There's Now A Museum Exhibition Dedicated To The Coquette Bow

Last year was dominated by ribbons. (Take the oversize bow bags at Sandy Liang’s SS24 presentation, Sia performing with a giant bow on her head at Christian Siriano’s 15th-anniversary show, and Simone Rocha’s off-the-shoulder bow dresses, for instance). Now, we’ve officially reached peak ribbon with Untying the Bow, an exhibition set to debut at The Museum at FIT in New York on March 1.

According to a press release, in Untying the Bow, graduate students in FIT’s MA Fashion and Textile Studies program will track the namesake subject’s origins as a utilitarian object to its symbolism as a marker and subverter of status and gender. (That’s right — despite what TikTok would have you believing with their beribboned headphones and “coquette-ified” toilet-paper rolls, bows are by no means a new trend.)

But unlike the trend of tying pink ribbon around your Cheerios and Allen wrenches, the exhibition has less staying power — it’ll only run until March 24, so if you’ve ever wanted to know how the bow transcended shoelaces to become the symbol of girlhood, plan your visit now.