New Exhibition: Medievalism, Fashion's Romance with the Middle Ages

I love the idea for this exhibition because it brings together two of my very favorite things: fashion and the middle ages.

The Kelly Ellman Fashion Design Gallery and Orme Lewis Gallery at the Phoenix Museum of Art will open the show Medievalism: Fashion's Romance with the Middle Ages on February 21st. The show will feature over 40 ensembles as well as accessories and books that evoke the textures and lines of the medieval, or "Gothic" style associated with the Middle Ages.

While the premise of the show seems somewhat romantic at first glance, it will also treat the history of the revival of Gothic style in the mid-19th century, and how the medieval aesthetic affects today's fashion and media as well.

Murals based on the 15th-century Unicorn tapestries in the collection of the Musée National du Moyen Age, Paris, and a painted stained glass window created by set designer Michael Sims will provide the appropriately medieval backdrop for the show.