On September 20th, the first-year Fashion Studies MA students were given a guest lecture by Gabriele Monti, a fashion design researcher, theorist, and critic from the University IUAV of Venice. He received his PhD in Semiotics and is particularly interested in the relationship between fashion exhibitions and contemporary fashion design. In 2012, he was the assistant curator for Diana Vreeland After Diana Vreeland, an exhibition held at Museo Fortuny in Venice.
In his lecture, Monti discussed Diana Vreeland’s vast career, memorable character, and profound impact on the production of fashion exhibitions. Diana Vreeland is considered the first contemporary fashion editor and stylist. She devoted a large part of her career to Harper’s Bazaar and then worked as Editor in Chief of Vogue from 1963 to 1971. Shortly after her tenure at Vogue, with no museum experience behind her, Diana Vreeland became a consultant at the Metropolitan Costume Institute in New York and created the first “blockbuster exhibition” featuring the work of Cristóbal Balenciaga. She created eleven more exhibitions on a various range of topics, such as Hollywood Costumes and The Ballet Russes. The legacy of Diana Vreeland is still manifested in fashion exhibitions at the Met today through the use of color-blocking, stylized mannequins, elaborate props, overarching narratives, and mixing historical garments and contemporary fashion. According to Monti, Diana Vreeland was the first to draw direct parallels between fashion and art.
To close, Gabriele Monti emphasized that fashion exhibitions allow for historical pieces to be viewed through a contemporary lens. Through this, they contribute to the ongoing discourse of fashion and culture’s interdependency.
Written by Clarabeth Smith, MA Fashion Studies, 2017-2019
Picture by Marco Pecorari, Director of MA Fashion Studies
