MoMA PS1’s Revisits the Edgy Style of the 80s and Downtown New York’s Art Scene

Before the Met’s 2014 “Charles James: Beyond Fashion” blockbuster, which renewed interest in the American couturier, a little-known 1981 MoMA PS1 exhibition laid the groundwork. It came together through James’s last studio assistant, Homer Layne, who oversaw James archives and later donated the designs to the Met. “New York Fashion at PS1, 1980-1984,” opening alongside the museum’s latest show “Hard Art,” revisits that era, when edgy early-80s designers blurred the line between their work and fine art.

The exhibit came to fruition thanks to assistant curator Kari Rittenbach, who received a tip about these forgotten shows when she joined in 2022 and, given the institution’s interdisciplinary approach, wanted to learn more. As PS1 archives from 1976 to 2000 were migrated to MoMA, the archivist there, Jonathan Lill, also wanted to bring attention to the materials. Rittenbach set out to piece together the exhibitions with scant direct info.

“There are correspondences, notes, photographs, contact sheets, press releases, invitations, posters, videos, but it’s not comprehensive. Through show notes, I realized the Charles James show probably had the highest exhibition insurance value in the series,” Rittenbach told Galerie. 

Thus, visitors should not expect a typical fashion presentation a la The Met, but rather supporting materials and recreations of aspects of various exhibitions to help bring it to life, according to Rittenbach.

“The shows challenged designers to interpret their visual language into a work of art in mediums such as sculpture or video. Many responded in very avant-garde ways,” she added.  Coincidentally, the fashion exhibitions also aligned with the seminal 1981 PS1 show “New York/New Wave,” curated by Diego Cortez, which marked the first time Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring showed at the museum and was a who’s who of the emerging downtown 80s New York contemporary art scene.

Case in point: the 1982 Willi Smith exhibition. The designer dipped his designs in white plaster and created three linear tableaux, laying the items in vertical lines on the gallery floor. Rittenbach recreated one by sourcing a vintage Willi Smith Butterick pattern, commissioning a seamstress to recreate the clothes, which were then dipped in plaster. A vinyl display on the wall recreates the original sculpture, adding context for the display.

Above is a lively video by pioneering video artist Les Levine, shown at 1984’s “Fashion Video” exhibition that coincided with MTV redefining culture. It features an upbeat 80s song, a gaggle of downtown creatives like dance duo Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane, and models meandering and dancing around the gritty downtown streets of the era. In their colorful outfits, alternative hairstyles, and makeup that is part Memphis-movement and Robert Nagel, the youthful group points to a new vision in fashion and culture.

“The video is wild and really portrays the city then. You see optimism, which feels exciting. It’s lively and in the moment of messaging through clothing. Willi was a streetwear, aka ‘street couture,’ designer who pioneering gender fluid clothing,” she continued.

The video also highlights Willi Smith’s art T-shirt collaboration, in which up-and-coming artists such as Haring, Futura 2000, Barbara Kruger, and Jenny Holzer submitted art to be put on a WilliWear T-shirt.

“Despite commercial success, Willi continued to work with artists. Reflecting on Barbara Kruger’s influence on Supreme makes me think of Willi’s genius. It’s hard to imagine what would’ve happened if he hadn’t passed so young.

Julio Espada, whose 1980 show kicked off the four shows curated by Di Russo, was also on hand at the preview. He recreated a tissue-paper origami-inspired headdress and bodice piece on a mannequin for the new show.

With Betsey Johnson’s blessing, the museum recreated snippets from the designer’s installation in relation to her wedding to John Cale, which was shown at the 1983 PS1 show.

The four major exhibitions revisited stemmed from curator Hollywood Di Russo’s vision. While a make-up artist by trade, she was a larger-than-life fixture of the Studio 54 set who was close to PS1 board members Stephen Reichard and Renny Reynolds.

“She was a character, dubbed a ‘Fashion Femme Fatale,’ who was born in Florida to a circus family; raised in Texas and had made up her own manner of speaking. David Mamet once recorded her voice because he was obsessed with her,” Rittenbach explained.

“Hollywood’s approach was to work with living designers. She was really modeling the program against Diana Vreeland and the Costume Institute, which felt very dead to her. She acknowledged fashion designers as being incredibly engaged in creating a visual reality, thus strongly influencing culture but also how one perceives the world,” she added.

The show also includes materials from other shows, such as one curated by the late Richard Flood, the New Museum’s chief curator. Designer Yeohlee Teng was the subject of that show and attended the “New York Fashion at PS1, 1980-1984” preview.

“Richard Flood taught me everything; he was my hero and amazingly creative guy. We put up the show together. My work is very sculptural, and the lighting makes shadows on the wall, which is part of the art. It was an interesting time in fashion; we socialized with artists, we knew them. Everyone was a character, and being artistic and creating work together felt very organic,” Teng recalled.

Rittenbach posits that the shows began to peter out once Di Russo’s film career took off and the National Endowment for the Arts cut funding during Reagan’s first term. Since then, the closest institution got to similar programming was during the “Greater New York” show in 2015, in which designers Susan Cianciolo, Mary Ping of Slow and Steady Wins the Race, and Mike Eckhaus and Zoe Latta—who also showed a collection during NYFW there in February 2016—exhibited creations at PS1.

The resurrection of the 1980s shows, though, signals more than a trip down memory lane. Next up at PS1: “Malvestir,” a fashion exhibition slated for spring 2027, offering more fashion-meets-art moments.

“New York Fashion at PS1, 1980-1984” is currently running through March 15, 2027.