Madonna cone bra, Dior collection and more featured in fashion psychoanalysis exhibit

Don’t miss the full story, whose reporting from Leanne Italie at The Associated Press is the basis of this AI-assisted article.

The Museum at FIT has opened an exhibit called “Dress, Dreams & Desire: Fashion and Psychoanalysis” that explores the intersection between fashion and Freudian psychology through nearly 100 designer pieces.

Some key facts:

• The exhibit runs from Sept 10 to Jan. 4, 2026, at the Fashion Institute of Technology’s museum in New York and was five years in the making.

• Curator Valerie Steele, 69, is the director of The Museum at FIT and has written a companion book due out in November.

• The exhibit includes nearly 100 designer pieces that serve as a roadmap between fashion and concepts like the unconscious mind, armor, and desire.

• Featured pieces include Marc Jacobs’ 1990 “Freudian Slip” dress with Freud’s image, John Galliano’s “Freud or Fetish” collection for Dior from 2000 and Jean Paul Gaultier’s “cone-bra” dresses.

• Elsa Schiaparelli’s 1938 “Hall of Mirrors” cropped black velvet jacket is displayed, featuring trompe l’oeil gold and silver mirrors that reflect on how women were culturally perceived.

• A replica of Jennifer Lopez’s famous plunging green Versace dress from the 2000 Grammys is included to demonstrate Freud’s theory about clothes as loopholes around nudity shame.

• The second room demonstrates how fashion serves as more than a “second skin,” showing pieces like Issey Miyake’s 1983 red leather bustier and Rei Kawakubo’s architectural body-encasing dresses.

READ MORE: Fashion meets Freud. A new exhibit explores clothes through a psychoanalytic lens