DIGITAL FASHION: THE BEST ONLINE TEXTILE COLLECTIONS

Sew What | Natalie Heaton

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Source Kyoto Costume Institution 

The cancellation and closures due to the COVID-19 virus have left people inside their homes and the doors to cultural institutions are closed. While the closure of these institutions is devastating, many museums as using this as an opportunity to highlight their digital collection and online resources such as tours and education resources. In this article, I will highlight the top 5 best online fashion and textile collections!

5. FIDM Museum and Galleries, Los Angeles, USA

19th Annual Art of Motion Picture Costume Design, 2011
Source FIDM

Founded in 1978, Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising Museum (FIDM) has a collection of over 12,000 costumes. This institution is known for its collection which specializes in early Hollywood costumes, with items such as Norma Sherer’s gown for the 1936 film Romeo & Juliet. Every year the FIDM holds an exhibition in the spring called Art of Motion Picture Costume Design. This exhibition features costume from top Hollywood Films, including The Great Gatsby (2013) and The Young Victoria (2009). FIDM’s online collection is sorted into different collections and images from past exhibitions. All photos are high resolution and feature pieces from the collection that date back to the 18th century, through to contemporary fashion.




4. The Kyoto Costume Institution (KCI), Kyoto, Japan

The KCI aims to collect, preserve and understand Western and Asian fashion and textiles. Their online collection highlights stunning gowns and garments from the museum along with access to all the institution’s publications, past exhibition catalogues, and more! Anyone that holds an interest in fashion and textiles, especially in the museum sector, this is a webpage that one could easily spend hours on! The museum also has a very active Instagram account that is filled with photos of the collection, the building, and different events that are taking place at the KCI.

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3. The Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England

The Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) is one of the leading institutions in the world. The museum is known for having a massive collection of over 2.2 million objects with over half of them being digitalized and available in their online collection. A good number of these artefacts are textiles and garments. They have gowns that would have been worn near Marie Antoinette, to original Balenciaga, to Alexander McQueen, there is something that is bound to spark everyone’s interest!

Fashion "Search Collection" Home Page.
Source: Victoria and Albert Museum Website.

If stunning images wasn’t enough to intrigue you to check out of there website, there are also great articles, behind the screen videos and catalogues from past exhibitions.


2. Palais Galliera, Paris, France

Photo From Palais Galliera's Online Collection
Source: Palais Galliera

This institution has no permanent exhibitions due to conservational issues, so they only put on temporary exhibitions. Palais Galliera’s focus is on historical fashion and the fashion industry. Since the museum isn’t often open unless there is a temporary exhibition on, there is a lot of effort that goes into their website, and the viewers can tell. The website is organized into various categories to make for a smoother search, and help the viewer find exactly what they are looking for. Like many of the other institutions on this list, Palais Galliera offers past exhibition’s catalogues and publications, as well as workshops. What makes this online content stand out is that is it focused on French fashion history. With this narrow scope, the institution is able to dive into the content in a way that encyclopedic museums, such as the V&A or MET are unable to do.

Photo from Palais Galliera's Online Collection
Source: Palais Galliera

1. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, USA

The first thing that pops into a lot of people’s heads when talking about fashion and museums is the annual MET Gala. This fundraising event for The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s (MET) costume institute.

With the MET being so well known for their costume institute, it is no surprise that their website and the online collection is fabulous! I have spent many hours on it, and I know that as I continue in this field, I will spend many more. This website not only has thousands upon thousands of high-quality photographs of textiles, but they also have an Art History timeline, numerous publications, blog posts, videos, and much more. If you only end up visiting one website, the MET would be my top choice!

Costume Institute's Past Exhibitions
Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art webpage

Overall, even with museums around the world having to close their doors, their online resources are always open. From reading about past exhibitions, searching through thousands of stunning images, or reading more into the institution itself, there is always something new to learn in the museum, despite your location.

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.