Who doesn’t love a white shirt? It goes with everything from skinny jeans to a pencil skirt. So when The Chic Spy asked if I would accept her latest mission – attend the opening of The White Shirt According to Me. Gianfranco Ferré at the Phoenix Art Museum – I couldn’t resist. In what seems like ideal timing, the Phoenix Art Museum happens to be celebrating 50 years of exhibiting fashion and is the only location in North America that will serve as host to this amazing installation.
In case you’ve never heard of the Italian fashion designer, he’s known throughout the world as the “architect of fashion” because he was trained as an architect before becoming a designer. One look at his sculptural designs and you can see the architectural influence. The white shirts that he designed are beautiful works of art. The shapes, the draping, the textures, and the simplicity of clean lines culminate into extravagant designs.
“The White Shirt According to Me. Gianfranco Ferré” shows us that the “white shirt” is so much more than the standard button down we are all familiar with – it has style, allure, and panache – while the Phoenix Art Museum shows us that art is so much more than oil on canvas.
The exhibition, which opens in the Steele Gallery today through March 6, 2015, also includes 100 of Ferre’s sketches and upstairs in the Kelly Ellman Fashion Design Gallery are some of the designer’s gowns on display.
