Exhibition design: working meeting in the exhibit rooms (Antwerp, BE)

I visited yesterday the MoMu (Mode Museum in Antwerp) to write about the exhibition BLACK. Masters of Black in Fashion & Costume.

When I was doing all the tour, taking photos and notes for my blog´s review, I noticed that there was going on an interesting situation in the rooms.  A small group of four-five people were standing in the middle of the main hall in between displays, just down by one of the spotlights (all show was very dark honoring the title of the exhibit!) discussing around an object.  I approach the group out of curiosity and stayed around to find out.

Definitely they were not normal visitors, so I immediately deduced they were working on the development and design of the next exhibition.  I tried to discretely take some pictures, as I am interested in how museum professionals debate over designing or taking decisions right in the very exhibition space and since this was unusual case since, as Saturday, the exhibit was quite packed with visitors.  The group seemed completely unaware of that.

Today, I am working on the pictures from yesterday and just realized what was going on: the museum's team were merely working hands on with "the star" of the new exhibition to open next September'10: Stephen Jones, milliner with long successful career from UK.

(poor quality of the picture for very dark ambient lighting)

They were working over one head's model that presumably will be used for the upcoming show and were trying different positions down the very dark lights of the current exhibition and were deciding on ways of displays.

This is the reference from the MoMu's website on the upcoming exposition Stephen Jones & The Accent of Fashion.

In 2009 there was an exhibition at the V & A  Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones (24 Feb - 31 May 2009).

V & A produced this video for the exhibition: Millinery in Action: making a hat in the Stephen Jones workroom 

Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones (note: text is from V&A exhibit's website, but individual website is already closed by the museum)

24 February - 31 May 2009

Working with radical hat designer, Stephen Jones, the V&A presented an ‘anthology of hats’. Drawn from V&A and international collections and ranging in style and period from a 17th-century Puritan’s hat to a 1950s Balenciaga couture piece to hats by Jones and his contemporaries including to the latest creations by young milliners such as Noel Stewart, the exhibition investigated the cultural and historic importance of millinery. The exhibition was arranged in four main themes - Inspiration looked at the myriad of sources including historicism, exoticism and the natural world; Creation explored the techniques, materials and processes; The Salon focused on the buying and selling of hats and the millinery shop; and The Clients which examined the wearing and etiquette of hats and featured headgear worn by well known clients of some of the world’s top milliners including Audrey Hepburn, Anna Piaggi, Dita von Teese.