A new exhibition is honoring one of America’s most celebrated fashion designers. Isabel Toledo: A Love Letter, which first opened in 2022 at SCAD FASH Lacoste in Provence, France, is making a return for its first United States showing. On view now through December 24 at the SCAD Museum of Art in Savannah, GA, the presentation provides a one-of-a-kind look into the late designer’s lasting impact on the industry.
Toledo, who died in 2019, was known for her ability to transform the simplest of fabrics into wearable origami. After interning for the legendary Diana Vreeland at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she launched her own line in 1984, selling her clothing globally and achieving commercial success. In 2006 she became the creative director at Anne Klein, furthering her influence across the way women dressed. It was in 2009, however, when Toledo designed an incandescent coat and dress for First Lady Michelle Obama at the Presidential Inauguration, that her legacy was cemented. That same year, she and her husband, artist Ruben Toledo, were honored by SCAD with the André Leon Talley Lifetime Achievement Award.
The relationship between the Toledos and SCAD is a long and fruitful one. As Paula Wallace, the university’s president and founder, shares: “I was introduced to Isabel and Ruben many years ago by a mutual friend, the iconic André Leon Talley, who called them ‘two of the finest people I have ever met in my life.’ André never minced words. Their love and luminosity I was privileged to witness personally. The couple donated fabric from their atelier for senior collections, lead master classes, and contributed treasured garments to the SCAD Permanent Collection. They even chaired a scholarship fundraiser, SCAD Seen, at SCAD Atlanta in 2012.” It makes sense, then, that Ruben partnered closely with SCAD curators to bring this moment to life. He provided narration for the SCAD film Isabel Toledo: Echoes and Vibrations, which guests will experience as they visit the exhibit, and shared a collection of vinyl illustrations that decorate the walls, providing intimate insight into their creative process.
“Together, [Isabel and Ruben] alchemized an indivisible fusion of heart, hand, and mind,” shares Wallace, “profoundly influencing contemporary fashion. Their spiritual symbiosis—his dreamlike illustrations, her visionary architectural genius for coaxing the impossible from textiles—elevated jointly conceived concepts into divine realities. Often, in their Manhattan loft and studio space, she would freely express the fantastical shapes in her mind as Ruben enlivened their illustrated doppelgängers—each other’s muse in a real-life fairytale of collective ideation.”
Beyond the couple’s enduring bond, the show includes an inspiring range of Toledo’s designs, including garments worn by the designer herself. It’s a heartfelt reflection on her contributions to womenswear, to culture, and to creativity — and to a romance that emboldened all three. Wallace shared, “SCAD Museum of Art is proud to present a heartfelt homage to a cherished designer's indelible contributions to womenswear — and to her enduring bond with Ruben, a time-defying love as profoundly beautiful today as when they met as teenagers so long ago. 'Time is recorded by fashion,' Ruben once said. The Toledos have written for the world an ageless romance—a billet doux without end.”
Isabel Toledo: A Love Letter, is open now through December 24 at SCAD Museum of Art in Savannah, Georgia.
