{"id":5248,"date":"2019-10-18T07:34:59","date_gmt":"2019-10-18T14:34:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fashionhistorian.net\/blog\/?p=5248"},"modified":"2019-10-17T20:44:16","modified_gmt":"2019-10-18T03:44:16","slug":"guest-book-review-of-fashion-history-museums-inventing-the-display-of-dress-by-julia-petrov","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fashionhistorian.net\/blog\/2019\/10\/18\/guest-book-review-of-fashion-history-museums-inventing-the-display-of-dress-by-julia-petrov\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest Book Review of Fashion, History, Museums: Inventing the Display of Dress by Julia Petrov"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Sarah C. Byrd<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sometimes, a critical history does little more than answer the question of how we ended up here. Julia Petrov\u2019s recent publication, Fashion, History, Museum: Inventing the Display of Dress<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2019) on the history of fashion exhibitions (more broadly defined as the display of dress) is not that kind of text. Although Petrov asserts that the book is \u201cnot a how-to-guide or reflection on best practice\u201d (p5), this thorough study delivers straightforward information that presents a rich analysis of not just how the practices develop but also why it matters, effectively supplying readers with insights to evaluate curatorial choices in contemporary practice. It is the many subtle \u201cwhywe are here\u201d connections that makes<\/g> the book stand out. However, if you don’t know anything about the history of fashion in exhibitions, you will have a strong foundational understanding after reading Fashion, History, Museum: Inventing the Display of Dress<\/a><\/strong><\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The book\u2019s objective to define and describe \u201cthe varied\nrepresentations of historical fashion within museum exhibitions in Britain and\nNorth America \u2026 over the past century\u201d (p2) may appear to be overly grand in\nscope and exclusively focused at the same time. However, Petrov quickly\nassuages most of those concerns in the introduction. As anyone involved in\nfashion studies will know, the terminology is never consistent over time, in\ndifferent regions, among individuals, or even within institutions. The choice\nto include fashion and dress in the title speaks to this potential confusion\nsince the two lay in such close meaning. Petrov sets out definitions of fashion\n\u2013 and even the seemingly straightforward use of \u201chistorical\u201d\u2013 then revisits them\nin subsequent chapters. A further rationale is provided to explain the use of\ncase studies and overarching methodology, as well as the choice to approach\nchapters thematically instead of chronologically. The delineations are logical\nand suggest that a successful critical study will identify specific cases to\nrelate ideas instead of meandering through an endless list of material. Highlights\nfrom selected chapters are offered in this review, although each merits a more\nrobust consideration than space allows. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Figure\u00a04.2.\u00a0Undated postcard showing installation view from an unknown museum; a mannequin in an eighteenth-century dress has been posed alongside contemporaneous decorative arts to demonstrate stylistic continuity. Author\u2019s collection.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Despite its deeply academic approach, the book is clearly\nwritten from start to finish, avoiding complex jargon and dense sentence\nconstruction. The eight chapters are relatively short, approximately 20-30\npages each, which also aids in the readability. Petrov doesn\u2019t shy away from\nhumor with chapter titles like \u201cFoundation Garments: Precedents for Fashion\nHistory Exhibitions in Museums\u201d (Chapter One) and \u201cWindow Shopping: Commercial\nInspiration for Fashion in the Museum\u201d (Chapter Two), but the content provokes\nserious reflection. For Instance, \u201cWindow Shopping\u201d does much to probe into the\nrelationship between commerce and clothing within the museum. This section\nsuccessfully demonstrates the important role the fashion industry has had in\nsupporting the creation of collections and exhibition methods. It also\nacknowledges the reciprocal ways that museums functioned to support designers\nand promote the industry,  as early as\nthe first call for a fashion museum in the early 18th<\/sup> century. Incredibly,\nPetrov does not betray any hint of bias towards or against this often-controversial\nrelationship, instead allowing the reader to interpret the information for\nthemselves. However, the issue returns in \u201cIntervisuality: Displaying Fashion\nas Art\u201d (Chapter Four) and is given more pragmatic discussion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In “New Objectivity: Social Science Methods”\n(Chapter Three), Petrov’s layered timeline of case studies emerge as a highly\neffective format for critical analysis. Examples are pulled from a range of institutions\n\u2013 the familiar Metropolitan Museum of Art and Victoria & Albert Museum are\nalongside Yeshiva University Museum, The Museum at FIT, the Smithsonian, and many\nothers. That the author expresses familiarity with such a wide assortment of\nexhibitions is telling in the scope and depth of research backing the text. The\neffective force of this chapter, though, is how the author\u2019s critiques develop,\nsubtly questioning curatorial intentions before concluding with a powerfully\ndirect assessment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo display fashion in this way is to understand it as an expression of society, yet this is all too frequently an unquestioning and superficial reproduction of existing social norms around dress\u2026. These exhibitions perpetuate accepted ideologies, such as capitalism and nationalism, and affirm social rituals, such as monogamy and heterosexuality, as being normative.