Fashioning an Ethical Industry Conference
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This post is long in the making. In March, I attended the Fashioning an Ethical Industry Conference at the Zandra Rhodes Museum, in London. Organized by Labour Behind the Label the conference focused on different ways to achieve an ethical fashion industry and featured a range of speakers, from Ineke Zeldenrust (one of the founders of the Clean Clothes Campaign) to Trish Clarke (who works on corporate social responsibility at Topman) to Kate Fletcher (a freelance sustainable consultant and promoter of slow fashion). Interviews with a number of the speakers can now be found on the conference site.
Concomitantly with the conference was an installation by the Amsterdam-based artist Siobhan Wall titled the Clothes She Wears. It consisted of eight outfits, which constituted the clothes worn by eight different woman working in the garment district in different countries. Each outfit was accompanied by a tag describing the women's relation to the outfits, as well as with the garment industry. Partially founded by the Clean Clothes Campaign, the installation was subtle and moving. (You can find a small catalogue of the exhibit on the Clean Clothes Campaign website.)
Francesca
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