Fashion and critique

Just a passing fashion? Besides high-publicity exhibitions dedicated to paying homage to fashion icons or portraying fashion as the representative mode of rulers or the avant-garde, recent exhibition projects have adopted a wide variety of approaches that go beyond stylisation. Exhibitions are increasingly dealing with socio-political issues through fashion: The topic of dressing is being broached more often in its sociocultural diversity, and fashion (production) is being considered as a magnifying glass on global inequality or, as a subversive gesture, taken as a reference point for discussion in museums. Based on a look back at a groundbreaking “fashion show” in the Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna, we will explore the reasons, potentials, and effects of a critical approach to fashion in exhibitions.  What fashion finds its way into museums and why? What topics does fashion open up, and what narratives can be addressed? What possibilities in terms of exhibition and education does it present, beyond stylisation and the creation of myths? How do intentions with respect to conservation and content correlate? What scenographies emerge in discursive fashion exhibitions? And last but not least, what can we learn from fashion?