrey Wilf
Jane Wilf

Members:
Hilary Feshbach
Liane Ginsberg
Pnina Hiller
Sharon Hurowitz
Linda Landis
Karen Mandelbaum
Sheree Mandelbaum
Beth Nash
Nancy Pantirer
Jerry Rose
Laraine Rothenberg
Fiona and Eric Rudin
Scott Salvator
Mara Sandler
Amy Rose Silverman

Installation view of the exhibition Isaac Mizrahi: An Unruly History, March 18 - August 7, 2016. The Jewish Museum, NY. Photo: Will Ragozzino/SocialShutterbug.com

Exhibition highlights

  • Installation view of the exhibition Isaac Mizrahi: An Unruly History, March 18 - August 7, 2016. The Jewish Museum, NY. Photo: Will Ragozzino/SocialShutterbug.com

    Installation view of the exhibition Isaac Mizrahi: An Unruly History, March 18 - August 7, 2016. The Jewish Museum, NY. Photo: Will Ragozzino/SocialShutterbug.com

  • Isaac Mizrahi, 2015. Photograph © Jason Frank Rothenberg.

    Isaac Mizrahi, 2015. Photograph © Jason Frank Rothenberg.

  • A pink dress and matching pink poodle on the runway from the Cake collection, fall 2011. Mizrahi’s sense of humor and theater persists. Photograph by Dan Lecca.

    A pink dress and matching pink poodle on the runway from the Cake collection, fall 2011. Mizrahi’s sense of humor and theater persists. Photograph by Dan Lecca.

  • Blackbird, Star of David belt, ostrich-feather hood, stretch wool jersey bodysuit, stretch wool jersey pants, suede and brass belt, fall 1991. Photograph © Jason Frank Rothenberg. Mizrahi irreverently puts symbols to work as part of the religious, political, and cultural mash-up of the fall 1991 collection. “If crosses are everywhere, why not make the Star of David ubiquitous too? Just another thing?”

    Blackbird, Star of David belt, ostrich-feather hood, stretch wool jersey bodysuit, stretch wool jersey pants, suede and brass belt, fall 1991. Photograph © Jason Frank Rothenberg. Mizrahi irreverently puts symbols to work as part of the religious, political, and cultural mash-up of the fall 1991 collection. “If crosses are everywhere, why not make the Star of David ubiquitous too? Just another thing?”

  • Isaac Mizrahi, sketch for “Extreme Kilt” gown, fall 1989. Photograph by Richard Goodbody, Jewish Museum, New York.

    Isaac Mizrahi, sketch for “Extreme Kilt” gown, fall 1989. Photograph by Richard Goodbody, Jewish Museum, New York.

  • Elevator Pad Gown, grosgrain-ribbon bodice, quilted silk and lamb’s-wool skirt, spring 2005. Photograph © Jason Frank Rothenberg. Workhorse elevator padding used by movers inspired Mizrahi. He appropriated the quilting technique, but elevated the shipping blanket in a patchwork of blue, green, gray, and silver silk. The bodice was shaped from grosgrain ribbons, using heat molding.

    Elevator Pad Gown, grosgrain-ribbon bodice, quilted silk and lamb’s-wool skirt, spring 2005. Photograph © Jason Frank Rothenberg. Workhorse elevator padding used by movers inspired Mizrahi. He appropriated the quilting technique, but elevated the shipping blanket in a patchwork of blue, green, gray, and silver silk. The bodice was shaped from grosgrain ribbons, using heat molding.

  • Sketch for the fall 1994 collection. Photograph © Jason Frank Rothenberg.

    Sketch for the fall 1994 collection. Photograph © Jason Frank Rothenberg.

  • Behind the scenes, preparing the spring 2010 collection; Mizrahi’s design process is intense and at times hilarious, with many rounds of fittings and much impromptu experimentation. Photograph © Jason Frank Rothenberg.

    Behind the scenes, preparing the spring 2010 collection; Mizrahi’s design process is intense and at times hilarious, with many rounds of fittings and much impromptu experimentation. Photograph © Jason Frank Rothenberg.

  • The Real Thing, Coca-Cola–can paillette dress, spring 1994. Photograph © Jason Frank Rothenberg. The Coke can makes an improbable appearance on the runway: Mizrahi used an elaborate process to create these custom paillettes from real Coca-Cola cans. He worked with the charity We Can, which employed homeless New Yorkers to collect cans to recycle; these were shipped to the sequin-maker Langlois-Martin in Paris, where they were cut into paillettes that were then sent to India to be beaded onto dresses. The result is a high-fashion, nearly weightless modern take on a ubiquitous American icon.

    The Real Thing, Coca-Cola–can paillette dress, spring 1994. Photograph © Jason Frank Rothenberg. The Coke can makes an improbable appearance on the runway: Mizrahi used an elaborate process to create these custom paillettes from real Coca-Cola cans. He worked with the charity We Can, which employed homeless New Yorkers to collect cans to recycle; these were shipped to the sequin-maker Langlois-Martin in Paris, where they were cut into paillettes that were then sent to India to be beaded onto dresses. The result is a high-fashion, nearly weightless modern take on a ubiquitous American icon.

  • Blossom Blazers, double-silk gazar jackets with ruffle collar, silk crepe pants, spring 1991. Photograph © Jason Frank Rothenberg. “I tried to take the silliest things, like ruffles, and toughen them up,” Mizrahi notes. Here, ruffles are writ large, recalling the Elizabethan ruff and giving structure to a decorative element. The jacket was produced in pink, orange, or aquamarine. The aim was to turn a daywear blazer into an article of evening dress.”

    Blossom Blazers, double-silk gazar jackets with ruffle collar, silk crepe pants, spring 1991. Photograph © Jason Frank Rothenberg. “I tried to take the silliest things, like ruffles, and toughen them up,” Mizrahi notes. Here, ruffles are writ large, recalling the Elizabethan ruff and giving structure to a decorative element. The jacket was produced in pink, orange, or aquamarine. The aim was to turn a daywear blazer into an article of evening dress.”

  • Isaac Mizrahi, sketch for “Totem Pole” gown, fall 1991. Photograph by Richard Goodbody, Jewish Museum, New York

    Isaac Mizrahi, sketch for “Totem Pole” gown, fall 1991. Photograph by Richard Goodbody, Jewish Museum, New York

  • The poster for the film Unzipped, 1995. Copyright © Miramax, image provided by Everett Collection/Alamy.

    The poster for the film Unzipped, 1995. Copyright © Miramax, image provided by Everett Collection/Alamy.

  • Isaac Mizrahi on Style

    Isaac Mizrahi on Style

  • Isaac Mizrahi on Mastery

    Isaac Mizrahi on Mastery

  • Isaac Mizrahi on Sweatpants

    Isaac Mizrahi on Sweatpants

  • Isaac Mizrahi on Inventing Designs

    Isaac Mizrahi on Inventing Designs

Audio

The audio guide is made possible by Bloomberg Philanthropies.

The Jewish Museum · Isaac Mizrahi: An Unruly History