\u201d (p88) <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The precision highlights why a survey of the past is needed\nto reflect deeply on established practices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Figure\u00a04.6.\u00a0Costumes in collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art on permanent display in 1939. Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt\/The LIFE Picture Collection\/Getty Images.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTableaux Vivants<\/em>:\nDisplaying Fashion as Art\u201d (Chapter Five), \u201cThe Body in the Gallery:\nRevivifying Historical Fashion\u201d (Chapter Six), and \u201cThe Way of All Flesh:\nDisplaying the Historicity of Historical Fashion\u201d (Chapter Seven) offer a\nunified build of ideas that shift greater focus onto exhibition choices and\ntheir implications. However, in these sections, more questions are proffered\nthan answered. In discussions of the theater, the most salient comparisons\nsurround the performance of museum labor in exhibition design or staffing (see\nLACMA\u2019s Fashioning Fashion<\/em>, 2011, and\nOliver Saillard\/Tilda Swinton’s Impossible\nWardrobes, <\/em>2012). In these contexts, the so-called fourth wall is broken.\nWhether or not this is an effective method to foster awareness of the work\nbehind the scenes, or if it presents an overly idealized version of reality,\nremains a question. In a complex review of bodies, Petrov briefly acknowledges\nthe issue of race in mannequins, a subject that begs for more critical study. Using\npointed examples, such as Benjamin Moore\u2019s \u201cneutral\u201d white paint color (a\ncommon choice for displays) and the Caucasian features of many figures, the\nargument builds to present how ethnic diversity is erased through these\nchoices. \u201cTo literally whitewash out the embodied markers of race in order to\nfit a visual priority is an example of the privileged nature of aesthetics in\nmuseum discourse.\u201d (p165) This critique underscores the message of the Museum\u2019s\nAre Not Neutral campaign* (created in 2017 by LaTanya Autry and Mike Murawski)\nand will be a useful rebuttal for anyone suggesting aesthetics outrank other\npriorities. The thread of missing content lingers in what parts of history\nexhibitions choose to present to audiences, with a nod to trends in collecting.\nShe astutely describes the museum as \u201ca place of wish-fulfillment, where the\nfact of absence is made present only insofar as to make it more poignant.\u201d\n(p175)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Petrov has written a remarkable resource for the field of fashion studies suitable for both newcomers who will appreciate the abundance of history and references, as well as seasoned practitioners that may see their own work in a different light. She resets the timeline for the first exhibition of fashion, not content to rest on the citations of past scholars. Importantly, Petrov argues for better documentation of the exhibition-making process in order to create a better foundation for more in-depth studies and to legitimize fashion curating. These are weighty topics, and this text should be required reading for those in the field. Thankfully Petrov\u2019s confidence as a writer provides occasional relief though the entertaining discoveries of research, sharing extended quotations from Punch<\/em> and other wry journalists. Once the chuckle leaves, however, the reader may be left reeling in the realization that the perspective has hardly changed. Therein lies one of the most striking aspects of this book: that the issues that seem to plague every fashion exhibition, from mannequin heads and wigs to gaps in the collection, have been with us from the start. Perhaps with the addition of this book, we can collectively start to sort out solutions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sarah C. Byrd <\/a>is a fashion historian, archivist, and educator. As an archivist, she has worked on a range of projects for both private clients and large corporations including Cond\u00e9 Nast and Ralph Lauren, where she helped develop the menswear archive. Her independent research focuses on early twentieth-century women\u2019s novels and related films, the history of American cults and communes, and the role of exhibitions in education. She holds an MA in Fashion and Textile Studies from the Fashion Institute of Technology where she teaches in the Graduate Studies Programs, in addition to NYU Costume Studies MA and the Textile Arts Center.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

*https:\/\/artstuffmatters.wordpress.com\/2017\/10\/15\/changing-the-things-i-cannot-accept-museums-are-not-neutral\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sarah C. Byrd Sometimes, a critical history does little more than answer the question of how we ended up here. Julia Petrov\u2019s recent publication, Fashion, History, Museum: Inventing the Display of Dress (Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2019) on the history of fashion exhibitions (more broadly defined as the display of dress) is not that kind […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4,1],"tags":[203,373,112,371,34,370,65,218],"coauthors":[369],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fashionhistorian.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5248"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fashionhistorian.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fashionhistorian.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fashionhistorian.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fashionhistorian.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fashionhistorian.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5248\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fashionhistorian.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fashionhistorian.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fashionhistorian.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5248"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fashionhistorian.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=5248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}