Matisse and his contemporaries scouted exotic props from the
Moroccan bazaars to stage their compositions. These paintings were the source of inspiration for many designers. The images combined stylized line, color, patterns and dress that projected another reality.
This exotic mixture was the theme The Museum at FIT based their current exhibition “Exoticism” curated by Tamsen Schwartzman, Associate Research Curator. In today’s global village, multiculturalism influences our taste and became a hybrid of global style. The installation illustrates the beginning and the result from the influence of Asia, Africa and the Middle East on the European world. Yves Saint Laurent and Paul Poiret employed exotic elements in their collections with obvious references. From the 70′s Kenzo based his brand using his Japanese culture to create an East-West statement.
This decade, Dries Van Noten, continues to create a new global cultural identity mixing multicultural prints, silhouettes and textures. Most interesting are designers from India, Brazil and Turkey gaining global prominence emphasizing their native style but interpreted with a contemporary hand. Another successful exotic interpretation from Fall 2007 came from Balenciaga, creating a street smart style mixing English haberdashery with ethnic inspired prints, scarves and make-up. The look translated quickly to the streets with traditional Islamic scarves being adapted by savvy fashionistas.
From the recent 
Fall 2008 collections, exoticism infused contradictory thinking from the very stark and modern silhouettes and will continue for Spring 2009. The final thought of the exhibition questions our future cultural identity with regard to multiculturalism melding individual boundries into one. I call it evolution. Click this link to view The Museum at FIT online exhibition.
