“All the Ba-zooms Go”

Abstract

Fatness may be finding representation on the catwalk, but it has few friends in the museum. This article uses a case study of the Costume Institute alongside interviews with a variety of museum professionals and dealers of historic clothing to discuss the culture of acquisition and exhibition that tends to exclude larger garments from display. This bias consists of a set of subjective aesthetic preferences that drives curators and collectors to focus their efforts on garments designed for or worn by people with ideal bodies and is reinforced by the well-intentioned effort to have fashion recognized as a higher decorative art form rather than a practical craft. The mechanisms by which collections develop and exhibitions are created often reinforce the exclusion of larger sizes, making change a complex endeavor, but the active renegotiation of these norms is already in progress.