Mediating Methodologies: Examining the Competing Interests of Designers and Curators in Fashion Exhibition-Making Practices

This article examines the complex relationships between designers and curators in contemporary fashion exhibition-making, foregrounding the curator’s evolving role as mediator between artistic vision and institutional constraints. Challenging the assumption that the functions of “Curator” and “Designer” are distinct in current practice, this study interrogates how authorship and legacy are negotiated when exhibiting the work of living designers. Through comparative analysis of Andrew Bolton’s curation of Rei Kawakubo: Art of the In-Between (Met, 2017), Claire Wilcox’s Radical Fashion (V&A, 2001), and Judith Clark’s independent collaboration with designer Hussein Chalayan (Play: Hussein Chalayan, 2000), the research explores differing modes of dialogue and mediation across institutional and independent contexts. Drawing on archival correspondence, curatorial interviews, and theoretical models, the study reconsiders curatorial autonomy and the ethics of collaboration. It argues that productive tension between designer and curator can be a generative force, reframing the curator’s practice as a form of “mediation-curation”. By focusing on the communicative and relational dimensions of exhibition-making, the paper redefines the curator’s responsibility – not only to the objects on display, but to the creative relationships that make their display possible.