DOCSLIB.ORG

As Fashion Is Credible in Both Human History and Art Museums While

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
As Fashion Is Credible in Both Human History and Art Museums While Squeezing In and Zipping Up: Canada’s Involvement in the late 20th and 21st Century Trend of Fashion Exhibition Laurie Filgiano A Thesis in The Department of Art History Presented in Partially Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts (Art History) at Concordia University Montrea, Quebec, Canada August 2011 © Laurie Filgiano 1 CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY School of Graduate Studies This is to certify that the thesis prepared By: Laurie Filgiano Entitled: Squeezing In and Zipping Up: Canada‘s Involvement in the Late 20th and 21st Century Trend of Fashion Exhibitions and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (ART HISTORY) complies with the regulations of the University and meets the accepted standards with respect to originality and quality. Signed by the final Examining Committee: ________________________________________________________Chair Loren Lerner ________________________________________________________Examiner Loren Lerner ________________________________________________________Supervisor Elaine Paterson Approved by ___________________________________ Johanne Sloan Graduate Program Director ___________2011 _____________________________ Catherine Wild Dean of Faculty 1 ABSTRACT Squeezing In and Zipping Up: Canada‘s Involvement in the late 20th and 21st Century Trend of Fashion Exhibition Laurie Filgiano This thesis discusses the development of 20th century fashion within the space of Canadian museums. I argue that while Canada has the means to conceive groundbreaking exhibitions of 20th century dress, the absence of costume collections in Canadian fine art museums and the lack of collaboration between human history and fine art representatives have inhibited Canada‘s contribution to the evolving multi-disciplinary trend of fashion exhibitions. By analyzing the evolution of dress history and exhibitions on an international scale, I study the differentiation offered by Valerie Stele between the antiquarian costume exhibit and the modern 20th century fashion exhibition largely influenced by the likes of Diana Vreeland and Cecile Beaton. After an analysis on the history of dress collection and exhibition in Canadian museums, I completed two case studies on Golden Age of Couture: Paris London 1947-1957 hosted at the Musée National des Beaux Arts du Québec and Elite Elegance: Couture Fashion in the 1950s conceived at the Royal Ontario Museum. A comparison is then made between these two exhibitions, coming from fine art and human history institutions respectively, between the realities of hosting and conceiving a dress exhibition, the reception of sponsorship, and the use of supplementary material. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This thesis has evolved in the most unexpected of ways and has led me to places in life I would never have expected to end up. I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Elaine Patterson for her patience and advice. I would also like to extend special thanks to my reader and informal mentor of six years, Dr. Loren Lerner, whose constant support and guidance has given me tremendous confidence and insight. Thanks to Dr. Alexandra Palmer, Cynthia Cooper, Paul Bourassa and Diane Charbonneau for taking the time to speak with me and answering my many follow-up questions. I cannot thank my family and friends enough for their undying patience and support throughout this journey. Tom, Monique, Lisa, Ken and Marcia Filgiano, and, of course, Christopher Richard, thank you all so much. It has been quite the journey. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures…………………………………………………………………………….iv Introduction………………………………………………………………………………..1 Short History on the Collection of Dress………………………………………………….3 Canadian Dress Collections and Exhibitions…………………………………………….12 Elite Elegance: Couture Fashion in the 1950s………………………………………......18 Golden Age of Couture: London Paris 1947-1957………………………………………26 On Sponsorship………………………………………………………………………......36 On Hosting versus Conceiving Dress Exhibitions…..……………………………….......40 On Supplementary Material………………………………………………………….......50 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………….54 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………..57 Figures…………………………………………………………………………………...60 v LIST OF FIGURES Fig. 1 – Photograph, The New Look, Elite Elegance: Couture Fashion in the 1950s, 2002- 2003, Royal Ontario Museum Archives.