Curator and author Amy de la Haye, the Rootstein Hopkins Chair of Dress History and Curatorship at the London College of Fashion, will present two free, public lectures and book signings as part of her weeklong residency at the Sue Ann Genet Costume Collection in the ’ (VPA) Department of Design.
Amy de la Haye
On Monday, Feb. 23, at 2:30 p.m., de la Haye will present the talk “Chanel’s Butterflies: the Corsets, Crinolines and Bustles.” On Wednesday, Feb. 25, at 2:30 p.m., she will speak on “Objects of a Passion: Fashion in the Context of the Museum.” Both lectures will be held in the first-floor auditorium of the Nancy Cantor Warehouse, 350 W. Fayette St., ϲ. The ϲ Bookstore will make select books by de la Haye available for purchase and signing.
De la Haye studied design history at Brighton University and holds a master of arts degree in cultural history from the Royal College of Art. She worked as a researcher for the BBC’s dress history series “Through the Looking Glass” (1989) and as an assistant curator at the Hove Museum. From 1991-99 she served as curator of 20th-century dress at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), where she curated two major exhibitions: “Streetstyle: From Sidewalk to Catwalk” (1994) and “The Cutting Edge: 50 Years of British Fashion” (1997) as well as a number of smaller shows.
In 2000, de la Haye joined the faculty of the London College of Fashion and currently teaches in the graduate fashion curation program. Her diverse curated exhibitions have included “The Messel Family Dress Collection: 5 Generations of Dress” (with Lou Taylor and Eleanor Thompson, Brighton Museum); “Liberace’s Stage Costumes” (Selfridges, Oxford Street); “Catherine Walker: A British Couturière” (V&A); “Carnaby Street: 50” (with Judith Clark, Carnaby Street); and the uniform-based exhibition “The Land Girls: Cinderellas of the Soil” (Brighton Museum). Her most recent curated exhibition is “Coco Chanel: A New Portrait by Marion Pike” (Fashion Space Gallery at London College of Fashion and Palazzo Morando, Milan, Italy).
De la Haye is the author of such books as “Fashion Since 1900” with Valerie Mendes (Thames & Hudson); “Chanel: The Couturière at Work” with Shelley Tobin (the Overlook Press); “Chanel: Couture and Industry” (V&A); and “The House of Worth: Portrait of an Archive 1890-1914” (V&A).
The lectures are presented by VPA’s fashion design program in conjunction with the Sue Ann Genet Costume Collection. For more information, contact Jeffrey Mayer, associate professor of fashion design and curator of the Sue Ann Genet Costume Collection, at 315-443-4644 or jcmayer@syr.edu.
