All That Glitters...
February 26 – March 23, 2025
FIT’s School of Graduate Studies, in collaboration with The Museum at FIT, presents All That Glitters…, an exhibition conceived and organized by graduate students in FIT’s MA Fashion and Textiles Studies program. All that glitters is not always gold—it can be any medium that catches the light, shines, and reflects. The post-World War II era saw a blossoming of new textiles and technologies that changed the relationship between fashion materials and light. “All That Glitters…” explores surfaces that shine, focusing on themes of material production, social and financial values, and conservation. It examines not only the bright side of these materials, but also their darker side–including their environmental impact and their use in protests, such as “glitter bombing.”
The physical exhibition was accompanied with a website, found here.
I served as Conservation Advisor, working with the conservators at MFIT to condition, treat, and mount the objects for photography and for display. I also coordinated the creation of a conservation case, showcasing the materials identification work done in conservation, and wrote the associated tombstones. I wrote an essay for the catalogue accompanying the exhibition.
Images of the installed exhibition are below.
Left, above & below: the conservation case, that included a copy of American Fabrics, as well as Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Polarized Light Microscopy (SEM) imagery of fibers.
Below: the touch case in the exhibition, with examples of glittering fabrics and fibers for visitors to handle.
