After more than a year spent trading heels for slippers, and real pants for sweatpants, fashion is back. To celebrate, an immersive new art installation is helping Washingtonians get reacquainted with style by dropping them directly into a giant, funky closet.

Inside the Wardrobe, which was created by Design Foundry, a Prince George’s County design agency, opens Thursday inside a 20,000-square-foot space in Georgetown.

“We’ve coined the term ‘fashion funhouse’ to describe it,” says Cory Frank, Design Foundry’s chief marketing officer and director of sales. “It’s part selfie experience, part educational, and part art installation. We combined all those things into one experience.” Georgetown seemed like a natural location, he says, because it’s “the center of fashion in D.C.” (Sure, while there are plenty of boutiques and clothing stores in Georgetown, like Shop Made in D.C., there’s local fashion to be found all over town, including at Nubian Hueman in Anacostia, Lettie Gooch in Shaw, and Willow in Petworth.)

Inside the Wardrobe features more than 20 interactive experiences that play up the fun and tactile nature of what’s in a (very well-stocked) closet. Guests enter the exhibit via Queen’s Road, which is inspired by London’s fashion row. “There are display windows you can hop into and become a model, and some really fun photo moments,” Frank says. From there, you’ll walk inside a wardrobe, push aside the pretty dresses, and emerge into a black-and-white world that feels like stepping into a tuxedo. While you’re there, take a moment to relax on a checkered chair and toss your arm around your companion, a nude mannequin. Perhaps discuss the questions on the wall: fur or frills? Dots or stripes?

There’s plenty of both throughout the space, plus opportunity to share your preferences. In one room, guests are asked to describe their favorite outfit – the one that “makes them feel amazing, that they’ve kept for years, and that they put on for special occasions to go out or celebrate,” Frank says. Responses will be displayed on the wall.

Among the exhibit’s other highlights: A tearoom featuring Georgetown cupcakes made out of felt instead of sugar; a Parisian plaid room with a carousel; a Coachella desert-inspired space; and a pedal-bike-powered dry cleaner. As you move through the exhibit, you’ll reach a zipper and button room (remember zippers?) and can unzip to peek inside a diorama made by one of Design Foundry’s artists. There’s also a magenta fur room, with a thick pink wall you can run your hands through. “And then there’s a video of fur movement on one of the walls, and another wall in that room has a Parisian window you can look through,” Frank says.

Lots of exquisite, handmade dresses will be on display, as will paper doll cutouts you can “wear” as your friends snap a hundred photos.

Before exiting the space – which takes about 60 to 80 minutes to explore – you’ll sashay down a runway as flashbulb cameras capture shot after shot.

Morgan Frailey, a Baltimore-based designer who worked on the exhibit, says her favorite part is a geodesic dome covered in yarn. “It was really fun for me to work on, to just build up this really lush texture,” she says. “A lot of the space is hyper-colorful, and this is more of a muted cream tone. It was fun to explore through textures and weights rather than colors and patterns, and to be in the space and have it bounce off other elements.”

Frailey says she appreciated the collaboration that went into designing the event: “It was created by a whole team of people, with different talents, and the excitement that different people brought to the project,” she says. “Everything feels so fun and exuberant, and it really has this whole vibe to it. Like we’ve all been inside for the past year and a half, and it’s a big explosion of color and texture and fun. It definitely has this feeling of pent-up energy being let out into this space.”

The Design Foundry team recommends taking lots of pictures, videos, and boomerangs throughout the made-for-Instagram space. Social-distancing will be in effect, and small groups of about 15 to 20 will be admitted in timed intervals to space out patrons. Those who aren’t vaccinated against COVID-19 must wear a mask.

Part of the event’s mission is to help guests fall back in love with their own closets. Which begs the question: what to wear to such a fashion-forward event? Whatever will make you feel like Beyonce or Harry Styles on the runway, organizers say. “We want to have a good message about body positivity and self-expression through fashion,” Frank says.

3270 M St., NW, Suite C100. Thursdays and Fridays 5 p.m.-9 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Through Aug. 29. Adults $28; students, seniors, military, and first responders $24; children 4+ $19.