Asia in Fashion: Framing global fashion in the Asian Civilisations Museum

In recent years, the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) opened a permanent gallery for Fashion and Textiles, and has organised several fashion exhibitions and programmes. In this seminar, Wessie Ling will share how global fashion can be taken as a site for multiple layers of world encounters that lead to intriguing cultural dynamics. She will examine the extent to which global fashion can be considered an interdisciplinary conceptual framework for museum practice in, but not exclusive to, dress and textiles.

Reflecting on her recent trip to the museum, she will also discuss the current Fashionable in Asia display, some recent ACM acquisitions, and Singapore as a gateway to global fashion through a Southeast Asian lens. Jackie Yoong will respond by sharing about ACM’s recent efforts in its approach to Asia in Fashion.

 

Speaker

Wessie Ling is Professor of Transcultural Art and Design at London Metropolitan University and the Director of CREATURE (Research Centre for Creative Arts, Cultures and Engagement). She was the inaugural Research Fellow at LASALLE College of the Arts (2022), Rita Bolland Fellow at the Research Centre of Material Culture, National Museum of World Cultures (2018–19), and ASEAN Research Fellow at the Research Institute of Languages and Cultures of Asia, Mahidol University (2018). Her recent publications include Fashion in Multiple Chinas (co-edited, 2018), “Italianeri: Transculturality, co-creation and transforming identities between Italy and Asia” in Modern Italy (co-authored, 2019), “Critical studies in global fashion” in ZoneModa Journal (co-authored, 2019), and “Conceptualizing Made in China for a museum exhibition” in Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture (2021).

 

Moderator

Jackie Yoong is Senior Curator, Fashion and Textiles, at the Asian Civilisations Museum and the Peranakan Museum (TPM) in Singapore. Her curatorial projects include traveling displays of Peranakan fashion to museums in Paris, Seoul, and Tokyo; and Guo Pei: Chinese Art & Couture (2019) at ACM. Recently, she has developed the new permanent fashion galleries of ACM and TPM (reopening 2023). She received an MA in Art History from SOAS University of London on the Alphawood Scholarship. She is currently serving on the ICOM Costume, Fashion and Textiles Committee Board.

 

 

To register please click on the link or scan the QR code

https://go.gov.sg/acmtalks14

_{Image: Sarong kebaya showcase in “Fashionable in Asia”, ACM Fashion and Textiles Gallery, 2022}

 

ACMtalks brings leading scholars in conversation with curators at ACM to explore our core curatorial themes: Maritime Trade, Faith & Belief, and Materials & Design. These lectures and discussions will illuminate aspects of the museum’s collection strengths in export art and sacred objects, as well as Asian fashion and textiles, lacquer and silver, jewellery, and ceramics. Webinars take place on the third Thursday of the month, from 7 to 8 pm, Singapore Standard Time (UTC+08).