36 years in the making
/The Pulitzer Prizes were announced on Monday and for the first time in its thirty six year history, the award for Criticism has gone to a fashion writer. Robin Givhan of the Washington Post won for, “her witty, closely observed essays that transform fashion criticism into cultural criticism.” What wonderful news! I’ve always thought that fashion deserves to be examined and criticized like any other cultural product, e.g. art, music, cinema, television, etc... Granted, much fashion writing doesn’t aspire to do that and is honestly quite abysmal. But I feel like the winds are shifting now. Fashion writing and journalism now seems to be more widely read, more accessible, and less like the kid sister of “bigger” cultural criticism. This Pulitzer is truly a watershed moment.
For more info: Pulitzer Prizes Site and Fashion Week Daily
Sonya Mooney
Fashion Projects #5 is devoted to fashion curation, examining the meteoritic rise in relevance of fashion exhibitions.
It features interviews with an eclectic assortment of leading practitioners from different corners of the world. The issue includes long Q&As with Harold Koda, the longtime, recently retired curator of the Met’s Costume Institute, as well as the Museum at FIT’s veteran leader Valerie Steele. It also features interviews with curators in Antwerp (the ModeMuseum’s Kaat Debo), Toronto (Royal Ontario Museum’s Alexandra Palmer) and Venice (Maria Luisa Frisa); academics studying the field (Hazel Clark, Annamari Vänskä, and Alistair O’Neill); and, giving an on-the-ground perspective, the Met’s head conservator, Sarah Scaturro. The issue’s cover stars Greer Lankton’s sculptural representation of legendary Vogue editor and Costume Institute doyenne Diana Vreeland, who continues to loom over the field years after her death.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Showmanship and History: An Interview with Harold Koda by Francesca Granata
Woman of Steele: An Interview with Valerie Steele by Lisa Santandrea
Exploring Fashion’s Openness: An Interview with Kaat Debo by Alex Esculapio
London, After a Fashion Curator: An Interview with Alistair O’Neill by Alexis Romano
Curation and Conservation: An Interview with Sarah Scaturro by Mae Colburn
Reflections on Fashion Curating
An Interview with Hazel Clark and Annamari Vänskä
Fashion in the Vast Museum: An Interview with Alexandra Palmer by Ingrid Mida
Restless Curating: An Interview with Maria Luisa Frisa by Marco Pecorari