Exploding Fashion

Alistair O’Neill is a writer, curator and professor of Fashion History and Theory at Central Saint Martins (UAL). He is a member of the UAL Photography and the Archive Research Centre and sits on the editorial board of Fashion Theory. Since the implementation of its contemporary exhibitions program in 2008, he has been working as a curatorial consultant for Somerset House Trust, focusing on its fashion exhibitions. His research interests include 20th-century and contemporary fashion; fashion photography in relation to visual culture; fashion curation and histories of display; London as a centre for fashion cultures.

• CONTENTSIntroductionThe Rationale 8The Process 12Central Saint Martins Research Team Members 15SECTION A: MAKE, UNMAKE, REMAKEChapter 1: Methods and MakingFrom 2-D to 3-D to 3-D animation 20Chapter 2: Dress Summaries and Museum StatementsInternational Dress Collections: Museum Statements 68Victoria and Albert Museum, London - Claire WilcoxMusée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris 70Myriam TeissierTwentieth-Century Fashion Designs and their Designers:Five Case Studies - Madeleine Vionnet 72Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 86Andrew BoltonCharles James 88Palais Galliera, Musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris 104Miren Arzalluz & Véronique BelloirCristóbal Balenciaga 106Museum at FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology), New York 120Valerie SteeleHalston 122Kyoto Costume Institute, Japan 138Rie NiiComme des Garçons 140The Gusset: The Common Denominator 154Dress Patterns 158