Museums shed their usual image to host fashion events

10 Aug '13

2 min read

Dropping their usual image as a place for permanent conservation and display of artefact and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical significance, more and more museums are now making space for other events like fashion shows and fashion exhibits.

The trend is becoming highly prevalent, particularly in Western countries, may be because museums look forward to raise their popularity bar or boost their earnings, as not only such events draw more visitors to the museums but also the show organizers pay the museums for the space.

In one of the most recent example, the London-based Victoria & Albert (V&A) Museum recently hosted a free showcase of one of the UK’s most successful fashion brand ‘Jenny Packham’, featuring 45 most iconic pieces designed by Ms. Packham through her career.

Prior to this, the museum also hosted shows of designers like Ozwald Boateng, Giles Deacon, Erdem, Jean Paul Gaultier, Roksanda Ilincic, Christian Lacroix, Alexander McQueen, Missoni, Gareth Pugh, Vivienne Westwood and Yoji Yamamoto.

The Museum of the City of New York, too, recently hosted a lineup of programs to showcase work of Afro-American designer Stephen Burrows, while the Metropolitan Museum of Art also hosted a punk show.

The Auckland-based New Zealand Fashion Museum would also host from September 14, 2013, an expo of 1970s garments reflecting the fashion trends of the free thinking 70s era.

Project DNA, the three-dimensional accessories collection by London-based designer, Catherine Wales, is now showing at the UK-based Design Museum’s new exhibition, The Future is Here, which is scheduled to run till October 29.

Earlier, the museum featured collections of some of the fashion pioneers like Paul Smith, Zaha Hadid, Jonathan Ive, and Dieter Rams.

Meanwhile, the Charleston Museum in South Carolina is staging shows about accessories, while New York’s Brooklyn Museum is gearing up to present a retrospective on French couturier by Jean Paul Gaultier this fall.

Expanding their path, even the museums that have nothing to do with couture are also turning to fashion displays. For example, The World Chess Hall of Fame in St. Louis would feature a collection later this year titled “A Queen Within: Adorned Archetypes, Fashion and Chess” offering a look into fashion designs that recreate the same element of surprise like a Queen on a chess board.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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