Renaissance to Runway: The Enduring Italian Houses

Fashion as a medium undeniably addresses ideas that transcend time from the past into the present. Through the majestic creations of more than 100 modern and contemporary Italian fashions and accessories in dialogue with Italian fine, decorative, and textile arts from the 1400s to the early 1600s, Renaissance to Runway: The Enduring Italian Houses examines the art historical inspirations that fuel recent creative Italian lexicon, expanding fantasies of the Renaissance, Mannerist, and early Baroque periods.

More than 500 years ago, families, or “houses,” who ruled the states across the Italian peninsula, such as the Medici of Florence and the Sforza of Milan, used fashion as a form of power and influence, from dictating fashionable styles that were immortalized through painted portraits to controlling textile production as a form of currency. Conversely, since the turn of the 1900s, rising Italian fashion companies, also called “houses,” have been founded by prolific individuals and families who dominate global style with unmatched design craftsmanship, quality fabrics, and enthralling aesthetics. From Versace and Valentino to Ferragamo and Capucci, these houses have interpreted Italian early modern–period aesthetics to develop fresh perspectives throughout the fashion landscape.

The entrance to the exhibition showcases an immersive video experience that connects the Italian Renaissance and early modern artworks, several of which are a part of the Cleveland Museum of Art’s collection and represented throughout the exhibition, with contemporary Italian fashion. Using AI and emerging technology, rare archival garments—too delicate to wear—are brought back to life. Artists have used AI to show how these garments once moved and flowed when worn. By mixing the past with the present, this video celebrates history while showing how style and creativity change over time and continue to inspire us.

This exhibition illustrates how fashion, in all of its change, is a continuous thread that uncovers history’s complexities as it materializes contemporary beauty.