Design is an impulse that unifies us across time and culture. This installation unifies two traditionally disparate collecting fields, fashion and textiles with decorative and industrial arts to better understand what underlies our motivations and capacity for design.

Ensembles from the Iris Apfel Rare Bird of Fashion collection celebrate the exuberant remixing and inventive styling of one of the world’s most prominent fashion icons, while constellations of unique and culturally significant works of design, fashion, and textiles explore distinctive and resourceful forms of creative expression.

A recent gallery highlight is the display of 38 vibrant and flamboyant ensembles from the collection of Boston-based entrepreneur and fashion icon Yolanda Cellucci. Yolanda’s, based in Waltham, Massachusetts, was a hotspot for lavish evening and wedding ensembles and that became a household name throughout the region, and a shorthand for glitz and glamor in the late 20th century. Cellucci generously donated 57 works of fashion and accessories to PEM in 2021, along with archival photographs and materials related to the legacy of her bridal shop.

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