Transcriber: Kaoru Suzuki Reviewer: Reiko Bovee
Fashion by its very nature is aligned with innovation.
The fashion industry cycles throughout the 20th century
every six months.
Traditionally there have been spring collections and fall collections.
In the 21st century,
most fashion houses present four to six collections a year.
It's unparalleled in any other design field
that these artisans have to produce this many new ideas
and innovations in their work.
Phoenix Art Museum, as a fashion design collection,
we are one of a handful of art museums across the country
that has a collection and a dedicated fashion design gallery.
Over five thousand objects dating from the 18th century to the present
that show the history of men's, women's, and children's dress and accessories
comprise this world-class collection.
Fashion started being collected by museums in general in the 1930s.
Most of the early exhibitions were traditional shows
that were based on an era or were based on a theme that related to fashion.
Diana Vreeland, who you see here,
was at the Costume Institute from 1973 to 1987.
She is really the one
that took the idea of visiting fashion exhibitions
and becoming involved with them
from special interest groups to the greater population.
In the 1990s fashion designers like Hussein Chalayan began to innovate
and art and fashion became more integral.
Fashion houses were sponsoring art exhibitions.
Artists were making their works more aligned with other art disciplines
such as architecture,
as in this case where the dress turns into a table.
The landmark exhibition that was held a couple of years ago
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty,
caused a turning point, a transitional mark in this field.
Diana Vreeland had started the Party of the Year,
a major fundraising event
that became one of the largest in the city, New York City,
and became the largest for the Metropolitan Museum of art.
But with this exhibition and in recent years
under the tutelage of Anna Wintour, Vogue magazine,
this party raises over 4.5 million for the museum
and really is a leading event that is comparative across the country.
Alexander McQueen broke attendance records for the museum
and became one of the top 8 attended exhibitions
in the entire history of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Over 600,000 visitors attended, many waiting in line,
long lines that stretched down the block outside the museum.
This caused
fashion to go from a more marginal area of the museum,
often considered and still questioned
whether it should be a rightful part of the museum.
Often reviews of exhibitions would say,
"Why fashion in the museum? Why does it belong there?"
But the McQueen show got the attention of the greater population,
and since then, has gotten the attention of museum administrations,
and has caused a gestalt shift and transition
in the allocation of resources in the museums
and the kinds of programming that take place.
This is the exhibition of Punk Couture that the MET did,
which drew over 170,000 visitors in the first month.
This exhibition, Yves Saint Laurent, originated in Montreal
and then, was at Denver Art Museum.
Madame Grès exhibition was held in Paris
not at the usual fashion museum but in the studio of a sculptor's atelier,
comparing the work of the designer with the artist.
The mannequins are a vital part of the display of fashion.
Exhibitions like this one, Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton,
show great innovative use of not only visual display but of technology.
As in this exhibition of Jean-Paul Gaultier,
which has originated again in Montreal, and traveled to Dallas,
is now to the Brooklyn Museum of Art and Rotterdam.
In fact, you are greeted by a projected image
of the designer himself which speaks to you.
There's not only a visual component but an audio component
to this exhibition as well.
Here, you see a whole lineup of mannequins utilizing this technology.
In London in November of 2012,
the Victoria and Albert Museum opened an exhibition called Hollywood Costume.
Hollywood Costume again broke records at that museum for attendance,
Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
It was applauded for its use of technology.
The ability to add context and understanding to the display,
by the way that they projected heads onto the mannequins,
and by the way that they used it to illuminate scripts,
by the way that they used it to simulate real conversations
between actresses, actors, designers, and directors,
really giving a full storytelling experience to viewing these objects.
One of the main benefits that is cited for fashion in the museum
is it's accessibility.
It's in art form that people understand, can potentially understand more readily
than other types of artworks.
We all wear clothes.
We all have a framework to evaluate, to learn from these exhibitions,
and they're often being incorporated
into other exhibitions as sort of an entry point.
Here is more of Hollywood costume: Dracula, Superman.
And a whole variety of costumes are used to understand
the costume designers' contribution to the movie making experience.
So, we really appreciate our position in the community,
and how we're able to participate in the education process
through the engagement of fashion.
(Applause)