This collection contains physical and born-digital photographs, a sketchbook, a publication, and ephemera documenting Otto von Busch's exhibition, Vital Vogue: A Biosocial Perspective on Fashion, held in the Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries of The New School, New York between March 16 and April 8, 2018. The collection was donated to the New School Archives by von Busch. The exhibition was inspired by psychoanalyst, political theorist, biologist Wilhelm Reich’s book, The Function of the Orgasm, and the class Character Formation: Biological and Sociological Aspects taught by Reich at The New School for Social Research in 1940. The project asked the question “How could Reich’s ideas be interpreted by a student of fashion, and put to use in the realm of dress?”

The collection includes four physical folders, containing a copy of Reich’s book annotated by von Busch; the second edition of the exhibition catalog, Vital Vogue: A Biosocial Perspective on Fashion with essays by von Busch; a copy of Reich’s lecture notes from the class; and von Busch’s research sketchbook for the exhibition. The collection also includes born-digital image and textual files from the exhibition, including installation photographs and elements that were exhibited, including wall texts, labels, posters, and files for associated printed matter.

According to von Busch, as articulated in the exhibition catalogue Vital Vogue: A Biosocial Perspective on Fashion that is part of this collection, the goal of the exhibition was "to shift perspectives on fashion and see it as an energy sparkling with life, a form of biosocial flourishing, or more precisely: a vital vogue."