………………………………………......…pg 60 Fig. 2 – Photograph, The New Look Atelier, Elite Elegance: Couture Fashion in the 1950s, 2002-2003, Royal Ontario Museum Archives..…………………....................pg 60 Fig. 3 – Photograph, The New Look Atelier, Elite Elegance: Couture Fashion in the 1950s, 2002-2003, Royal Ontario Museum Archives...……………….……………..pg 61 Fig. 4 – Photograph, The New Look Atelier, Elite Elegance: Couture Fashion in the 1950s, 2002-2003, Royal Ontario Museum Archives………………………………..pg 61 Fig. 5 – Photograph, Robert Piguet and Christian Dior, Elite Elegance: Couture Fashion in the 1950s, 2002-2003, Royal Ontario Museum Archives…………………………pg 62 Fig. 6 – Photograph, Wedding Dress, Elite Elegance: Couture Fashion in the 1950s, 2002-2003, Royal Ontario Museum Archives...…………………...…………………pg 62 Fig. 7 – Photograph, Meetings, Luncheone and Teas, Elite Elegance: Couture Fashion in the 1950s, 2002-2003, Royal Ontario Museum Archives………….............................pg 63 Fig. 8 – Photograph, Holt Renfrew and Christian Dior, Elite Elegance: Couture Fashion in the 1950s, 2002-2003, Royal Ontario Museum Archives…………………………pg 63 Fig. 9 – Photograph, After Five, Elite Elegance: Couture Fashion in the 1950s, 2002- 2003, Royal Ontario Museum Archives...…………………....………………………pg 64 Fig. 10 – Photograph, After Five, Elite Elegance: Couture Fashion in the 1950s, 2002- 2003, Royal Ontario Museum Archives....…………………....…………..………….pg 64 Fig. 11 – Photograph, After Five Label, Elite Elegance: Couture Fashion in the 1950s, 2002-2003, Royal Ontario Museum Archives....…………………....………………..pg 65 Fig. 12 – Photograph, Grand Occasions, Elite Elegance: Couture Fashion in the 1950s, 2002-2003, Royal Ontario Museum Archives....…………………....………………..pg 65 Fig. 13 – Photograph, Christian Dior and Michael Donéllan, Golden Age of Couture: Paris London 1947-1957, Musée National des Beaux Arts de Quebec Archives....…………………....……………………....…………………....………....pg 66 Fig. 14 – Photograph, Théàtre de la Mode, Golden Age of Couture: Paris London 1947- 1957.....…………………....……………………....…………………..........................pg 66 vi Fig. 15 – Photograph, Christian Dior Gown, Golden Age of Couture: Paris London 1947- 57, Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville.....…………………....…………….pg 67 Fig. 16 – Richard Avedon, Photograph, Evening dress by Christian Dior modeled by Suzy Parker, Paris, 1956......…………………....…......…………………....……...…pg 67 Fig. 17 – Photograph, Legacy, Golden Age of Couture: Paris London 1947-1957, Musée National des Beaux Arts de Quebec Archives.......…………………....……………...pg 68 Fig. 18 – Photograph, Legacy, Elite Elegance: Couture Fashion in the 1950s, 2002-2003, Royal Ontario Museum Archives.......…………………....…......……………………pg 68 Fig. 19 –- Cecil Beaton, Photograph, Christian Dior house models wearing the Spring/Summer 1957 collection. ......…………………....…......…………………….pg 69 vii Introduction No one can see inside, visitors never see inside of anything in a museums [yet] all the insides of things and all the details of things are what make you feel good in them and what makes the clothes the way they are, so perfect. -Alexandra Palmer, Nora E. Vaughan Fashion Costume Curator As fashion is credible in both human history and art museums while maintaining a leading role in our macro economy, it has managed to circumvent categorization, empowering itself in multiple disciplines but confounding the public and aggravating scholars along the way. Fashion has since carved itself a place in the museum world and has further established itself as museum worthy by appealing to the modern interest in the artistic value of pop culture and the decorative arts. Recent dress exhibitions in fine arts and historical museums have attempted to reexamine fashion with a wider lens, to release it from the commercial stigma of mass media. Since fashion does not fit into any distinct disciplinary field the critical analysis of the historical and aesthetic perspectives can be challenging. The values of fine art and history museums can also clash, even if the museum is mindful of the particularly diverse audience a fashion exhibition attracts. In Canada, the small size of costume collections and limited number of fashion exhibitions intensifies this problem. As couture fashion exhibitions have become prominent in the leading art centers of the world, Canada has been slowly contributing to this trend, albeit with minimal resources and little