Cooper Hewitt invited visitors of all abilities to actively engage in ways surpassing conventional “universal design” considerations. The exhibition featured direct sensory moments and displayed practical, inventive and exploratory objects to touch, hear, see and smell through several interactive installations.

The exhibition highlights a selection of visually groundbreaking and historically significant garments from the 1960s when American fashion underwent radical aesthetic transformations. As clothing also assumed communicative powers—reflecting the emergence of a counterculture, the women’s liberation movement and the rise of African-American consciousness, designers experimented by thinking of artistic realms. The installation boldly presents a decade of changing fashion immersed in a vibrant array of color, dynamic geometrical forms and graphic patterning.

“Mac Conner—A New York Life” was shown in one of the first floor galleries at the Museum of the City of New York. This was the first exhibition of Mac Conner’s work and paid homage to one of the industry’s greats. It was part of a series of temporary exhibitions to educate the public on the past and future of New York City.