Traces and Constellations: the Invisible Genealogies of Fashion

The paper is a development of the contribution presented at the international conference ENDYESTHAI: To Dress, Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece, April 2010. It analyses the intersection between some crucial theoretical frameworks within fashion studies (Benjamin, 1939; Wilson, 1985; Lehman, 2000; Evans, 2003), and the correspondent shift occurred within fashion curation in recent years. It examines how pioneer exhibitions, such as Malign Muses/Spectres: When Fashion Turns Back (ModeMuseum of Antwerp, 2004 - Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2005), have impacted on the fashion discourse and inaugurated a fertile reflection on curating itself. The study benefits from informal discussions with Judith Clark (Professor of Fashion and Museology, London College of Fashion), and has been quoted in several other contributions (De Greef, 2012; Pantouvaki, 2013). The study has recently been expanded, and updated on the occasion of the international conference Barthes, Benjamin and Fashion, held at Manchester Metropolitan University, June 2013 (key note speaker: Caroline Evans).

The conferences Endyesthai and Barthes, Benjamin and Fashion clearly show the impact that the theoretical and curatorial ‘shifts’ discussed by the paper have had on the fashion discourse; in both conferences specific sessions were dedicated to the ‘spaces of fashion’ and the experimental curatorial practice. In this sense, the paper is part of the current academic and professional debate on fashion curation, and proposes a reading of the exhibitions discussed in Benjaminian terms.