Much like in an amusement park funhouse, everything is designed to shock, thrill, confuse and entertain. Front and center are Viktor and Rolf’s masked women in silver party dresses. To the right is a scene slightly resembling a living room. Couches, armrests, and bibs have taken the forms of Hussein Chalayan’s jazzy dresses. In the depths of the labyrinth, blood is strewn across the gloomy mirrored stage of Dior’s French revolution scene as dresses scream Liberte, Egalite et Fraternite. This funhouse of fashion is none other than The Paris Fashion Show exhibit at the MFA.

The pieces chosen for the exhibit at the MFA’s Gund Gallery are visibly extravagant and dramatic, but upon viewing the entire collection on video, a viewer does not need much convincing to believe that fashion truly is an art.

The line between the two is hazy and getting hazier as designers strive to make their collections more and more creative. As designer Yohji Yamamoto puts it, “Designing is quite easy. The difficulty lies in finding a new way to explore beauty.” The collection serves to hold up the very idea that fashion and art are dependent on one another, if not indistinguishable.

Ten important designers showcase their designs: Yohji Yamamoto, Viktor and Rolf, Hussein Chalayan, Maison Martin Margield, Rochas, Azzendue Alaia, John Galliano for Christian Dior, Valentino, Christian Lacroix and Chanel. The exhibit is designed to please, as it places viewers right near the runway, with visual and musical footage setting the atmosphere and tangible pieces of couture right at their fingertips.

Despite the appeal of Chalayan’s, Margield’s and Alaia’s creative applications of new materials ranging from armrests and playing cards to army satchels and Mongolian fur, the traditional colors and motifs of Viktor and Rolf Rochas, and Valentino are still more appealing in presentation and wearability. Dior and Lacroix appealed to the theatrical, with their allusions to the bloody French revolution and the gaudy festivals of Arles, while the most interesting allusion was Karl Lagerfeld’s tribute to Chanel’s mirrored staircase of rue Cambon.

The exhibit will run through March 18, 2007 at the MFA, and is free with a valid college ID.