The Jewish Museum Reveals the Untold Story of Chloé Founder Gaby Aghion in New Exhibition

One of the many luxuries of living in New York City is the abundance of fashion exhibits on view at any given time. What's particularly special, though, is the diversity of stories being told, by a variety of museums with different areas of expertise and niches helping these stories reach current and future generations. Take The Jewish Museum, for instance: It typically hosts exhibitions focused on paintings, sculptures and photography, but it's now partnering with Chloé to tell the story of its founder, Gaby Aghion, who the museum's Project Director and Curator Choghakate Kazarian tells Fashionista is "under-studied."

While most legacy fashion house take the name of their respective founders, Aghion decided to give hers a different, more feminine identity when she started the brand in 1952. "Chloé has round letters on each end of the name, so [Aghion] found them more feminine," says Kazarian. This allowed for more separation between the founder and what she built: "Chloé has this blurry identity. We now have an image of 'Chloé' as a woman, not as a designer or entrepreneur."

Aghion is the third Jewish female entrepreneur to be highlighted by the Jewish Museum. "We had an exhibit on Helena Rubinstein, who founded her eponymous beauty brand, then Edith Halbert, a modern art gallerist," Kristina Parsons, the museum's Leon Levy Assistant Curator, says. "This is, in some sense, a trilogy of spotlighting under-recognized Jewish women and their importance in culture and history."

"Mood of the Moment: Gaby Aghion and the House of Chloé" begins with an introduction to the designer and the origins of Chloé. Before moving to Paris in 1945, Aghion grew up in the warm desert sands of Alexandria, Egypt, which were the inspiration for the brand's now-signature palette of neutrals and slightly pinkish tones, most recently revived on the Chloé runway by Gabriela Hearst.

"She grew up in a very sociable Jewish community in Alexandria," Parsons says. "There are these really beautiful images of her playing at the beach in these really lovely light dresses — I think that outdoorsy, very casual, easy approach to living was something that she carried into her designs."

There are three surviving pieces from Aghion's first collection in the exhibit, which boast not-as-traditionally feminine silhouettes that were noticeably looser than the more constricted dress shape Christian Dior was famous for at the time.

The joyfulness of Aghion's upbringing and those early designs are also visible within Chloé collections from other designers, like Karl Lagerfeld, Phoebe Philo and Stella McCartney. Looks from non-Aghion eras are also featured in the section "Mood of the Moment," including Lagerfeld's famous guitar design for the brand (seen on Olivia Wilde at this year's Met Gala) and his Cintre dress, with its hanging multicolored, sequined and glass-beaded mini dress embroidered onto it.

"These are such extravagant pieces and they're visually quite different from the previous collection's light and colorful silks," says Parsons. "But the playfulness is still the throughline of the brand."

McCartney's now-beloved equestrian-inspired dress and T-shirt designs from Spring 2001 are also on display, showcasing a different take on femininity from the brand that still maintains a commitment to being lively and embracing womanhood. Basically, Chloé has always been a brand for the girls, by the girls (with a few male exceptions).

"Mood of the Moment" is presented against a backdrop of standing curved bags from Chloé's archives made with Tyvek, the same recyclable material in which the brand conserves its garments — a choice that reflects "absence of presence," according to Elliott Barnes, who designed the exhibit.

"We were really trying to give presence to the objects themselves as though you're encountering them through research," says Parsons of how the exhibit is laid out. "This whole gallery is really about women dressing women and the way that women creative directors have rethought the ways in which women might feel empowered to present their versions of femininity."

"Mood of the Moment: Gaby Aghion and the House of Chloé" will be open to the public from Friday, Oct. 13 to Sunday, Feb. 18, with free admission on Saturdays, at the Jewish Museum in New York City.

Want the latest fashion industry news first? Sign up for our daily newsletter.