On Tuesday 9 February, 2016 at 6pm Dr Alexandra Palmer of the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada will present a lecture at Massey University, Wellington on ‘Frock coats, redingotes and Dior: Fashion in the Royal Ontario Museum 1909-2016’.
The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is similar to Te Papa in that its collections span the intertwined worlds of natural history and human history. The ROM’s extensive Textile & Fashion collection comprises of over 50,000 items from around the world, and the museum offers a rich programme of fashion and textile-based exhibitions – their current programme includes a major exhibition on Mexican clothing and textiles and in a nod to current popular culture, a display of Star Wars inspired gowns by Rodarte.
Alexandra Palmer is the Nora E. Vaughan Fashion Costume Senior Curator and Chair of the Veronika Gervers Research Fellowship in Textiles & Costume at the ROM.
In this illustrated talk, Dr Palmer will discuss the development and significance of ROM’s collection of western fashionable dress collected over the last 100 years, and contextualise it within the museum’s larger textile and costume collection, which spans time and cultures. She will highlight stories relating to the acquisition of key fashion collections of 18th and 19th century dress, and discuss the complexity of acquiring contemporary fashion, including the museum’s recent commission of a Spring-Summer 2011 Christian Dior haute couture gown, Passage # 5.
Venue: ‘The Pit’, Te Ara Hihiko, Block 12, College of Creative Arts, Massey University, Wellington
Time: Tuesday 9 February at 6pm
RSVP to V.Karaminas@massey.ac.nz to secure a place – seating is limited.
Alexandra Palmer
Alexandra Palmer, a Canadian born in Greece and raised in England, received her Bachelor of Arts in Art History from the University of Toronto, her M.A. in the History of Costume & Textiles from New York University in conjunction with the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum and her PhD in Design History from the University of Brighton.
She has contributed to a wide range of books and journals as editor and author including: Fashion: A Canadian Perspective (2004), Old Clothes, New Looks: Second Hand Fashion (2005), The Golden Age: Haute Couture 1947-1957, V&A, London (2007), The Chanel Legend, Draiflessen Collection, Mettingen, Germany (2013); and is the author of two award winning books, Couture & Commerce: The Transatlantic Fashion Trade in the 1950s (2001) Clio for Ontario history, and Dior: A New Look, A New Enterprise 1947-1957 (2009) Millia Davenport Publication 2010 Award. She is Exhibition Editor for Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body and Culture.
Lecture presented by College of Creative Arts, Massey University, Wellington