Africa Fashion: V&A

Alison Moloney, Wanda Lephoto and Dr Erica de Greef discuss the photograph which opened Fashion Accounts in Museum Africa which reimagines histories of Black South African youth that were either not documented or were destroyed by the apartheid police. Wanda is a Johannesburg-based designer, artist, and critic whose collaborative work negotiates the boundaries of culture and shared histories. Erica is a curator, author and co-founder of the African Fashion Research Institute and a lecturer at WITS School of Art. Together with Alison the three co-curated FashionAccounts in Museum Africa which explores collection and archival practices of history and memory through dress.

Alison Moloney and Rachel Dedman discuss the garmentswhich opened the show Material Power: Palestinian Embroidery, which reflect the everyday clothing rural Palestinian women wore in the early twentiethcentury. Rachel is the Jameel Curator of Contemporary Art from the Middle East at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and curated Material Power: Palestinian Embroidery which was held at Kettle’s Yard,Cambridge, and The Whitworth, Manchester, between 2023-2024.

Alison Moloney, Christine Checinska and Elisabeth Murray discuss the opening garments by Imane Ayissi in Africa Fashion which was held at the V&A in 2022. Dr Christine Checinska is the inaugural Senior Curator African and Diaspora: Textiles and Fashion at the V&A and Lead Curator of Africa Fashion. Elisabeth Murray is Senior Curator at the Fashion Museum Bath. Prior to joining the FashionMuseum, she was a curator in the fashion and textiles section at the V&A focusing on 20th century and contemporary fashion and was the project curator for Africa Fashion.

Alison Moloney and Amy de la Haye discuss the opening installation of Ravishing: The Rose in Fashion which was held at The Museum at FIT in New York between August 6th and November 28th 2021. Amy is a dress curator and writer and was formerly fashion curator at the V&A where she staged the seminal 1994 Streetsyle exhibition. She is a professor and joint director of the research Centre for Fashion Curation at London College of Fashion.

Alison Moloney and Carol Tulloch discuss the opening garment in the show Black British Style which was held at the V&A in 2004. Black British Style opened with a Burton pale blue two-piece suit (1960), owned by Julian Bridgman who came to the UK from Grenada in 1960. Carol is a writer and curator and Professor of Dress, Diaspora, and Transnationalism at the University of the Arts London. She is a member of the Transnational Art, Identity and Nation Research Centre and is the TrAIN/V&A Fellow in the Research Department of the V&A Museum. Black British Style was devised by Carol and curated with Shaun Cole.

Alison Moloney and Martin Pel discuss the red dress, possibly by Schiaparelli, which opened the Lee Miller show at Brighton Museum. Lee Miller was a photographer, surrealist, model, war correspondent, writer, traveller, and cook, who lived her many lives with passion and audacity. These lives are all reflected in her dress and style which is documented in this show curated by Martin. The exhibition opened in October 2023 at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery.

Alison Moloney and Judith Clark discuss The Vulgar: Fashion Redefined which explored ideas around fashion and taste. Devised, curated and designed by Judith, this conversation is centred on the two objects which opened the show - a chasuble fragment (1480-1500) and an Elsa Schiaparelli evening ensemble (c.1937). The exhibition was first staged at the Barbican Art Gallery in 2017 (it toured to the Winterpalais in Vienna, Austria and Modemuseum in Hasselt, Belgium) and was co-curated with psychoanalyst Adam Phillips. Judith is Professor of Fashion and Museology at London College of Fashion, where in 2013 she co-founded the Centre for Fashion Curation.