Fashion Matters: fashion, art and society with Dr Peter McNeil
The Friends of Te Papa are offering lovers of fashion history a wonderful treat this year. They have enticed Dr Peter McNeil to deliver a series of six lectures in Wellington over the next few months under the umbrella of Fashion matters: fashion, art and society.
Peter is a highly regarded fashion historian and currently Professor of Design History at University of Technology, Sydney. He was a key player in the development of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s sensational exhibition Reigning Men: Fashion in Menswear 1715-2015 which is on at the Museum of Applied Sciences & Arts in Sydney.
We hope members of CTANZ will be able to join us for some of Peter’s lectures.
Art + Fashion – the first lecture, Friday the 13th!
Auspiciously, Peter’s lecture series kicks off on Friday 13 July 5.30 – 7.15 pm with Art + Fashion, the theme of which has been chosen for the closing weekend of Te Papa’s exhibition Pacific Sisters: Fashion Activists. In this lecture, Peter will explore the twining of art and fashion from the middle ages to now.
Fashion & Textiles: Eden to Edo
On Friday 24 August 5.30 – 7.15 pm, Peter explores the many ways in which the world fashion is bound up with botanical knowledge.
A WOW Weekend – two lectures in October
During WOW you can enjoy a double dose of fashion history with High Heel Heaven on Saturday 6 October, 10:30 am – 12pm, followed by Pretty gentlemen on Sunday 7 October, 10:30 am – 12pm. In Pretty Gentlemen, Peter celebrates the hipsters of the late 18th century. These dashing young men in their tight suits, clashing colours, and high wigs, are the subject of Peter’s latest book, also titled Pretty Gentlemen.
Revolutionary fashion
On Sunday 11 November, 3.30 to 5pm, Peter explores the tumult of fashion before and after the French Revolution, including the ‘Incredible’ and ‘Marvellous’ ones, the Incroyables and Merveilleuses, who emphasised the theatricality of fashion and wore some of the most extreme fashion ever seen.
A touch of inter-war magic
The series ends with Magic fashion on Sunday 9 December, 3:30 pm – 5pm. In this lecture Peter focuses on the creative circles of fashion and design in inter-war Paris, including fashion, fantasy and surrealism, which of course means Elsa Schiaparelli!
A discount for the dedicated
Tickets Friends of Te Papa $20, non-members $25, students $15. If you sign up for ALL six lectures you save $30.
The ticket price includes a glass of wine and parking at Te Papa.