Jellyfish blouse

Isabel Toledo somewhat shortchanged America—and the rest of the world—on January 20, 2009, when Michelle Obama dressed for her husband’s inauguration in the designer’s pale yellow lace dress and overcoat. While a smart choice, politically and fashion-wise, for the new US First Lady, the ensemble did absolutely nothing to represent the incredible talent of this Cuban-American emigre long hailed in fashion circles as the “designer’s designer.”

Far from making matronly ensembles that would have slotted perfectly into another presidential figure’s power wardrobe, Toledo is revered for her preternatural sense of cut and construction and her wondrous ability to create sculptural pieces from a mere swath of fabric. Championed by ultimate fashion insiders such as Visionaire founder Stephen Gan, Toledo, together with her illustrator husband, Ruben, is as avant-garde as they come, a fashion artist who dwells in the intricacies of form and shape and the livelier prospects of dress as aesthetic argument.

It is, then, somehow apt that the Museum at FIT, the fashion school, has given the world a proper introduction to this amazing talent by way of Isabel Toledo: Fashion From The Inside Out. The exhibit, which ran at the museum from June 17 to September 26, 2009, is an engrossing retrospective of Toledo’s work, covering her ranging experimentations in three-dimensionality, fabric pliancy and transparency. Backdropped by an awesome tableau of her husband’s illustrations, Fashion From The Inside Out reveals, in painstaking detail at that, the inner workings of a fashion genius’ mind.

The exhibit title comes from a Toledo statement: “I never thought of myself as a designer,” curators Valerie Steele and Patricia Mears quote the designer. “I’m a seamstress. I really love the technique of sewing more than anything else. The seamstress is the one who views fashion from the inside! That’s the art form, really—the technique of how it’s done.”

A modest proposition, belied by such imaginations as her jellyfish blouses in ombre silk chiffon or packing tops in peach rayon jersey, the conceptual plays involved in creating such viscerally organic pieces truly beyond any mere technician’s reach. Toledo is one of those great artists who just happen to be working in fashion, or, fundamentally, fabric, and the resulting creative manifestations of a restless, artistic spirit benefit the field of fashion immensely.

Any student of fashion would have done well to have viewed this show. The exhibit notes set the tone by giving valuable clues into the Toledo process: “Unlike most designers, Isabel does not sketch or look at fashion magazines. She begins with a ‘feeling.’ Then she ‘sees’ a garment in three dimensions in her mind’s eye. Her ideas evolve as she manipulates fabric and cuts patterns.”

The visitor is then walked into what could handily be described as a warren of rooms inside Toledo’s designing mind. Origami displays the artist’s three-dimensional, sculptural garments. Liquid Architecture enumerates her fantastically fluid, folded, jersey dresses. Suspension details the technique used to create her multi-folded jersey and taffeta dresses that hang from thin cords of fabric. Shadow is a chiaroscuro excursion into the interplay of transparent and opaque, featuring immaculate lace dresses. Shape, Manipulated Surfaces and Organic Geometry show how “sculpture” is integral to Toledo’s conception of fashion.

In each section, the consciousness of how creation flows out of feeling and fabric manipulation becomes apparent. Patterns on the floor map out how each design takes shape, directing the viewer to the ingenious provenance of all those folds and drapes. Ruben Toledo’s illustrations amplify the sensuous nature of the clothes, the energy that animates them.

Expertly arranged to illuminate Toledo’s unique vision, Fashion From The Inside Out argues the case for an exceptional talent continuing to push fashion’s boundaries. Mrs. Obama should be given kudos for introducing Toledo to the larger public, and this, exhibit, for enlarging our appreciation of her.