Berg Encylopedia of World Dress and Fashion – Joanne B. Eicher & Phyllis G. Tortora P5 INTRODUCTION: DRESS AND FASHION IN THE CONTEXT OF THE MUSEUM Amy de la Haye DOI: 10.2752/BEWDF/EDch10039a p: 285–287 Abstract Until very recently many collections of dress and fashion were generically described as costume. With reference to fashion (the creative expression of designers that can form a trend) and style (the individual look styled by the wearer of fashionable clothes or to signal subcultural allegiances for instance), the Museum of Costume in Bath has been renamed the Fashion Museum. The collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum, formerly described as dress (which can be used as a verb or as a noun referring to the media, to define clothes not overtly influenced by fashion) is now, more accurately, described as fashion. The category of dress as body supplements and body modifications also applies: the American Museum of Natural History, New York City, mounted the exhibit, Body Art: Marks of Identity in 1999. Fashion and dress curators operate within a profession with a fascinating history, generating rigorous research and reflective practices. In this highly competitive field, most applicants are postgraduates in dress history or museology. Curators work closely with conservators, whose work includes guidance on the care, storage, and display of fashion and dress; and ensuring against deterioration and, when appropriate, skilfully restoring damaged pieces. Past and future plans for collecting, caring for, and interpreting fashion and dress have been hotly debated at international conferences. There is, however, consensus that the Cinderella media of the museum have, since the late twentieth century, become the jewel in its crown. The three entries that follow examine the historiography of dress and fashion collections and the diverse contexts they can occupy within the museum. Emphases of these texts are placed on institutions open to the public that house and/or exhibit garments that were originally intended and selected by the wearers for daily or occasion-specific wear (as distinct from the conceptual expressions of fine artists, which are discussed to a much lesser extent). The authors—Akiko Fukai (“Dress and Fashion Museums”), Eleanor Thompson (“Museum Collections of Dress and Fashion”), and Jean L. Druesedow (“Dress and Fashion Exhibits”)—identify pioneer collectors of dress and fashion, chart endeavors to gain inclusion of these media into established public collections, and document the formation of new institutions to house and/or exhibit them as well as the acquisition policies and missions of a cross-section of international collections. The outputs and methodologies of dedicated and foresighted curators (mostly women) who have shaped and advanced the discipline are flagged, while the complex practices and issues arising from the storage, conservation, interpretation, and display these media require are implicit or made explicit. Until recently, dress and fashion in many collections were generically described as costume, a term that could embrace fancy dress, theatrical attire, or occupational dress, as well as a simple cotton dress worn by a working woman in the nineteenth century, a current-day rhinestone-encrusted fashionable menswear jacket, or a hand-painted silk kimono. With reference to fashion (the creative expression of designers that can form a trend) and style (the individual “look” created by the wearer of fashionable clothes, to signal subcultural allegiances, for instance), in Britain the Museum of Costume in Bath has been renamed the Fashion Museum, and the collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) that was formerly described as dress (a term that can be used as a verb or as a noun referring to the media, identifying a specific garment style, or, more broadly, defining clothes that are not overtly influenced by fashion) is, in the early twenty-first century, called fashion, more accurately reflective of its content. The general definition of dress as body supplements and body Berg Encylopedia of World Dress and Fashion – Joanne B. Eicher & Phyllis G. Tortora P5 modifications also applies within museums; for example, the American Museum of Natural History, New York City, mounted the exhibit Body Art: Marks of Identity in 1999. The Curator’s Role Discipline-specific curatorial jobs are few and highly prized; once such posts are obtained, curators often remain in them for many years and pass on their collection expertise to next-generation colleagues. Curators often have diverse academic (such as anthropology, sociology, social history, design, dress, or art history) and museum-based backgrounds: For most, their first experience of working in the context of the museum is as a voluntary worker or more formally placed intern. In this highly competitive field, most applicants hold postgraduate qualifications in dress history or museology. In institutions such as the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and the London College of Fashion in the United Kingdom and a small number of others, discipline-specific preparation is offered. Curators who care for, acquire, and exhibit objects work closely with conservators, whose discipline and training are nonetheless distinct. A conservator’s professional work includes providing guidance on the care, storage, and display of fashion and dress; ensuring items do not deteriorate; and, when appropriate, skillfully restoring damaged or perished pieces. It was once accepted that many garments and accessories would be restored to resemble their original state, but in recent years this has been debated. The V&A’s Streetstyle exhibition in 1994, curated by Amy de la Haye, involved the acquisition of travelers’ mud-encrusted army boots, grease-infused leather jackets, and tattered dresses, qualities expressive of and inherent to their authenticity, which inspired a conference called “Sacred Dirt?” at London’s Museum of Mankind in 1995. Modern storage is usually made from metal, which is inert (traditionally, many museum stores—meaning storage units and areas—were furnished in wood); clothes are supported and protected by acid-free tissue and custom-made calico “sausages” padded with polyester wadding and are either hung (most tailored items) or stored flat (such as bias-cut dresses or heavily beaded garments). Fashion and dress curators operate within a profession with a fascinating and tumultuous trajectory that has itself generated rigorous research and reflective practices. Notable publications include curator and dress scholar Lou Taylor’s erudite book Establishing Dress History and special issues of Fashion Theory (edited by fashion historian and curator Valerie Steele; the journal also engages with dress and curatorial practices)—“Methodologies” in 1998 and “Exhibitions and Fashion Curation” in 2008—along with regular exhibition and gallery reviews. In 2004, exhibition maker Judith Clark curated Malign Muses: When Fashion Turns Back, which was shown