Forgotten Fashion Symposium
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L-R: Premet daysuit & Callot Soeurs daysuit, c. 1930 from Ann Bony's book, Mode des Années 30
I apologize for the deplorable lack of recent updating!
For those of you who may not know me, I’m finishing up my last semester of my last year in the Fashion and Textile Studies Master’s program at FIT. Lately, I’ve been quite busy preparing a paper I’m presenting at our annual graduate symposium which is next Saturday, May 6th.
This year’s symposium is entitled Forgotten Fashion and will include lectures on forgotten designers, fashion editors, fashion models and even forgotten fashion materials. Our keynote speaker is Clare Sauro, Assistant Curator from The Museum at FIT, who will speak about the use of cellophane as an avant-garde fashion material in the 1930s. My lecture will be on the forgotten couture house of Premet.
The event is free, along with a complimentary lunch. I invite you to attend if you can. It should be a fascinating day for those interesting in obscure fashion history and fashion in general.
11am-5pm in Seminar Room 9, D Building Fashion Institute of Technology, Seventh Avenue at 27th Street, NYC
I have many topics in mind for new posts including the upcoming Balenciaga exhibitions in Paris and in Texas. I hope to have them up next week, so please stay tuned.
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