Mode Brut

Mode Brut, a collaboration between the Museum of Craft and Design (MCD) and Creativity Explored (CE), is an accessible fashion-related exhibition that highlights artist practices through textiles.

Focusing on fashion as art practice, this exhibition showcases four collections of inspiring new fashion lines made by designer teams alongside local developmentally disabled artists. Participating collaborators include CE Studio Line led by instructor Victor Molina; community art collective Bonanza; Queer advocate and model Yanni Brumfield; and San Francisco-based haute couture fashion brand Tokyo Gamine. Mode Brut challenges visitors to think past the familiar modes of apparel by redefining what, and who is fashionable. It encourages the viewer to consider the role fashion can play in responding to questions about accessibility, body shapes for adaptive clothing, gender, identity, use of recycled materials, and more.

CE Studio Line
At the heart of the exhibition, Mode Brut features over 50 Creativity Explored artists through a collaborative line produced with Victor Molina. Molina brings their art to life while taking a critical view of the current fashion world. Working with donated fabric and clothes, Molina begins the process by considering the artist’s personal aesthetic and then works to interpret it through each piece.

Bonanza: Intersection between visual arts, ability, and fashion
Bonanza is the collaborative practice of Conrad Guevara, Lindsay Tully, and Lana Williams, whose work strategically challenges the fixity of identity through different forms of signaling, posturing, flexibility, and resilience. Inspired by working at home and wanting to dress a little extra, their collaboration includes day pajamas that are a mix of flare with coziness and a shock of color and alternative garden wear. 

Yanni Brumfield: Intersection between gender identity and street fashion
Ayana “Yanni” Brumfield is the founder of the annual limitless queer fashion show, which prioritizes increasing representation of people who look like them in the fashion industry. Their collection includes original paintings and artwork on streetwear. Yanni pairs traditionally masculine garments such as jeans, leather jackets, and collared shirts with the bold graphic artwork of the CE artists.

Tokyo Gamine: Intersection between design, community, and haute couture
San Francisco-based artist and fashion designer, Yuka Uehara is known for hand painting each of her designs, adding personalization and specificity to each piece. The Tokyo Gamine collection explores the natural elements and incorporates artistic patterns found in the CE artists’ work as well as abstract painting and intricate fabric forms. 

The visual display of these four collections in Mode Brut will allow organic narratives to take place while using a “fashion show” segment as the center of the story, aiming to create stylish, innovative, and humorous compositions. A virtual fashion show will feature participating artists and their collections and will be streamed online. The Museum of Craft and Design and Creativity Explored are honored to present Mode Brut to the Bay Area and beyond and as part of a larger inclusive narrative. Learn more at sfmcd.org

Support for Mode Brut is generously provided by Pamela and David Hornik. Additional support provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, Coordinated Resources Inc. of San Francisco, and The California Wellness Foundation. Mode Brut is made possible in part by the Gucci Changemakers Impact Fund and The Creative Work Fund, a program of the Walter and Elise Haas Fund that also is supported by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. In-kind support provided by Saks Fifth Ave and DOGO. For the full list of supporters visit sfmcd.org/modebrut. The Museum of Craft and Design’s exhibitions and programs are generously supported by the Windgate Charitable Foundation and Grants for the Arts. Additional support is provided by Robyn and John Horn, Hunter Douglas, and Dorothy Saxe.

Visitor information
The Museum of Craft and Design is open Wednesday to Saturday 10am–5pm and Sundays 12–5pm. The Museum of Craft and Design is located at 2569 Third Street, San Francisco, CA. Learn more at sfmcd.org/visit.