New York Fashion at PS1, 1980–1984

Preview: written before the show opened

One film here is cut from more than 20 hours of footage of Charles James talking in his studio at the Chelsea Hotel, shot in 1978. The other, Made in New York, is a rarely screened 1984 WilliWear production with cameos from Willi Smith, Bill T. Jones and Jenny Holzer.

Between 1980 and 1984 the stylist Hollywood Di Russo staged ten fashion shows at PS1, on the premise that fashion "undeniably influences the way that we see." She skipped the usual costume display: clothes were pinned to walls, stuffed and hung salon-style, or stiffened in plaster and laid on the floor. Back then, clothes on the floor was a curatorial position, not a bedroom you hadn't tidied. You get original pieces and partial reconstructions of four of those shows, by Julio Espada, Charles James, Willi Smith and Betsey Johnson, plus archive photographs.

Entry is free; tickets can be reserved online. It opens on 5 November, and the Open House on 7 November includes a 2pm talk, A Fashion Alternative.