The Clothes Make the Exhibit

"She's Like a Rainbow," the new show at the Museum at FIT, doesn't offer much guidance on the historical meanings or uses of color, but it does include some gorgeous gowns in rich colors.

Drawn from the museum's 80,000-piece collection, the exhibit offers 150 items, including dresses, textiles, and accessories that span the last 250 years. The first room presents a spectrum of gowns, while the rest of the show is organized in rough chronology. The show was organized by the museum's director, Valerie Steele.

The "rainbow" the show offers is spectacular. Yves Saint Laurent is well represented, beginning with a 1960s "Mondrian" dress positioned at the entryway. A layered maroon Marc Jacobs cocktail dress reminds us of the designer's flirty side. There are purple Valentino books, an 18th-century "Little Red Riding Hood"–style cape, an early women's denim jacket, a 1962 sequined yellow evening dress by Norman Norell, and a gorgeous white Calvin Klein gown. A slinky magenta gown by Elsa Schiaparelli steals the show. And a set of short pants by the early 20th-century French couturier Paul Poiret makes the viewer look forward to the retrospective of his work that will open at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute in May.

The trouble with a fashion exhibit on color — like a restaurant whose theme is flavor or an architecture exhibit on structure — is that it has the potential to be so broad as to be practically meaningless. There is wide latitude for the curator's hand, but that opportunity was not used to the fullest here. The exhibit notes are minimal and repetitive. Purple is twice described as "reminiscent of red wine and dried blood," while an entry on pink references the first scholarly study of the color without providing its date. Of black, it is stated, "no other color has such evocative power." That's true as far it goes, but that can also be said of any other color: Red is the color of seduction, white represents purity, etc. Despite these simplistic statements on color associations, the clothes on display are worth seeing.

Until May (Seventh Avenue at 27th Street, 212-217-5800).