This Lookbook is the visual and conceptual culmination of the highly successful 2023 exhibition, Fashion & The City. Using the toolkit of fashion photography, the presented material reflects on urban existence, the layering of style, and the continuous evolution of identity. These works serve as imprints of social and cultural metamorphosis: they are subjective records of documentary value that highlight how clothing has become an integral part of urban self-image, defining the perception we hold of ourselves and our environment.
Clothing has always been more than mere practicality or individual self-expression: fashion is the visual mapping of an era’s spirit, values, and social relations. The forms of dress appearing in urban spaces—whether everyday or extreme—have always carried complex social meanings. For instance, punks of the 1980s, with their ripped trousers, leather jackets, and studded accessories, were not just followers of a musical trend; they visually defied official norms. In the same era, the miniskirt and teased hair were not simply stylistic markers, but visual symbols representing generational gaps and the transformation of female roles.
This exhibition places special emphasis on how fashion intertwined with the dynamics of metropolitan life and how visual culture shaped the evolution of collective self-image. The “lookbook” in its classical sense—a type of inspirational style catalog—takes on a new meaning here. The exhibition guides the visitor through a visual diary of changes in urban style, the relationship between body and space, and the pictorial forms of manifesting identity. In this reading, fashion photographs are not merely products of the fashion industry but complex cultural documents: they reflect on eras, social roles, and norms, often posing questions directly to the viewer.
The exhibition strives to present fashion photography as an independent visual genre—a medium that transcends advertising or trend-following functions. Here, photography as a form of image-making serves as a carrier not only for the body but for the culture, tensions, and values of a given period. In other words, fashion is examined from the perspective of photography, expanding strict genre boundaries to explore this exciting and colorful act of creation and preservation. The goal of Lookbook is to offer new perspectives on fashion as a visual language, a social phenomenon, and a form of artistic expression.
This exhibition is not merely an aesthetic experience but a thought-provoking journey—it leads us through the visual map drawn together by the city, the body, and style, from the dawn of modernity to contemporary culture.
Exhibitors:
AJKAI Dávid, ALMÁSI Csaba, BÁNKI Sarolta, BŐDEY János, BUDAVÁRI Csaba, CHRIPKÓ Lili, CSENKI Bianka, CSOBOTH Edina, DOMOKOS Attila, EGRI Veronika, FÁBIÁN Soma, FEDOR Ilka, GÁMÁN Zsuzsa, GÁSPÁRDY György, GORDON Eszter, HARTYÁNYI Norbert, HORLING Róbert, HORTOVÁNYI István, JANIK Zoltán, KELEMEN Sándor, KELETI Éva, KISS Andrea, Pol KURUCZ, LADJÁNSZKI Máté, MARTIN Wanda, MÉSZÁROS László, NÉMETH Virág, NYILASSY Lili, RÉDLING Hanna, SCHÄFFER Zsuzsa, SCHRAM András, SZÁRAZ Katalin, SZÉMAN Csaba, SZIKSZAI- MISKOLCZI Noémi, SZIPÁL Márton, SZIRBEK Anita, SZOMBAT Éva, TOMBOR Zoltán, TŐKÉS Kamilla, TÖRŐ Balázs, URBÁN Ádám, VARGA Kinga, VARGA Tamás, VERESS Ráhel, ZÁDOR Nina