Fashion & Interiors – A Gendered Affair

Exploring fashion and interior design through a gender lens, from the Victorian era to contemporary designers like Martin Margiela and Raf Simons

Fashion & Interiors. A Gendered Affair explores the relationship between fashion and interiors from a gender perspective.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, bourgeois ladies embellished both their bodies and their homes with drapes, fringing and ruches. Male designers such as Henry van de Velde and Josef Hoffmann waged war on that decorative excess and designed women’s clothing and interiors as part of a well-thought-out total work of art. Fashion designers Paul Poiret and Jeanne Lanvin drew inspiration from this approach and used interior design to create a powerful brand for their fashion houses. The impact of clothing also resonated with modernist (interior) architects such as Adolf Loos, Lilly Reich and Le Corbusier.

This complex history is reflected in surprising ways in the visual language and creations of contemporary fashion designers such as Ann Demeulemeester, Martin Margiela, and Raf Simons.

This book is published in conjunction with the exhibition Fashion & Interiors. A Gendered Affair on view at MoMu—Fashion Museum Antwerp from 29 March to 3 August 2025.

Image credits cover: Photo Craig McDean/Art+Commerce, model Amber Valletta