Judith Clark
Amy de la Haye
Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, London, 2013, English
Nonfiction, Fashion Design
9.5 x 11.5 inches, hardcover, 192 pages, 100 color and 50 black-and-white illustrations
ISBN: 9780300125795
Suggested Retail Price: $50.00

From the Publisher. With the dramatic increase in popularity of fashion exhibitions over the past decade, this groundbreaking book provides a timely look at the evolution of the practice, taking as its anchor the seminal 1971 Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition Fashion: An Anthology by Cecil Beaton, revealing it to be symptomatic of a shift in museological attitudes. The authors’ combined experience of more than forty years, one in architecture and exhibition design and the other in fashion history and curating, informs their detailed account of the exhibition. Accompanied by photographs of Beaton’s museum work published here for the first time, their narrative establishes a perspective from which to view working practices today. 

Research into international exhibitions from the early 20th century to the present results in some 150 stunning illustrations, including previously unpublished exhibition photographs and out-of-print documents. Through this research and the testimony of curators, exhibition designers, and mannequin manufacturers, the authors discover striking continuity in the development of the fundamental equation of mannequin, dress, and mise-en-scène. A comprehensive chronology from 1971 illustrates the exponential rise in exhibitions of Western dress on an international scale. 

Judith Clark is professor of fashion and museology and Amy de la Haye is professor of dress history and curatorship, Rootstein Hopkins Chair, both at the London College of Fashion.

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