It is indeed a great season for fashion exhibitions, which seem to appear in the most unexpected places, unveiling aspects related to creativity and inspiration. For its newest M/S Museet for Søfart (Maritime Museum of Denmark) focuses on maritime-inspired fashion, connecting fashion trends and clothing to maritime craftsmanship and history, the true expertise of M/S. The museum’s largest exhibition to date ‘OCEANISTA – The sea & fashion through 100 years’ is a tribute to the sea, shipping and good craftsmanship.

“Denmark’s National Maritime Museum must not only tell stories about ships and cargo, but also about the imprint that shipping puts on our entire culture and identity. Most Danes have a striped blouse in the wardrobe or an old family photo of a boy in sailor clothes” said Ulla Tofte, director of the Museum, highlighting the fascination fashion has had for the sea, bringing maritime traditions and crafts into the big fashion houses, and also into our wardrobe and everyday life, allowing us to discover more of the maritime traditions.

The exhibition presents both world-renowned fashion houses and very young Danish talents in a colorful and magical underwater landscape of coral, sound and light. One of the stars in the exhibition is a hat shaped like a sailing ship by Philip Treacy. The hat is a work of art in itself, but also points back to 1770s France, where Marie Antoinette and other fashionable ladies put ships into wigs and hats as a tribute to the French navy.

“Fashion and sailing have a long and passionate love affair. It’s about dreaming of exotic worlds. About a dedication to the craft” stated fashion researcher and curator of the exhibition , Maria Mackinney-Valentin.

The exhibition is curated by The Maritime Museum of Denmark in collaboration with fashion researcher Maria Mackinney-Valentin. The exhibition scenography was created by award-winning scenographer Julian Juhlin,