Garmenting: Costume as Contemporary Art

Abstract

As museums increasingly stage costume exhibitions, the relationship between dress and art has been brought to the fore more than ever before. This connection is commonly explored in three exhibition formats: monolithic or multidesigner shows in which the maker’s creative genius and craft is likened to fine art; a show spotlighting designers or houses who are inspired by and directly collaborate with artists, whether for mass consumption or for art’s sake; or a show examining the dress in fine art. With its 2022 exhibition, Garmenting: Costume as Contemporary Art, the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in New York City entered uncharted territory as the first global survey exhibition dedicated to the use of clothing as a medium of visual art. Curated by Alexandra Schwartz, a New York-based art historian, curator, and adjunct professor in the School of Graduate Studies at SUNY j Fashion Institute of Technology, the exhibition presented works by thirty-five established and emerging international artists, including Louise Bourgeois (1911–2010), Nick Cave, Yinka Shonibare, and Zo€e Buckman. In an interview with Women’s Wear Daily, Schwartz shared that the exhibition’s use of “garmenting” as a descriptor for the phenomenon of clothing as a visual arts medium derived from multimedia artist Saya Woolfalk who used the term when discussing her own work. Schwartz previously had curated a solo show for Woolfalk, who also was featured in Garmenting in 2012–13. To theorize and historicize the notion of garmenting, which emerged during the 1960s and 1970s, the 2022 exhibition was organized around five interrelated themes: Functionality, Cultural Difference, Gender, Activism, and Performance. On the top floor of the exhibition were the Functionality and 1 For example, Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams, 2017–22, multiple museums.