DescriptionIn 2017, New York City’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) unveiled Items: Is Fashion Modern?, a landmark exhibition that explored the cultural, historical, and technological significance of 111 fashion items spanning from the Middle Ages to the present day. Curated by Paola Antonelli, the exhibition examined a diverse range of garments and accessories—from Levi’s jeans and the Little Black Dress to the sari and the keffiyeh—each selected for its enduring impact on society. Rather than focusing solely on aesthetics, the show delved into the deeper meanings embedded in fashion, questioning how these items have shaped and reflected cultural movements, social norms, and technological advancements over time.

To set the stage for this ambitious exhibition, Antonelli invited Accurat, the data-driven design studio co-founded by Giorgia Lupi, to create an eye-catching and intellectually engaging installation at the exhibition's entrance. The challenge was to translate the subjective, multifaceted nature of fashion into a structured visual representation—one that could reveal new connections between garments and their broader cultural implications. Lupi developed a unique classification system that assigned quantitative values to qualitative attributes, allowing data to tell the story of each item’s historical and social significance. Questions such as “Was it worn to conform or to rebel?” and “Why was it considered modern?” informed a hand-drawn grid that mapped out key insights. This intricate visualization, titled Data Items: A Fashion Landscape, offered visitors an intuitive yet analytical framework for understanding the exhibition's themes. Positioned at the entrance, the installation acted as a conceptual gateway, bridging data visualization and fashion history. By systematically analyzing apparel through a data-driven lens, the piece reinforced the idea that design—whether in fashion or information—has the power to narrate complex cultural stories in innovative ways.