LOOKING FROM BEHIND THE GLASS: CHALLENGES WITH DISPLAYING FASHION

Sew What | Natalie Heaton

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The trend to display fashion and textiles is becoming increasingly popular in museums. Curators often run into issues when it comes to displaying garments, like many objects within institutions.  For decades, fashion exhibits were struggling to be accepted because they were not seen as "real art" because it was controlled by the female sector. This article will dive into these challenges and try to understand how these challenges came to be.

Christian Dior Exhibition, Glenbow Museum, June 2019
Photo Courtesy of Natalie Heaton

The National Scottish Museum, May 2019
Photo Courtesy of Natalie Heaton

One of the largest obstacles that institutions face that the guests are unable to touch the garments. When it comes to clothing, the main sense that guests use is touch as it is what is familiar to them. Most museums do not allow the guest to touch the artefacts and more often than not, the garments are kept in glass cases while on display to protect and ensure its longevity. An example of a museum that does this is The National Scottish Museum in Edinburgh. This institution keeps all its garments in glass cases while on the floor. Since guests are not able to handle the clothing, the curator of the exhibition must find a creative way to solve this problem.

An additional obstacle that fashion and textile exhibitions often encounter, despite curator’s best efforts, is the affiliation with shopping or consumerism. Often, guests will associate what is in an exhibition to what is familiar in their lives. In this case, the guest will be related to one’s personal experiences of shopping or the clothing that they are wearing. This may be a strength because the institution does not have to contextualize the item, but with that being said, the museum may struggle to make the guest understand the object in a different way; to understand it as a form art.

Christian Dior Exhibition, Glenbow Museum, June 2019

Photo Courtesy of Natalie Heaton

This struggle with guests understanding fashion and textile as a form of art is nothing new. In fact, this has been a struggle for as long as museums have been around. “The European 19th century’s male-centric curatorial view understood fashion as a form of feminine folly.” This legacy has continued to be associated with fashion and textile exhibitions within the museum setting. Critics of these exhibitions continually undermine these exhibitions as they view them as a highly feminine, and just a way to keep the institution trendy, but never as art.

However, there has been a shift in recent years within fashion exhibitions to look at the construction of the clothing instead of just the garment. Through this shift, fashion is being considered as an art form based on the construction that goes into the different aspects of a garment. An example of this would be Iris Van Herpen: Transforming Fashion at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in 2018. The exhibition focused on the creation of Van Herpen’s extravagant dresses, with videos, images and didactic stations. The emphasis on craftsmanship and the creation of Van Herpen’s garments is an example of how fashion is considered a form of art.

Iris Van Herpen: Transforming Fashion, ROM, October 2018.
Photo Courtesy of Natalie Heaton

Overall, fashion and textile exhibitions continue to evolve with the times. While, there continues to be a struggle for these exhibitions to be taken seriously and viewed as a form of art, they remain some of my favourite exhibits to visit.