iKunstgewerbemuseumTiergarten
Many Shades of Grès: Fashion Becomes Art
This exhibition has ended.
Around 150 pieces on haute-couture pioneer Madame Grès, including the museum's 25 Grès garments, one of the largest holdings outside Paris, shown with sculpture and student designs.
Museum websiteMore in Berlin
A black evening dress with a large sash, from the autumn/winter 1976/77 season, is one of 25 garments by Madame Grès that belong to the museum itself. That holding is one of the largest outside Paris, and this is the first time her work gets a show of its own in the German-speaking world.
Around 150 pieces fill nine sections. Grès became known in the 1930s for floor-length pleated gowns inspired by ancient sculpture, so her dresses hang beside antiquities and Byzantine works, and alongside designs by students of the School of Culture and Design at HTW Berlin. CoutureNotebook summed up the premise as "craftsperson first, couturier second".
Several metres of fabric folded into a few centimetres is also what you attempt with a winter coat in a BER Ryanair carry-on.
The show closes on Sunday 11 October. Entry is €16 with the museum ticket (€8 reduced), and the museum is open 11:00 to 18:00 at the weekend.
Editor's pick
Around 150 pieces on the couturier Madame Grès, built around the museum's own 25 Grès garments, one of the largest holdings outside Paris, with sculpture and student designs alongside.
Look for
The black evening dress with the large sash
A long dress in acetate from autumn/winter 1976/77, with a big sash, from the museum's own Grès holding.
The white pleated evening dress
Made after 1973 in a viscose-synthetic blend, it shows the pleating Grès was known for since the 1930s.
The embroidered tunic ensemble
An evening outfit from about 1979 in linen, cotton, metal and glass, with an embroidered tunic.
Antiquities and Byzantine works
Ancient and Byzantine pieces are hung among the dresses, as the sculptural counterpoints to her draping.
The HTW Berlin student designs
Students of the School of Culture and Design at HTW Berlin show new work inspired by Grès.
Good for
- Nerding Out
- Out-Of-Town Guests
Also at Kunstgewerbemuseum
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Image credits
7
- KunstgewerbemuseumMarsupium / Wikimedia Commons, CC0
- Daniel Chodowiecki, 1726–1801. Images of the Enlightenment in BerlinCourtesy of Gemäldegalerie
- Portraits! Surprising Encounters from Botticelli to LempickaStaatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie / Jörg P. Anders | Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Neue Nationalgalerie / Jochen Littkemann, © Tamara de Lempicka Estate, LLC / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2026
- Ruin and Rush. Berlin 1910–1930Photo: Neue Nationalgalerie – Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz / David von Becker
- GemäldegalerieOursana / Wikimedia Commons, CC0
- Neue NationalgalerieEvgenii Salganik / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Gropius BauManfred Brückels / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0