Moveable Fashion Museum to tour
A transportable fashion museum, the brainchild of fashion innovator Doris de Pont, will be rolling into Dunedin later on this year.
After 25 years as a designer, de Pont has traded setting the trends for recording those that have shaped New Zealand’s unique take on expressing our identity through what we wear and how we wear it.
Passionate about the history of this country’s fashion, de Pont saw a gap with no one agency specifically dedicated to recording fashion’s contribution to our culture.
Last year she set up the New Zealand Fashion Museum Charitable Trust and she is currently finalising the museum’s first showing, Looking Terrific – the Story of El Jay.
The Fashion Museum Trustees include Otago Polytechnic’s Fashion Academic Leader and educator, Margo Barton.
“There is this perception that fashion in New Zealand had no merit before the late 1990s but this is completely untrue,” de Pont says.
“Look at the photos of our past and you will see amazingly dressed men and women. I believe passionately that our unique fashion story must be revealed and preserved.
“In collecting for this first show for the fashion museum some incredible clothes and stories have come out of the closets of many New Zealanders. It has heartened me to hear the great memories associated with many of the outfits that will be displayed. There is a real emotional attachment to beautifully tailored clothes that we have worn as life-shaping decisions were made, or events occurred.”
It wouldn’t be about fashion if it wasn’t unconventional and de Pont has created a museum without bricks and mortar, unconstrained by the responsibility of holding and preserving collections. It’s an idea backed by other fashion leaders including designer Karen Walker and New Zealand Fashion Week founder Pieter Stewart.
De Pont will pull together exhibitions around themes and ideas that are relevant to today and move them to suitable venues and centres around New Zealand to put them on display, giving accessibility to the concept of understanding and enjoying our fashion history.
“All exhibitions will be free to the public and being responsive, relevant and accessible to all New Zealanders are important concepts to the fashion museum,” de Pont says.
Once an exhibition has completed its run it will be recorded for posterity on the fashion museum’s website www.fashionmuseum.org.nz and the exhibits will be returned to the homes that love them. The website, will be developed as funds are raised for the project.
“I think this moveable museum with no permanent home is the first of its kind anywhere,” de Pont says. “Because it is very much about sharing fashion experiences anyone can be part of it. The museum’s website has details on how people can stay informed and get involved.”