Located in the Stieren Center Tobin Exhibition Galleries and Sculpture Gallery.

From gowns to grunge, Fashion Nirvana: Runway to Everyday marks the first large-scale fashion and video art exhibition in McNay history. Set in the wake of the Cold War, in a decade of great hope and freedom ushered in by the fall of the Berlin Wall, the innovative installation celebrates the fearless designers, photographers, and video artists who made the 1990s iconic and worthy of its current revival. Fashion Nirvana features over 60 runway to everyday garments by famous designers Dior, Tom Ford, Jean Paul Gaultier, Carolina Herrera, Patrick Kelly, Isaac Mizrahi, Todd Oldham, Oscar de la Renta, Vivienne Tam, Gianni Versace, Vera Wang, and more. 

Advances in technology made video art increasingly accessible during the 1990s, and video artists responded to music, pop culture, advertising, and fashion of the time. Paired alongside fashion ensembles, projections by video artists Rineke Dijkstra, Mariko Mori, Tony Oursler (in collaboration with 90s band Sonic Youth), Pipilotti Rist, San Antonio-native Jim Mendiola, and more create a multi-sensory experience.

Fashion Nirvana: Runway to Everyday is co-organized by the McNay Art Museum and Texas Fashion Collection at the University of North Texas, curated by Kate Carey, Head of Education; Jackie Edwards, former Assistant Curator; and Lauren Thompson, Assistant Curator; and assisted by Alexis T. Meldrum, 2019-2020 Semmes Foundation Intern in Museum Studies.

Major support is provided by Mercedes T. Bass, Mercedes T. Bass Charitable Corporation. Additional support is provided by the Host Committee, chaired by Alice Carrington Foultz. 

Image, top: Gianni Versace, Dress, 1994. Rayon, acetate, silk, metal and rhinestones. Collection of Phoenix Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Kelly Ellman. Photograph: Ken Howie.

Image, left:  Victor Costa, Wedding dress, 1992. Silk satin, net, rhinestones. Texas Fashion Collection, University of North Texas, Gift of the Estate of Doris I. Dixon, 1996.016.002.