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Time and Space: Expanding the Field through Exhibition Making

The book is an important contribution which advances the boundaries of fashion studies through interdisciplinary thematic approaches. This chapter is underpinned by a series of interviews with curators cited in the text. The authors employ critical perspectives through exhibition analysis to explore how the curation of fashion/dress has tackled narratives of time, to bring a human dimension rather than historical perspective to the experience of dress in the museum. The absence of the body is an issue for conserved dress objects brought out for display. Crawley brings her knowledge of research in design for exhibition, space and performativity together with theoretical perspectives to analyse key examples of new approaches to dress curation over a period of forty years which tackle the issue of time as a human dimension within the exhibition space. This is an extension of the temporal and spatial qualities of performance originally explored in her doctoral thesis. The perception and perspective of the audience and their engagement through scenographic strategies are developed in a new context. The contribution to fashion studies, curation, dress history and exhibition design lies in the tracing of performative interventions made by curators, bringing the audience to make connections between objects and their own lives and providing new insights into the historic study of dress. The authors spell out the theatrical, temporal and spatial frameworks which allow time to become non-linear, spatial, theatrical and scenographic.

The editors of the book are well known in the fields of fashion and dress and the contributors are drawn from an international range of experts, including Lou Taylor, Sandy Black, Amy de la Haye, Joanne Entwistle, Marie O’Mahony and Regina A. Root. This chapter will be of interest to scholars of fashion, theatre and museology in emerging cross disciplinary areas of cultural and historical studies.