On the Runway: Creative Collaboration through Fashion

ID: WMA2026_596

Track:

This session/panel offers concrete advice and strategies for organizing a Fashion Show tailored to the unique needs, audiences, and size of different museums. Participants will leave with a fresh take on creative possibilities in public programming by learning how to cultivate new and exciting cross-institutional relationships with students in fashion design, hair & makeup, theatre, and the visual arts.

Session Information

Format: Regular session/panel (roundtable, single speaker, etc.)

Uniqueness: A Fashion Show can be tailored to any size and type of museum while encouraging new models for cross-institutional collaboration.

Objectives:

Participants will see the value of interdisciplinary programs and be inspired to implement cross-curricular learning in their own events.

Through hands-on activities, participants will be given tools in developing a fashion show (or other creative program) that matches the budgets and bandwidths of their respective museums. 

Participants will be empowered to step outside their comfort zones and expand the possibilities of what their events can offer without feeling overwhelmed that they don’t have enough room on their plate.

Engagement: Participants will mimic the program themselves by drawing their own fashion designs. Participants will have their own template that they can then adapt for their institutional needs

Relationship to Theme:

Audience

Audiences: Curators/Scientists/Historians 

Professional Level: All levels 

Scalability:

A Fashion Show can easily be tailored to fit the unique and specific needs, audiences, and size of each museum. As a university museum, the BYU Museum of Art (MOA) worked closely with undergraduate students as they wrote artist statements for the Fashion Show and conceptualized, designed, sewed, and constructed outfits that responded to a chosen painting in a museum exhibition, “The Sense of Beauty: Six Centuries of Painting from Museo de Arte de Ponce.” But a range of different museums and cultural institutions could even work with high school students to assemble outfits and collaborate with high school classes that teach sewing, theater, fashion design, hair & makeup, the visual arts, and the performing arts. At the event itself, high school music classes can offer live music while friends & family members can serve as models on the runway. Finally, local art teachers or artists can also be invited to speak on fashion history and emerging developments in the fashion industry during the event itself. An opportunity like a Fashion Show would enable high school students to hone their design and writing skills while providing a meaningful contribution to their communities and resumés. 

The MOA’s Fashion Show was held in both a large atrium and auditorium—to great success. But for museums that don’t have a large atrium area within the building, an auditorium, multiple smaller spaces, or even an outside location can be utilized. If cost is a concern, for the MOA, charging for admission tickets helped mitigate the financial cost of organizing a Fashion Show, and swag bags were distributed to justify the price. 

The possibilities for organizing a Fashion Show are endless. Why can’t a history or science museum engage in this? Absolutely they can! For example, participants can create an outfit inspired by/in response to a particular historical artifact, era, concept, scientific specimen, species, or other objects in the collection. Don’t think fashion blends with your topic? Unlikely. For example, participants can be prompted to design an outfit to be sustainable. Gardens and Zoos? The outfits practically design themselves.

This session will also give participants the opportunity to design an outfit based on an artwork or something from their museum’s collection; craft different types of programs; and work with templates for fashion plates. Public programming in museums tends to offer the usual lineup such as tours, guest speakers, concerts, film screenings, and hands-on workshops. Ultimately, this session asks participants to brainstorm and share with others at their table: What can you do that’s out of the box? 

Participants