Taylor Swift, Celine Dion, Oprah, Michelle Obama, Janelle Monáe, Billy Porter, Leslie Jones — these are just a few of the well-known figures who have donned the clothing now housed temporarily in the Memphis Brooks Museum of Arts’ latest exhibition, “People Are People.” On display are dresses and suits worn to award shows, galas, and speeches, milestone moments in their wearers’ lives — moments when everyone wants to feel their best, their most confident, and, yes, their most beautiful. It’s a kind of transformation, says Christian Siriano, the designer of these 36 pieces.
“My sister and I, we were ballet dancers when I was little, and I really loved the idea of transformation,” he says. “Like when you see a ballet dancer in her warm-ups but then they transform into a Sugar Plum Fairy, I always thought that was really special.
“I guess that’s what drew me to [fashion]. I love seeing people transform when they put on a certain thing — heels or a dress or a jacket — you hold yourself a different way.”
When Siriano first broke into public consciousness at 21 after winning Project Runway in 2007, the fashion scene really only catered to one body: thin, very thin, and young. Even today, one could argue the same, but Siriano, from the get-go, embraced all bodies, genders, and ages. “It’s important to celebrate beauty and whatever that is for the person,” Siriano says.
If anything, “People Are People” demonstrates just that. Siriano says, “It’s really cool to see all these shapes and sizes of women or men or whoever they are on mannequins in clothes next to one another. It’s kind of never been done actually, probably ever, in a museum, because for so long fashion retrospectives didn’t have different-sized mannequins.”
“Just being able to see different body shapes, sizes, heights even, it’s really a different experience for people experiencing fashion,” says Patricia Daigle, the Brooks’ curator of modern and contemporary art. “… This message of inclusivity is something that really [will] resonate with our community here. This is something that we really also want to champion as an institution as well.”
“People Are People,” Siriano’s first-ever solo exhibit, debuted at SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) Museum of Art in 2021, before its run at SCAD FASH Museum of Fashion + Film shortly after. This is the first time the exhibit has traveled outside of SCAD, and it’s the first time the exhibit will be shown at an institution whose primary focus isn’t fashion but art in general, Daigle points out.
“I love that art museums are really starting to embrace fashion in this way and kind of pull down some of those barriers which are, at this point, quite antiquated of thinking about fashion as something else,” Daigle says. “I think we all love to see beautiful things; whether it’s a painting or a dress, these are all works of art.”
But a barrier Siriano and the Brooks are more concerned in breaking is that of access — and not just in the name of body inclusivity. “We want people that don’t always get to see things like this to get access to it,” Siriano says of the show’s choice to travel to Memphis. “That’s kind of the whole point. That’s why it’s kind of special and unique. There’s a million shows in New York every day. They don’t need another one.”
For the show’s stay in Memphis, Siriano insisted on adding one of his most recent pieces worn by Lily Gladstone at the Critics’ Choice Awards this year. (Gladstone received a slew of awards and nominations for her role in Killers of the Flower Moons, even becoming the first Native-American woman to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.)
“I took her dress back literally a week ago,” Siriano says. “I was like, ‘No, I need it back. I want to put it in this exhibition.’”
Ever involved in the making of the show, Siriano himself helped with the finishing touches before the Brooks’ opening, positioning mannequins’ precise poses, draping the fabrics exactly right, and wrapping the tulle that covers the models’ faces. The effect of that tulle, Siriano says, blurs their identities, distancing the dress from the celebrity wearer and creating an anonymity that any viewer can assume. “In a way they kind of actually feel more, I think, dreamlike,” Siriano says. “They all mean different things in a way. They all have different voices in a way, you know.”
“People Are People” is on display at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art through August 4th. Visit brooksmuseum.org for a schedule of complementary programming like workshops and gallery talks.
