What if the most powerful element of a fashion show isn’t the clothes—but the space they move through?
Palm Springs Art Museum explores that very idea in Fashioning Architecture: What the Runway Borrows from Architecture, a new exhibition opening January 31 and on view through June 7, 2026, at the museum’s Architecture and Design Center, Edwards Harris Pavilion. The exhibition invites visitors to reconsider the runway as an architectural experience—one where space, structure, and movement are just as influential as fabric and form.
Through a compelling mix of videos, photographs, and firsthand insights from industry practitioners, Fashioning Architecture examines the long-standing dialogue between fashion houses and architecture. From minimalist modernist sets to dramatic, sculptural environments, the exhibition reveals how architecture shapes not only how fashion is presented, but how it is perceived, understood, and remembered.
“Architecture is not a backdrop to the fashion show. It is an active force that shapes movement and meaning,” says Christine Vendredi, JoAnn McGrath Executive Director of Palm Springs Art Museum and curator of the exhibition. “This exhibition foregrounds architecture as a design language that structures the fashion show and defines how collections are introduced to the world.”
Giovanni Giannoni, courtesy of Louis Vuitton.
An accompanying exhibition catalogue expands on these ideas, bringing together archival imagery, contemporary photography, architectural drawings, and conversations with fashion-world veterans. Together, they offer a deeper look at architecture’s enduring influence on one of fashion’s most powerful moments: the show itself.
Presented as part of the museum’s Architecture and Design initiative, Fashioning Architecture also reflects Palm Springs Art Museum’s ongoing exploration of Southern California modernity and its global impact. The result is an exhibition that feels especially at home in Palm Springs—where architecture has always been more than a setting; it’s a statement.
Fashioning Architecture: What the Runway Borrows from Architecture is curated by Christine Vendredi and is on view January 31 through June 7, 2026.
Palm Springs Art Museum
Fashioning Architecture:
What the Runway Borrows from Architecture
January 31, 2026 – June 7, 2026