Fashion Exhibitions as Scholarship: Evaluation Criteria for Peer Review

Abstract

Curated exhibitions are places where research practice, creative design, storytelling, and aesthetics converge. In this article, we use the term “fashion exhibition” to refer to the organized display of extant dress-related items within museums or other public spaces. Curation, as a form of creative design research, produces numerous outcomes including museum exhibitions, digital archives, and associated publications; however, our field has not yet established a method to peer review fashion exhibitions. In this article, we build upon the work of previous scholars to propose criteria for evaluating fashion exhibitions. In doing so, we aim to elevate the scholarly status of fashion exhibitions, particularly those mounted by modestly funded institutions, and use the recent fashion exhibition, “Women Empowered: Fashions from the Frontline,” as an example to illustrate our argument.

Costume Exhibition and Museum: A Platform for the Art of Fashion

“…The decorative elements of traditional Chinese culture have profoundly influenced contemporary Chinese display and exhibition art, as well as people's aesthetic interest and consciousness, especially in the design of architecture and indoor and outdoor exhibition space at all stages of historical development, which can be seen everywhere [10]. When selecting the elements of traditional culture, elemental symbols with distinctive features and typical significance are often drawn from different historical eras [11][12]. Traditional cultural and artistic elements are a symbol of contemporary museum display art design, which is decorated in a way that is neither conventional nor backward, on the contrary, it is a modernity in itself [13].…”

Editors’ Notes: Advancing Design Scholarship in Textiles and Apparel

“…The curatorial practice of exhibiting fashion is a form of creative design research that lacks an established method of peer review resulting in a misreading of its contributions and value as scholarship. Green et al (2019) in "Fashion Exhibitions as Scholarship: Evaluation Criteria for Peer Review" note several contributing factors: curatorial practice viewed as service instead of research, the intentional "invisible" scholarly labor of producing an exhibit, and the lack of evaluation criteria and method of peer review for curatorial practice. The authors articulate the research rigor and design research practice in the curatorial process and exhibition outcomes and propose criteria for development, evaluation, and peer review of fashion exhibitions.…”