A vivid history of fashion exhibitions that informs contemporary curating practices, from two experts in the field

An encyclopaedic selection of 111 garments, footwear, and accessories - from humble masterpieces to high fashion - that have had a strong impact on society in the 20th and 21st centuries and continue to hold currency today. Published to accompany the first major exhibition on fashion design at The Museum of Modern Art since 1944, Items: Is Fashion Modern? presents 111 iconic garments, footwear and accessories that have strongly influenced society in the 20th and 21st- centuries and continue to hold currency today. Organized alphabetically as a reference book, the publication examines the ways in which these items are designed, manufactured, distributed and used, while exploring the wide range of relationships between clothing and functionality, cultural etiquettes, aesthetics, politics and technology. Designs as wellknown and transformative as the Levi's 501s, the pearl necklace, the sari and Yves Saint Laurent's Le Smoking - and as ancient and historically rich as the Breton sweater, the kippah, and the keffiyeh - are included, allowing for exploration of the numerous issues these items have produced and shaped over many decades. Richly illustrated with historical and archival imagery as well as newly commissioned photography from Omar Victor Diop, Bobby Doherty, Catherine Losing, Monika Mogi and Kristin-Lee Moolman, Items reflects not only on fashion's power and social history, but also on its design construct and staying power, in order to understand what of the system of fashion should remain for generations to come - and what alterations need to be made to ensure a tenable future for this arena that touches us all.

As the practice of fashion curation extends into commercial galleries, public and retail spaces, and even to the individual self, professional concepts of 'curating' are undergoing rapid change. Today, everyone is seemingly able to 'curate', but where does this leave the traditional understanding of curation as clothing collected and displayed in a museum? This thought-provoking volume explores the practice of fashion curating in the 21st century, bridging the gap between methods of display and notions of 'the curatorial' in fashion exhibitions, commercial settings, and the virtual world. From fashion's earliest forays into the museum to creative collaborations between luxury fashion brands and artists, this book challenges understandings of fashion curation by drawing on the palpably new spaces, places, and actors in today's curating scene. Exploring poetic and performative museum displays in venues such as the V&A, Somerset House, MoMu and the Royal Ontario Museum, alongside the ways that brands such as Dior, Chanel and Louis Vuitton have made use of 'the curatorial' in their own commercial strategies, Fashion Curating asks pressing questions about controversial funding and collaboration from the commercial fashion sector, and the limitations of producing exhibitions that are at the same time critical and popular. Bringing together approaches from fashion curators, designers and world-renowned academics, curation is positioned as a critical practice that opens up new ways of conceptualizing and theorizing fashion, challenging how we think and what we already know.

Why is fashion "in fashion" in museums today? This timely volume brings together expert scholars and curators to examine the reasons behind fashion's popularity in the twenty-first century museum and the impact this has had on wider museum practice. Chapters explore the role of fashion in the museum across a range of international case studies including the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, The Fashion Museum at Bath, ModeMuseum in Antwerp and many more. Contributions look at topics such as how fashion has made museums accessible to diverse audiences and how curators present broader themes and issues such as gender, class and technology innovatively through exhibiting fashion. Drawing on approaches from dress history, fashion studies, museum studies and curatorship, this engaging book will be key reading for students and scholars across a range of disciplines.

Fashion as a societal phenomenon has fascinated scholars in different disciplines such as history, sociology, anthropology, psychology, and marketing often from an interdisciplinary perspective. Fashion mirrors societal changes, cultural norms, and values over time. It can be interpreted as mundane everyday practices, constructions of identity and status as well as being associated with the art world. In this book, the focus lies on marketing and the role of marketers when fashion permeates society in deliberate and subtle ways. This edited collection critically reflects upon the power of fashion in contemporary society and the role marketing and marketers play in the process of defining, creating, and preserving fashion, but also in divesting fashion that is no longer up to date. It expands on existing knowledge to better understand the role marketers play as cultural agents in determining fashion and its markets. Contributors to the book are international, advanced scholars from a variety of disciplines such as anthropology, marketing, psychology and sociology, who challenge traditional ways of thinking about marketing. In a society where problems with overproduction and excessive consumption represent major challenges, the critical perspective of the role fashion plays in contemporary society and what influence marketing has for shaping fashion are not merely relevant, but necessary. This cutting-edge, interdisciplinary book will appeal to scholars across a broad range of fields including fashion marketing, fashion studies, and consumer culture research. It will also be valuable for students in advanced courses of study in a variety of disciplines besides marketing.

The fashion show and its spaces are sites of otherness, representing everything from rebellion and excess through to political and social activism. This conceptual and stylistic variety is reflected in the spaces they occupy, whether they are staged in an industrial warehouse, on a city street, or out in the open landscape. Staging Fashion is the first collection of essays about the presentation and staging of fashion in runway shows in the period from the 1960s to the 2010s. It offers a fresh perspective on the many collaborations between artists, architects and interior designers to reinforce their interdisciplinary links. Fashion, architecture and interiors share many elements, including design, history, material culture, aesthetics and trends. The research and ideas underpinning Staging Fashion address how fashion and the spatial fields have collaborated in the creation of the space of the fashion show. The 15 essays are written by fashion, interior, architecture and design scholars focusing on the presentation of fashion within the runway space, from avant-garde practices and collaboration with artists, to the most spectacular and commercial shows of recent years, from Prada to Chanel.

In Pursuit of Fashion presents outstanding works from the greatest private collection of twentieth-century fashion and explores the modern discipline of fashion collecting. This unique group of ensembles and accessories, assembled over several decades by Sandy Schreier, includes many rare and historically significant pieces that define key moments in fashion and features not only iconic works by established designers but also looks by pioneering couturiers rarely represented in museum collections. These remarkable objects, by designers including Gilbert Adrian, Cristobal Balenciaga, Boué Soeurs, Gabrielle Chanel, Christian Dior, Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo, Maria Gallenga, Karl Lagerfeld, Paul Poiret, and Madeleine Vionnet, are illustrated with stunning new photography by fashion photographer Nicholas Alan Cope. Schreier is a pioneer in the field of collecting fashion. Her interest began at a time when collecting and treating these creations as an art form was rare. She amassed a staggering breadth of work that reflects her wide-ranging taste and connoisseurship. An informative introduction discusses the unique evolution of Schreier’s collecting in parallel with a developing field. The book also includes descriptions of more than eighty works, including rare works on paper, as well as a lively interview with Schreier that traces the progress of her collecting from its roots in Detroit to the present day.