costume exhibition @ Benaki Museum

To Dress

The Peloponnesian Folklore Foundation is organizing a costume exhibition at the Benaki Museum, from the 24th of March until the 23rd of May, titled: “Endyesthai (To Dress). Towards a Costume Culture Musuem”. The scope of the exhibition is to display the important costume collection of the Foundation and to underline the necessity of the creation of a Costume Culture Museum in Greece.

The exhibition aims to present to the public a global consideration of the act of dressing and to examine it through as different aspects as possible. The exhibits will be organized following two parallel and complementary concepts: the main one will show the evolution of dress, mainly in the West, starting from body painting in primitive cultures up to the extravagances presented on the modern catwalks. Parallel to this, there will be a series of smaller units, extensions of the main one, which will approach costume following its function, such as ceremonial garments, traditional costumes, uniforms, disposable garments, theatre costumes, etc.

The costume collections of the P.F.F. are no longer confined to Greek regional costume but are continually enriched with fashion pieces. It remains the only organized collection of haute couture and prêt-à- porter in Greece. At present, the collection consists of 5,500 pieces and includes examples of work by Mariano Fortuny, Jeanne Lanvin, Christian Dior, Issey Miyake, Paul Poiret, Paco Rabanne & other as well as Greek designers, known internationally like, Yannis Evangelidis, Jean Dessès, James Galanos, Dimis Kritsas, George Stavropoulos, Yannis Tseklenis, Sophia Kokosalaki & other.

If you want to see the exhibition through the creative eyes of a fashion pro
you just have to check the following dates:

Saturday 24 April, 12:30 p.m. Vaso Konsola
Sunday 25 April, 12:30 p.m. Yannis Tseklenis
Friday 30 April, 7:00 p.m. Ioanna Papantoniou (curator of the exhibition)
Friday 7 May, 7:00 p.m. Ioanna Papantoniou
Saturday 8 May, 12:30 p.m. Erifili Nikolopoulou
Sunday 9 May, 12:30 p.m. Erifili Nikolopoulou
Friday 14 May, 7:00 p.m. Ioanna Papantoniou
Saturday 15 May, 12:30 p.m. Vaso Konsola
Sunday 16 May, 12:30 p.m. Markellos Niktas

(photo courtesy of the Peloponnesian Folklore Foundation)