Paola Antonelli, MoMA’s veteran design curator, has taken it upon herself to assemble our iconic fashion designs in Items: Is Fashion Modern, tipping her hat to Bernard Rudofsky who took on design for MoMA in the fifties.   Opening night guests were ooing and ahing over things they recognized or in some cases owned. In my case, I regretted the Armani pantsuit I had somehow mislaid along the way, I celebrated the Patagonia fleece that my children have recycled amongst themselves, I coveted the 40’s era black suede sandals  that would still look perfect today.

Unlike most of the museum costume shows this does not focus on one designer which sometimes makes its discursiveness distracting.

Nevertheless, a few spectacular designs that did not feel that they could have ever been incorporated into my family did stand out. Among them, an Issey Miyake red number generated by a computer from only one thread, and a Paul Poiret ensemble that is a smashing precursor to today's see-through-everything trend.