(intervention en anglais)

Kirsty Hassard has been assistant curator of Furniture, Textiles and Fashion at the Victoria and Albert Museum since 2015 and is currently working on the Scottish Design Galleries, V&A Dundee, due to open in September 2018. She was also assistant curator on the Balenciaga: Shaping Fashion exhibition. She has an MA in History and a MLitt in Dress and Textile Histories from the University of Glasgow. She has lectured and published on fans in the eighteenth century. Her recent research has included contemporary menswear, eighteenth century French silk design, and millinery.

The presentation will focus on the curating of the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum’s summer fashion exhibition, Balenciaga: Shaping Fashion (May 2017-February 2018). This was the first ever UK exhibition to look at the vision and legacy of Cristóbal Balenciaga. The curatorial team’s approach to curating the show, the challenges and most exciting finds will be examined and explained.

It will be described how the exhibition took a fresh look at Balenciaga’s designs from the 1950s and 60s, providing a forensic look at what made his work so exceptional and tracing his influence on fashion right up to the present day. On display alongside the garments were archive sketches, photographs and film and x-rays, patterns and making films which reveal hidden details in the designs.

Intervention de Kirsty Hassard, Assistant Curator au Victoria and Albert Museum, enregistrée le 12 avril 2018 dans le cadre du colloque "Ce qu'exposer veut dire".

Image : Shaping Fashion Crédits CC by Richard Fisher