MA Fashion Curation

A unique curation course that creates an opportunity to explore both the theoretical aspects and practical challenges of curating contemporary fashion and historical dress in a wide range of formats and locations

MA Fashion Curation is a unique opportunity to investigate the ways in which fashion and dress can be collected and displayed, and offers the opportunity to engage with theoretical discussions and debates that underpin this exciting and growing discipline. Fashion exhibitions are a key part of the national and international landscape of contemporary society, attracting some of the largest audiences to major museums. Fashion exhibitions have also become increasingly visible in department stores, galleries and the wider community. This shift represents the growing status of the curator as a central cultural mediator.

MA Fashion Curation will equip you with the skills to enter this fast paced and growing field. A key aspect of this course is the practical skills and experience gained in staging a live fashion-related exhibition. This group project presents students with an exciting collaborative opportunity to explore a range of approaches, mediums and practices that constitute the roles required in realising a curatorial project.

The changing possibilities of curating and the curator are introduced and examined through seminars, workshops, and lectures, given by LCF researchers and lecturers and key industry professionals. Students are encouraged to undertake internships whilst on the course and past placements have been at Victoria and Albert Museum, Museum of London, Kerry Taylor Auctions, Alexander McQueen Archives, Rambert Dance Company Archives, Museum of the City of New York and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Taught by a team of internationally renowned curators, including Professor Amy de la Haye and Professor Judith Clark, this course makes full use of fashion-related collections and archives both within and outside London to explore the issues and concerns that consume today's fashion curators. Areas that are explored with the MA include: displaying dress; creating 'stories' from objects; writing texts to target audiences; model-making; collecting, handling and archiving garments.

Our growing number of alumni can now be found in a perse range of organisations, including museums, galleries, universities, as well as developing freelance careers as consultants, archivists and curators.

"It was really fantastic to be focused on theory and picking apart the practice of curating and how you can guide the interpretation of an object, by positioning it in different places and ways. For me that always sets apart people who have done an MA in curation and those who haven’t, because there are really specific set of thoughts and processes you use. We did a group project so there were really challenging practical things alongside the theory. As part of the MA you stage an exhibition as a group and you have to do everything yourselves, including finding the funding. It’s really challenging but it gives you so many tools to get an idea of how you go out and put together an exhibition, raise and run a budget – I’m not sure you get this opportunity on other curation courses, which really sets the LCF course apart." - Shonagh Marshall, MA Fashion Curation Alumni

(Read more of Shonagh's insights here)

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