Fashion's missing masses: the representation of marginalized populations in collections and exhibitions of dress

Abstract

"Fashion's Missing Masses fills a gap in literature on museums and fashion collections and focuses on the display of clothing and fashion that has historically been left out of the canon. The fifteen essays in this volume span topics on Indigenous and traditional dress; disabled and fat bodies; and queer and ethnic identities. Their authors study the ways that dress and textiles have been collected, displayed, and often ignored across a century and a half of museum exhibitions. Representation and inclusion in fashion museums is a new and rapidly evolving area of research in the reexamination of dress history. These chapters provide unique information and perspectives on curation, collections management, conservation, and research, which will be valuable to a wide group of audiences working, teaching, and learning in and about museums. This volume touches on practical concerns of exhibition, including mannequin availability and difficulties of mounting dress, as well as broader questions of scholarship and activism that will be key for educators and researchers who wish to stay abreast of developments in this field. Diversity in fashion is a hot topic, and understanding the line between tokenization and representation in spaces of institutional authority is crucial to learning how we can better serve our diverse populations in the teaching of history"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents

Foreword / Sarah Scaturro -- Introduction: Fashion's Missing Masses / Kenna Libes -- Section I. Bringing the body back. 1. Changing our practices: diversifying dress display / Camille Myers Breeze, Rebecca Helgeson ; 2. Reflecting diversity: transforming mannequins to represent humanity's true colors in museum fashion exhibitions / Marcy L. Koontz, Shirley P. Foster ; 3. Missing mass: fat fashion in museum collections / Kenna Libes ; 4. Hollow honesty: mannequins in the museum space / Wonne Scrayen ; 5. (Re)Dressing American fashion: a curatorial discussion about "exhibition worthiness" and the "museological body" / Emma McClendon, Lauren Downing Peters ; 6. Absence, presence, and absence as presence: disability in the exhibition of dress / Megan Strickfaden -- Section II. Cultural representation and identity. 7. The thobe as Biblical fantasy: the legacy of Orientalism in Palestinian dress collections / Flannery Surette, Wafa Ghnaim ; 8. Collecting the colony: Philippine dress and textiles in U.S. museums / Angela Hermano Crenshaw ; 9. Representing Indigenous fashion in Latin American museums / Laura Beltrán-Rubio ; 10. Orienting queerness: strategies in curating queer fashion / Milana Stewart -- Section III. What can one exhibit do?. 11. Honoring Native American designers in the Met's In America exhibition series / Echo Malleo ; 12. Unraveling invisibilities: the "Esther" dress and the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art / Tolulope Omoyele ; 13. Un-fashioning Peruvian stereotypes: exploring hidden multifaceted identities in fashion exhibitions / Sandra Mathey García-Rada ; 14. "The traces of use": the potentiality of visibly worn dress in appearances can be deceiving: the dresses of Frida Kahlo / Michelle McVicker ; 15. The body beautiful: [ad]dressing representation in fashion at National Museums Scotland / Georgina Ripley.