Inside the Wardrobe: Fashion And Clothing Exhibit Opens In D.C.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—After a year of quarantining and wearing sweatpants around the house, it’s time to step outside and put on some real clothes.

If you’re looking for some fashion inspiration, Georgetown Park’s newest art installation, Inside the Wardrobe, is calling your name. The 20,000 square-foot space has over 20 interactive experiences filled with style, patterns, textiles and more.

Some of Inside the Wardrobe’s most popular art pieces are the flower benches, walk-in closets and a fashion runway.

Through the creation of Inside the Wardrobe, Annie Senatore, CEO and creative director of Design Foundry, wanted to make a fashion funhouse. The creation team described the exhibit as part pop-up museum, part Instagram playground and part fantasy.

In addition to the exhibit’s engaging displays, Inside the Wardrobe also addresses the impacts fast fashion has on the environment and how visitors can make a difference in the fashion industry.

Senatore said telling the complete story of fashion, the positives and negatives, was important to her when leading this project.

“I wanted to sort of tell the story of fashion because it's not just about the finished object, there's so much more than that,” Senatore said.

As the CEO of Design Foundry, a D.C.based events company, Senatore described herself as the birth mother of Inside the Wardrobe. Her love for fashion and experience in the fashion industry across the world translated through the production of the exhibit.

“I would lean into the knowledge I have of all of my early years of working in the fashion world," she said. "And I sort of like teased apart the elements of fashion.”

With the many elements of fashion displayed in the pop-up museum, Senatore’s goal for Inside the Wardrobe was to artistically represent the power of self-expression through clothing.

Cory Frank, chief marketing officer and director of sales at Design Foundry, said his team wanted to share something everyone could resonate with in terms of exploring different concepts of fashion.

“We wanted the ability to sort of artistically explore a lot of concepts to bring in some other people.” Frank said, “So, Inside the Wardrobe let us kind of say—you're going into your closet, you're revisiting your wardrobe, and so there's a million different ways that we can explore that. So then we kind of let those ideas explode and take form.”

Although the pop-up exhibit closes on Aug. 29, the Design Foundry team has discussed future plans for their company and Inside the Wardrobe.

“Certainly, you know we're talking about potentially extending it, maybe reopening it like later on in the year, maybe it's a Christmas holiday thing,” Senatore said. “But I definitely think it's inspired us to like open eyes to other elements and other projects that we could potentially do along this type.”

Tickets are now on sale at insidethewardrobe.com with prices listed at $28 for adults, $24 for students, seniors, military, and first responders and $19 for children ages four and up.

Inside the Wardrobe is open on Thursdays and Fridays from 5-9 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Guests can explore the exhibit at their own pace with self-guided tours.

The pop-up museum is located at 3270 M St. NW, Suite C100 in Washington, D.C.