community support. My thesis is an analysis of costume exhibitions in Canada with a particular focus on the Royal Ontario Museum‘s (ROM) Elite Elegance: Couture Fashion in the 1950s (2002-2003) and the Musée National des Beaux-Arts de Québec‘s (MNBAQ) hosted exhibition Golden Age of Couture: London Paris 1947-1957, (2010). I argue that while Canada has the means to conceive 1 groundbreaking exhibitions of 20th century dress, as is seen in New York, Paris and London, the absence of costume collections in Canadian fine art museums and the lack of collaboration between human history and fine art museum representatives has inhibited Canada‘s contribution to the evolving multi-disciplinary trend of fashion exhibitions. As dress history is a relatively new field of study, I begin my thesis
Load more

Recommended publications
  • "Index." Fashion, History, Museums: Inventing the Display of Dress
    Petrov, Julia. "Index." Fashion, History, Museums: Inventing the Display of Dress. London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2019. 227–234. Bloomsbury Collections. Web. 24 Sep. 2021. <>. Downloaded from Bloomsbury Collections, www.bloomsburycollections.com, 24 September 2021, 22:37 UTC. Copyright © Julia Petrov 2019. You may share this work for non-commercial purposes only, provided you give attribution to the copyright holder and the publisher, and provide a link to the Creative Commons licence. INDEX archival methodology 5, 10, 191 121, 127, 142, 145, 149, 152, 153, artists and fashion 10, 15, 18, 36, 40, 156, 163, 179, 180 93–9, 116, 128 Costume Museum of Canada 125 Australia (fashion exhibitions in) 5, 20, 71, Cunnington, C. Willett 78, 171–2, 189 79, 89, 142, 170, 197 authenticity 25, 114, 120, 183 deathliness 1, 18, 137, 151, 168–9 Denver Art Museum 133 Barbican Art Gallery 59, 89 Beaton, Cecil 50, 54, 55, 111, 187, 190, exhibition design 1, 8, 9, 49, 50, 54, 59, 192 113, 120, 183, 196, 198 Beaudoin-Ross, Jacqueline 79 exhibitions as visual media 6–8, 11, 194 behind the scenes 13, 125, 129–31 Biba (designer) 39, 51 fashion 3, 9, 15, 26, 29, 35–6, 37, 160, Blum, Stella 163 186, 195 Bolton, Andrew 81, 192 fashion curation as team product 1, 5, Bowes Museum 59, 132 8, 183 Brett, Katherine B. 26, 97, 153, 164 Fashion Institute of Design and British Museum 32, 33, 118, 189 Merchandising (FIDM) Museum 55, Brooklyn Museum 4, 43, 47, 55, 67, 68, 73, 81 78, 81, 88, 99, 100, 106–7, 108, 109, Fashion Museum (Bath) 4, 26, 44, 48, 55, 126, 143, 145, 149,
    [Show full text]
  • "Tableaux Vivants: the Influence of Theater." Fashion, History, Museums: Inventing the Display of Dress
    Petrov, Julia. "Tableaux Vivants: The Influence of Theater." Fashion, History, Museums: Inventing the Display of Dress. London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2019. 113–136. Bloomsbury Collections. Web. 27 Sep. 2021. <http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781350049024.ch-006>. Downloaded from Bloomsbury Collections, www.bloomsburycollections.com, 27 September 2021, 22:22 UTC. Copyright © Julia Petrov 2019. You may share this work for non-commercial purposes only, provided you give attribution to the copyright holder and the publisher, and provide a link to the Creative Commons licence. 5 TABLEAUX VIVANTS: THE INFLUENCE OF THEATER A painting is primarily experienced as a two-dimensional work of art, whereas museum exhibitions operate in three dimensions, and thus, the showmanship of theater has also influenced the display of historical fashion. Early curators such as Doris Langley Moore and the team behind the Costume Institute at the Met had theater design backgrounds and infused their exhibitions with the type of spectacle with which they were professionally familiar. Even now, major museums such as the Met often draw on the expertise of theatrical lighting and set designers to stage their blockbuster shows. In this chapter, theater and performativity are used to explain how the representation of life and movement was staged in fashion exhibitions. To a large extent, this has relied on the creation of mannequin “actors,” clothing’s occupants in effigy, which could be posed alongside other mannequins or objects and props, as though interacting with them. Whether by placing mannequins onto stages of period rooms or into semi-furnished vignettes, or by staging fashion shows where live models wore museum pieces, theatrical practices of choreography and spectatorship influence any display that attempts to inject a semblance of life to a mannequin pantomime.
