Isabel Toledo

"A mid-career retrospective will display approximately 70 iconic looks from the mid- 1980s to the present, including the ensemble worn by First Lady Michelle Obama on Inauguration Day. This will be the first time that the sheath dress and matching coat are on public view. The exhibition also will include pieces from Toledo's highly praised 2007-2008 collections as creative director of Anne Klein and mannequins and drawings by her husband, artist Ruben Toledo, with whom she closely collaborates..."I think of it as fashion from the inside out," she explains. "I can describe an idea or even a feeling to Ruben, and he'll sketch it." "I really love the technique of sewing more than anything else...The seamstress is the one who knows fashion from the inside! That's the art form really, not fashion design, but the technique of how it's done." Isabel has said that she doesn't "want to be radical," and she insists that "weird is not smart." But her clothes are undeniably different. None of them have traditional construction. Her patterns, silhouettes, use of materials, and methods of draping are all highly experimental"-- FIT exhibition website.