Andrea Branzi’s portraits, Goat and Dog, 1973, are dressed in clothing that could have been drawn from the same season’s collections, Walter Albini’s suits, for example. We recognise the early 1970’s looser tailoring, the knitwear, ‘Made in Italy’, and the cigarette dangling from the Goat’s lips, looks just like Visconti’s star Helmut Berger on the cover of L’Uomo Vogue in October 1973. They are desiring, cool, posed, styled: contemporary. The shoulders might be a little exaggerated but feel more compositional than absurd. The portraits are not mocking but affectionate, less like caricatures and more like extracts from a ‘domestic’ fable.
From my catalogue entry for Andrea Branzi by Toyo Ito Continuous Present currently on at @triennalemilano #andreabranzi
“Anachronic Bodies” – talk by Judith Clark
This video presentation drew on Judith Clark’s 30 years of fashion exhibition-making and looked, in particular, at the mannequin as an ongoing opportunity for collaborative practice. The mannequin bridges the time of the exhibition [the present] and the period associated with the original garment.
Thank you again to everyone for coming to the Fashion Research Symposium 2026! A full day of research, knowledge-sharing and critical discourse around fashion. In collaboration between @nasjonalmuseet & @fashionresearchlibrary . More soon!
Photo: @maggull
Judith Clark is Professor of Fashion and Museology at University of the Arts, London, is a curator and fashion exhibition-maker based in London. She has recently opened a studio space in Notting hill, to exhibit hypothetical exhibitions of dress in the form of 1:12 models. Clark opened the first experimental gallery of fashion in London (1997-2002). Since then Clark has curated major exhibitions of dress at the V&A, London; ModeMuseum, Antwerp; Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Palazzo Pitti, Florence; La Triennale, Milano, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, Simone Handbag Museum, Seoul, and in 2012 installed Frida Kahlo’s dresses at her home in Mexico City. In 2015 she curated the inaugural exhibition at La Galerie, Louis Vuitton, in Asnieres. Her exhibition ‘The Vulgar: Fashion Redefined’ travelled from the Barbican to the Winter Palais in Vienna, and to ModeMuseum, Hasselt in September 2017. Her Femininities. Guy Bourdin opened at Maison Chloe in July 2017. In 2018 and 2019 she collaborated with the Museo Cristobal Balenciaga on the series ‘Cristobal Balenciaga: Fashion and Heritage’ and in 2019 opened Lanvin:130 in Shanghai. She twice curated the fashion section of Homo Faber projects in Venice (2018, 2022). In 2025 she opened If You Know You Know, Loro Piana’s Quest for Excellence at the Museum of Art Pudong in Shanghai. She is currently the show curator for Vogue World: Milano, to be staged in September 2026.
Fashion Research Symposium 2026 is a collaboration between @nasjonalmuseet and @fashionresearchlibrary . Get your tickets now via link in bio!
A homage to Jean Block who died last month. A set designer and comic artist, and a founding member of ERCOLA. I had the pleasure of working with Jean closely on the building of Malign Muses for ModeMuseum in Antwerp in 2004 and he came to London to re-install it in 2005 as Spectres. He helped me scale up balsa wood models and sketches into cogs that could actually turn, interlock and hold mannequins. He was careful not to lose any of the ideas for the sake of ease.
Fantastic small display currently on at the Pinacoteca di Varallo: a selection from their drawings collection and photographs of the history of the museum itself.
![“Anachronic Bodies” – talk by Judith ClarkThis video presentation drew on Judith Clark’s 30 years of fashion exhibition-making and looked, in particular, at the mannequin as an ongoing opportunity for collaborative practice. The mannequin bridges the time of the exhibition [the present] and the period associated with the original garment.Thank you again to everyone for coming to the Fashion Research Symposium 2026! A full day of research, knowledge-sharing and critical discourse around fashion. In collaboration between @nasjonalmuseet & @fashionresearchlibrary. More soon!Photo: @maggull](https://sp1.picnob.com/p/pt_6747474161505567215441_0_2db920751a9e41df31be3235a62f6940.jpg?o=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&h=65daaeddcf0423303c62f7e049637de7)