at the ModeMuseum in Antwerp and the V&A in 2005; as part of its theses, the exhibition included displays that invited the visitor to engage with strategies for presenting fashion in the context of the museum. Past and future plans for collecting, caring for, and interpreting fashion and dress have also been hotly debated within the arena of international conferences (such as “Fashion on Dress Display” at the V&A in February 2005 and the “Museum Quality” symposium hosted by the Fashion Institute of Technology—FIT—in November 2005). There is, however, consensus that the Cinderella media of the museum have, since the late twentieth century, become the jewel in its crown. In the 1980s, a scenario could not have been envisioned wherein directors of museums dedicated to war, natural history, science, and art would actively embrace fashion within their own disciplines in order to compete for the huge audiences, with diverse demographics, these media can attract. In 1996 the Florence Biennale exhibition, entitled Il Tempo e la Moda, was a seminal point at which fashion and dress were situated in art practice with a series of city-wide installations, which generated international publicity and broader debate about fashion as a medium within museums Berg Encylopedia of World Dress and Fashion – Joanne B. Eicher & Phyllis G. Tortora P5 and galleries. When London’s Imperial War Museum presented its first fashion exhibition in 1997, situated in the context of World War II, it was so popular that its run was extended. In 1998 the Guggenheim in New York staged a “blockbuster” monograph show on Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani’s immaculate archived and pristine contemporary sample clothes; the exhibition then traveled to London’s Royal Academy of Arts, where the installation of these eminently fashionable clothes was—controversially and critically—likened to a retail environment. Dress and Narratives Such scenarios might suggest that garments and accessories (irrespective of whether they constitute dress or fashion) are distinct from other media. Do they pose distinct challenges for curators and, in turn, the participating visitor; if so, how and why? Curators of collections engage with the “second life” of apparel: Once these items have entered the context of the museum, they can take on new roles and meanings. Fashion and dress are socially salient media that are simultaneously intimate and public and, once worn or displayed, can be infused with the wearer’s life story and the memories of those close to them. An exploration—albeit brief—of the intensely personal physical properties and emotive biographies these media can embody (unlike the new designer sample fashions) might provide some answers. Detail of a shattered silk corset from Maud Messel’s going-away dress exhibited in the Messel exhibition, cocurated by Amy de la Haye. The corset forms part of the Messel Family Dress Collection housed at the Brighton Museum, United Kingdom and has been preserved as a holder of deep personal family meaning. Curators of collections are able to create historical narratives from garments such as these, which can be brought to life with the wearer’s story. Photograph by Amy de la Haye. Whether a garment or accessory is made from natural or manufactured materials, the fabric from which it is made is usually malleable and absorbent. It can be crafted to echo perfectly the contours of the unique feminine or masculine body, while items purchased ready-made, such as knitwear and shoes, can, over time, become distorted to assume the wearer’s form. Individuals can also mark and leave traces on the clothes they wear, and they can become imbued with personal scent. While mostly made from inherently fragile fibers and yarns, clothes cannot be broken and rendered instantly useless: It is customary for them to fade and disintegrate with the passage of time, processes that could be likened to human vulnerability. Few other forms of material culture can provide such tangible evidence of lives lived. Fashion and dress are some of the few media that humans can discernibly imprint, mark, or alter. Garments can also become inextricably entwined with lives experienced or can evoke lives lost: It is not unusual to cherish as an aide memoir a garment worn for a rite of passage or special occasion. Likewise, when a loved one dies, often an item of clothing, jewelry, or another accessory is treasured above all other belongings as the most poignant reminder. When these garments or items of dress are presented to a museum—which can be an emotive experience for donor and curator—not only is their survival ensured, but the givers are salved by the reassurance that the items will never be worn or altered by another. Museological interpretation and displays of dress and fashion are much-contested practices. Unlike a pot, painting, or skeleton, many items of dress, especially clothing, cannot “stand” or hang independently to be successfully evaluated. For their form to be “read,” they demand a body, ideally one that is animate. In the absence of that body, displayed in a gallery with necessarily reduced lighting levels, garments can be perceived as empty or even spooky—drained of life. The display Berg Encylopedia of World Dress and Fashion – Joanne B. Eicher & Phyllis G. Tortora P5 bodies most readily available to the curator are retail mannequins, which are designed to embody prevailing ideals of beauty. These are usually suitable only for exhibiting contemporary sample-size fashions, but their use can fuel criticism that museum and retail “messages” of interpretation versus consumption are becoming too blurred. Museum garments, especially historical items or pieces made to fit an individual body, require display forms that echo the garment; there are companies that specialize in these, often taking their lead from curators and conservators (as Akiko Fukai explains). When museums were originally founded, they often enticed visitors by presenting objects (usually precious and rare) of awe and wonder; as such, they provided an elevating experience that was removed from everyday existence. In the twenty-first century, an era of accessible travel and electronic communications, where all of life is seemingly at the fingertips of many, this cannot always suffice to attract audiences. Perhaps more than ever before, the museum’s competitive edge lies in its curators’ ability to use objects to tell real-life stories that can move viewers emotionally and/or challenge or enhance existing experiences and perceptions. Inspiring books written by museologists Susan M. Pearce (Interpreting Objects and Collections) and Gaynor Kavanagh (Dream Spaces: Memory and the Museum) and by museum director Julian Spalding (The Poetic Museum: Reviving Historic Collections) are united in the conviction that the future of the museum lies in curators’ abilities to touch people’s lives with their interpretation of the material culture the museums house and collect. Fashion and dress are ideal media to do precisely this.
