Intimate Architecture: Contemporary Clothing Design turns out to have been the first art exhibition on clothing (as distinct from a “costume exhibition”, of which the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London have been long-time leaders). The show at MIT’s Hayden Gallery (now the List Visual Arts Center) included the work of eight contemporary designers who conceived and even “built” their clothing as an architect would construct a shelter. The designers were Giorgio Armani, Gianfranco Ferré, Mariuccia Mandelli of Krizia, Stephen Manniello, Issey Miyake, Claude Montana, Ronaldus Shamask, and Yeohlee Teng.

Accompanying the exhibition in the Hayden Corridor Gallery were historical and contemporary drawings and photographs of artists’ costumes and clothing, which included Oskar Schlemmer’s designs for the Triadic Ballet and Louise Bourgeois’s Latex Costume, among many others.

Robert Mapplethorpe did the original photographs for the catalogue, with Lisa Lyon as the model. The gallery installation was designed by Daniel Pike, who went on to a distinguished career at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Miami, and the Exploratorium in San Francisco. The installation photographs were taken by Herb Engelsberg.