Clothes, shoes, hats, bags and other apparel items are important (*). They accompany us in public and in private, they are with us through the best and the worst moments of our existence, right at our side. We need them, we desire them, we offer them, we use them, we toss them aside, we repair them and reuse them. But it is our interaction with them – at all levels – that gives them different meanings and an experience that can shape, transform and portray us. Hence, this exhibition is to honor and highlight the importance of these objects.

Dressing and fashion are everywhere and constantly in motion. After two years of disruption, however, a lot of the industry’s activity is currently focusing on sustainable and high-tech industrial fibers, the making of long-lived products, digital frontiers and the logistics gridlock. As fabric materials, straw and raffia have been used around the world for dressing for thousands of years. For many years now raffia- and straw-wear are generally associated with the warm months of the year, summer leisure and loungewear – not necessarily sportwear. This might be because of these materials’ natural, undone, and almost imperfect feel. However, because of these characteristics, working with natural fibers requires great skill and several hours of preparation, weaving and refining.

But how sustainable a fabric is raffia and straw? The question of sustainability has become fashion’s favorite buzzword. As designers and their brands tout eco-conscious collections and socially responsible supply chains, using raffia or straw will not necessarily make a dress, let alone a brand, eco-friendly. Consumers are increasingly concerned with greenwashing, the unlimited extraction of virgin raw material, and want to invest in long-lived products of a circular economy. Because of the gallery’s focus on this specific medium, the exhibits’ common characteristic is that they are mainly made of raffia or straw. Objects woven with leather stripes and another one with plastic stripes have been included, as part of the discussion about sustainability.

Our research during the preparation of the exhibition revealed an astonishing array of products, design, artisanship and stories. Each of the exhibited objects comes with a closer look at the personal, social, and other circumstances surrounding their creation and production – these aspects are often interwoven into one another.

Stories also come with questions. For instance, in fifth-century Athens, shoes could carry one across social and political boundaries: shoes could function as a badge of citizenship and as a sign of going off to battle or dressing for love, marriage or death. Are there examples of similar languages in today’s shoes? Can a unisex shoe be at some point associated with sex work and at another with sophistication and elegance becoming a status symbol of success? On a darker note, what made one person help (and save) someone during WWII and another ruthlessly try to grab the business of her partner? Why someone asks for forgiveness and tries to move on, while another does not? There are no good or bad questions, there are no right or wrong answers.

Likewise, the lines between past, present and future are not rigid or unchanging. There is no chronological order in the objects’ presentation. The objects are grouped by their function: clothes – couture or ready to wear, hats/headwear, fans, shoes and jewels.

While the curated objects are geared towards stimulating further reflections and discussions on issues such as plurality, memory gender or economy, the exhibition is unable to use a complete vocabulary. Gaps and missing layers of interpretation – a.k.a. the things we do not see – can also shape the social discourse. Similarly, the team that put in place this exhibition had one set of meanings in mind, but visitors and viewers might certainly have their own personal and completely different interpretations.

Side events accompanying the exhibition will try to help unfold some of these stories, their nuances, as well as their potential. The viewers/participants’ perspectives are equally important in the creation of meaning surrounding these items of dress.

(*) The term accessory for many of these objects is a misconception. It implies that this is about a secondary or superfluous object. Try to walk in the snow without shoes or to travel without a bag

The name of the exhibition: The exhibition’s name may seem misleading in the sense that there are no diamonds among the exhibits. However, in this juxtaposition or pell-mell, we want to believe that the magic comes from the humbler yet more democratic material.

Get a Joan Collins 1980s “glittering diamond fashion show” on YouTube (0:40)