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’.
In this illustrated talk, Dr Palmer will discuss why and how the Royal Ontario Museum’s (ROM) collection of western fashionable dress has been built over the past one hundred years and contextualizes it within the museum’s textile and costume collection which features over 50,000 pieces from across time and around the world. She will highlight stories relating to the acquisition of key fashion collections of 18th and 19th century dress, the complexity of acquiring contemporary fashion, including the museum’s recent commission of a Spring-Summer 2011 Christian Dior haute couture gown, as well as the challenges of making exhibitions with fashions that have no solid form.
Venue: ‘The Pit’, Te Ara Hihiko, Block 12, College of Creative Arts, Massey University, Wellington
Time: Tuesday 9 February at 6pm
RSVP: As spaces are limited please rsvp to V.Karaminas@massey.ac.nz
Alexandra Palmer
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. She is cross appointed and teaches in Fine Art History at the University of Toronto, and the Graduate Programme in Art History at York University, and the School of Graduate Studies at Ryerson University.
A Canadian born in Greece and raised in England, Alexandra 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.
Alexandra Palmer 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). She is Exhibition Editor for Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body and Culture. She has written for international museum publications including 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.
Dr Palmer is visiting New Zealand following her keynote address at the Fashioning Museums conference in Canberra 1-3 February, 2016.
Presented by College of Creative Arts, Massey University, Wellington