The article sets out to discuss the role played by Diana Vreeland in the development of the discipline of fashion curating, through a close look at her personal style and the curatorial grammar she developed while creating ground-breaking fashion exhibitions as Special Consultant at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (1972-1989). To that end, this article discusses the exhibition Diana Vreeland After Diana Vreeland curated by Judith Clark and Maria Luisa Frisa that was held at Palazzo Fortuny in Venice, Italy, March 10 - June 26, 2012, for which I served as associate curator. The exhibition mirrors Vreeland’s imaginative method of reading twentieth-century fashion, stemming from her work at Harper’s Bazaar and American Vogue, and analyses her transformation from editor to curator. Admired and criticized, Vreeland recognized that fashion has a privileged role in the understanding of contemporary culture. Her approach to exhibitions mimicked the work of a fashion magazine editor, who works through selections and unusual combinations, and styles these into eye-catching visual displays, that do not necessarily place a premium on historical accuracy. Vreeland’s museum shows backed a new curatorial freedom, taking into consideration a new protagonist, the visitor. The exhibition at the Palazzo Fortuny and its catalogue examined Diana Vreeland both as fashion editor and as curator, through an exploration of her innovative and avant-garde exhibitions, and considered the taste and passions that permeated her curatorial approach. The article discusses Vreeland’s flamboyant work at the Met, showing how a fashion exhibition can become an elaborate visual machine, constructed with a specific curatorial language, derived from fashion itself; and fashion curating as a personal discipline, connected with the curator’s personal choices and not with the claimed objectivity of history. By identifying significant experiences which seem to be directly connected to Vreeland’s legacy, the article seeks to define what fashion curating means today.
After Diana Vreeland: The Discipline of Fashion Curating as a Personal Grammar
MONTI, GABRIELE
2013-01-01
Abstract
The article sets out to discuss the role played by Diana Vreeland in the development of the discipline of fashion curating, through a close look at her personal style and the curatorial grammar she developed while creating ground-breaking fashion exhibitions as Special Consultant at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (1972-1989). To that end, this article discusses the exhibition Diana Vreeland After Diana Vreeland curated by Judith Clark and Maria Luisa Frisa that was held at Palazzo Fortuny in Venice, Italy, March 10 - June 26, 2012, for which I served as associate curator. The exhibition mirrors Vreeland’s imaginative method of reading twentieth-century fashion, stemming from her work at Harper’s Bazaar and American Vogue, and analyses her transformation from editor to curator. Admired and criticized, Vreeland recognized that fashion has a privileged role in the understanding of contemporary culture. Her approach to exhibitions mimicked the work of a fashion magazine editor, who works through selections and unusual combinations, and styles these into eye-catching visual displays, that do not necessarily place a premium on historical accuracy. Vreeland’s museum shows backed a new curatorial freedom, taking into consideration a new protagonist, the visitor. The exhibition at the Palazzo Fortuny and its catalogue examined Diana Vreeland both as fashion editor and as curator, through an exploration of her innovative and avant-garde exhibitions, and considered the taste and passions that permeated her curatorial approach. The article discusses Vreeland’s flamboyant work at the Met, showing how a fashion exhibition can become an elaborate visual machine, constructed with a specific curatorial language, derived from fashion itself; and fashion curating as a personal discipline, connected with the curator’s personal choices and not with the claimed objectivity of history. By identifying significant experiences which seem to be directly connected to Vreeland’s legacy, the article seeks to define what fashion curating means today.
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