Proceedings of the ICOM Costume Committee Annual Meeting in Utrecht 2018 - ICOM COSTUME

Innovation and Fashion: Proceedings of the ICOM Costume Committee annual meeting, Utrecht, The Netherlands, 10–15 June 2018. ISBN 978-2-491997-17-5

Edited by Elise Breukers

The Annual Meeting and conference of the ICOM Costume Committee was held 10-15 June 2018 in the historical city of Utrecht, The Netherlands. We were warmly welcomed at the opening reception at Paushuize. The theme of the meeting, “Innovation and Fashion” produced many inspiring papers and created enough food for thought during the intense conference days, participated by curators, conservators, students and researchers amongst others. Please find the complete program attached as PDF.
The first three days took place at the Centraal Museum Utrecht, which celebrated its 180 year anniversary in 2018. The museum takes care of fine arts, modern and contemporary art as well as design and fashion collections. Not to mention the Rietveld-Schoder Huis and Miffy museum. We were invited to have a private view at the extensive exhibition “Jan Taminiau: Reflections”, curated by our board member Ninke Bloemberg. Jan Taminiau is mostly known for the blue coronation dress he designed for our Queen Maxima in 2013 (and was shown during the exhibition). While mornings were filled with presentations the afternoons were given over visiting a private collector, the Centraal Museum and Museum Catharijneconvent storages and attending a fashion walk through Utrecht.
The conference continued with exciting final presentations at the TextielMuseum in Tilburg on the fourth day. After visiting the exhibition “Simply Scandinavian” and the TextielLab in the afternoon, we completed the evening with a unique dinner in the entrance hall of the museum, being able to talk more informal with each other. On the fifth day we went to the Rijksmuseum where we were invited for an exclusive guided tour through the textile restauration atelier and the storage in the morning. After lunch we headed to several historical canal houses: the Museum of Bags and Purses, Museum van Loon and Museum Willet Holthuysen. Our closing drinks at the Amsterdam Library gave us a chance to have a look the Modemuze exhibition and meeting like-minded fashion and costume specialists, including our Modemuze colleagues.

The four-day post-conference tour took place from 16–19 June and started off with the “Viktor & Rolf: fashion artists 25 years” exhibition at the Kunsthal in Rotterdam and continued with the FashionClash Festival in Maastricht on day two. On day three we dove into Dutch costume history at both the Zaanse Schans (Zaans Museum) and the Zuiderzeemuseum in Enkhuizen. Last but not least, we completed our tour in The Hague, visiting the depot of Gemeentemuseum and having a fashion walk warmly welcomed in the ateliers/shop of several Dutch fashion designers and a milliner.

Members of the Board of Officers and the Committee were very stimulating in the whole process of the 2018 Utrecht meeting. Our thanks must go to the all the committed colleagues of the museums mentioned above. Elise Breukers and Catherine Regout were important driving forces producing the conference, including realizing a conference website (which is now offline) and an interesting program for the accompanying persons. As a result of all of these efforts and more, we had a meeting with 92 attendees, a program of 37 presentations with 23 countries represented.

The proceedings you will find here cover a wide range of papers varying from new perspectives on high fashion to contemporary, anthropological and historical approaches, textiles, production, restauration, conservation, shoes, pockets, performances and new media. By sharing the proceedings and abstracts we aim to not only record the 2018 presentations, but to inspire new research, to encourage scholarly activities and of course hope to meet new colleagues worldwide by joining the ICOM Costume Committee in the near future.

Ninke Bloemberg
Board member of the ICOM Costume Committee (Treasurer)
Fashion curator at the Centraal Museum

Content

Chintz, new in the 17th century
by Gieneke Arnolli

Between justaucorps, żupan and kontusz. Exchange of information on styles of garments based on drawings in Polish tailor’s books
by Beata Biedrońska-Słota

The creative craft of thankfulness
by Annelena de Groot

The progress of pockets and purses (or #whatsinyourbag)
by Alexandra Kim

‘Fantaisies en gélatine’. Gelatin and the production of sequins and other decorative elements on costumes
by Marjolein Koek

The traditional costume of nobility and bourgeoisie as an expression of patriotism in 19th century Poland
by Joanna Regina Kowalska

New Media for Exhibition of Historic Fashion: The Drexel Digital Museum Project
by Kathi Martin and Claire King

Fashion in Modern Serbia: Tradition, Innovation, and Interpretation
by Draginja Maskareli

Innovation in Fashion – a very short introduction
by Bianca du Mortier

Catherinettes. A textile custom on the 25th of november
by Dorothea Nicolai