    [Show full text]
  • Clothing Through American History 1900 to the Present
    THE GREENWOOD ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CLOTHING THROUGH AMERICAN HISTORY 1900 TO THE PRESENT THE GREENWOOD ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CLOTHING THROUGH AMERICAN HISTORY 1900 TO THE PRESENT VOLUME 1 1900–1949 Amy T. Peterson, Valerie Hewitt, Heather Vaughan, Ann T. Kellogg, and Lynn W. Payne Amy T. Peterson, General Editor GREENWOOD PRESS Westport, Connecticut • London Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data The Greenwood encyclopedia of clothing through American history 1900 to the present / Amy T. Peterson, general editor [v. 1], Ann T. Kellogg, general editor [v. 2]. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978 0 313 35855 5 ((set) : alk. paper)—ISBN 978 0 313 33395 8 ((vol. 1) : alk. paper)—ISBN 978 0 313 33417 7 ((vol. 2) : alk. paper) 1. Clothing and dress—United States—History—20th century. I. Peterson, Amy T. II. Kellogg, Ann T., 1968 GT615.G74 2008 391.0097309004—dc22 2008024624 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Copyright C 2008 by Amy T. Peterson, Valerie Hewitt, Heather Vaughan, Ann T. Kellogg, and Lynn W. Payne All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2008024624 ISBN: 978 0 313 35855 5 (set) 978 0 313 33395 8 (vol. 1) 978 0 313 33417 7 (vol. 2) First published in 2008 Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. www.greenwood.com Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48 1984).
    [Show full text]
  • Skill B Vocational Level 3 Communication Name
    900 exercises in SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT Page 1 Skill B vocational Level 3 communication Name: You are doing a replacement with Prestance, the clothing designers and manufacturers. The managing director of the company and his management team are receiving 5 foreign guests for 2 days. This is an important visit, as these people will be deciding is they will represent and sell the Prestance brand in their company. The management has given you an important assignment: organising the visit of these 5 people. You have got the following documents: - the list of names of the guests - the list of hotels in the area - the list of restaurants - the timetables of the guests for the 2 days - the list of partners taking part in the 2 days First you are going to look at the documents. Guest list List of partners taking part in the 2 days Mrs Laura BELLINI from Rome (Italy) Mr Gerard GALMONT, Managing Director Arrives: 2 Dec. 19.00 / Leaves 5 Dec. 9.00 Mr Masaki YAMAMOTO from Tokyo (Japan) Mrs Carol DELAIR, Assistant Director er Arrives: 1 Dec. 21.00 / Leaves 5 Dec. 8.00 Mrs Dorothy SMITH from New York (USA) Mrs Elisa Moore, French-English translator Arrives: 3 Dec. 14.00 / Leaves 5 Dec. 12.00 Mr Daniel GOLDMAN, Marketing Manager Mr Wolfgang MEYER from Vienna (Austria) Arrives: 3 Dec. 9.15 / Leaves 4 Dec. 20.00 Mrs Eva JANACEK, Export Manager Mrs Sonia TCHENKO from Moscow (Russia) Arrives: 2 Dec. 20.00 / Leaves 5 Dec. 19.00 Schedule for 3 and 4 December List of nearest restaurants Mardi 3 décembre Restaurants Closed Tuesday 3 December 10.00-12.00 Visit
    [Show full text]
  • Canadian Ethnic Studies
    LLOYD WONG AND SHIBAO GUO Editors’ Note Owing to unforeseen circumstances, we had a number of delays with the publication of this special double issue on Ukrainian Canadians. To our 2010 subscribers, we ask that you please accept our sincere apologies for this delay. Since we are now publish- ing this special issue, we have numbered it Volume 47.4-5, 2015 [Volume 42.2-3, 2010] with the bracketed volume and issue numbers indicating that this was when it was originally scheduled to be publish. We hope this satisfies our obligations to our 2010 subscribers and to the authors who so generously submitted material to this issue and patiently waited for it to be published. We believe this issue will be a sig- nificant and important contribution to the study of Ukrainian Canadians. We thank you for your patience and understanding and for your continuing support of Canadian Ethnic Studies. INTRODUCTION NATALIA APONIUK –SPECIAL GUEST EDITOR Ukrainian Canadians, Canada, Ukraine, and the Popular Imagination “Look at where Canada is, and look at where Ukraine and Russia are…. Neither Canada nor the U.S. have [sic] the same amount [sic] of interests in Ukraine as Russia does.” – Vladimir Putin, president of Russia, as reported by the Canadian Press, May 24, 2014 This special issue of Canadian Ethnic Studies is being published at the intersection of two momentous events. In Canada the 125th anniversary of Ukrainian settlement will be celebrated in 2016. Although it is highly likely that individual Ukrainians came to Canada much earlier, 1891 is generally accepted as the beginning of the first wave of mass migration from Ukraine.
    [Show full text]