Grażyna Hase: Always in Vogue

Grażyna Hase: model, fashion designer, art gallery owner, a Varsovian who contributed to the artistic and social life of the capital. The exhibition at the Museum of Warsaw is the first such broad presentation of the artistic output of this outstanding creator of Polish fashion.

The exhibition presents over 200 objects. Primarily these are clothes, accessories and designs from the collection of the Museum of Warsaw, as well as photographs, films and press publications. Parts of the exhibition lead through the career of Grażyna Hase. In the late 1950s, she entered the world of fashion as a model. Then she gained recognition as a designer. She created her own brand and finally became a mentor for generations of designers. The chronological view is also an attempt to see the work and person of Grażyna Hase from several perspectives. Her diverse oeuvre is difficult to characterise briefly, and the multifaceted figure of the designer defies simple classification. Acting in the very centre of the fashion industry, she has transformed and developed it, maintaining her independence and originality. In Grażyna Hase's work, we can trace the changes that took place in fashion, culture and customs in the second half of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century. Agnieszka Dąbrowska, curator of the exhibition, explains: The clothes she designed from 1967 onwards were treated as a materialisation of the communist era's 'little stabilisation' and the 'successes' of Edward Gierek's era celebrated by propaganda. In the 1980s, during the economic crisis, they were seen as a "breath of luxury". Grażyna Hase's collections from the 1990s document the inventiveness of the designer, who created her own brand in the face of the fledgling Polish capitalism.

The heroine of the second plan of the exhibition is Warsaw. It is like a lining for Grażyna Hase's work. It was the background for photo sessions, collections were presented in the capital's theatres. The capital's theatres showcased her collections. It was also the location of the company's shops, where one could buy clothes of her design. Finally, the Grażyna Hase Gallery was established here - first on Marszałkowska Street, and its branches on the Old Town Market Square and Senatorska Street. To this day, the Marszałkowska Street premises are an archive collecting documentation of the designer's work. In February 2022, the Grażyna Hase Gallery was awarded the title of Warsaw Historic Art Studio by the City of Warsaw.

In 2015 and 2017, the Museum of Warsaw received an extensive collection of Grażyna Hase's garments and design drawings - 354 objects in total. They constitute the largest and most complete element of the Museum's fashion collection. The originality of Hase's style can be seen in this collection. It is also an excellent material for research on the specific character of the Polish fashion market during the communist period and the political transformation, the activities of Warsaw institutions connected with this industry, as well as on the formation of the status of fashion designer in Poland. The book entitled Grażyna Hase. Always in fashion is the first fashion exhibition in the Museum of Warsaw, which has in its collection nearly 2500 garments and accessories related to the capital. The oldest ones date back to the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, while the youngest - to 2021. On a daily basis, a selection of them can be seen in the Cabinet of Clothes at the main exhibition "Things of Warsaw".