Working at NUA with Kevin Freeman I tutored MA Fashion students, helping them design a creative space to showcase their collections.
Having previously taught a day on Fashion Curation the students were interested to understand how to best promote the research message that led to their collection.
First I asked a number of searching questions such as: Can you describe the meaning behind your collection in one sentence?
From this starting point we unravelled what the students were trying to communicate.
The important thing was to understand what the students wanted their spectators to understand from their installation design. The main premise was how to display the garments to their best advantage.
One key question was which mannequins to use. The body on which clothes are displayed give the viewer a number of clues, and in some instances students needed a blank canvas on which to display their clothes.
Museums spend a long time planning what type of mannequins to use, depending on the time period of the costumes, day or evening attire, elite or every-day wear etc.
Hannamari was concerned with sustainability through circular pattern design and minimising textile waste.
Amy, whose interest is performance, explored the physicality of dress going beyond the skin.
Uzair’s impetus came from John Berger’s ‘Way of Seeing’, and is concerned with objectification of the female form.
The NUA gallery lent itself to the exhibition design seen below, enabling visitors to get a 360-degree experience of the student collections. I feel very privileged to have worked on this project.