On Friday, April 7, Bard Graduate Center students were given a private tour of the exhibition The Secret Life of Textiles: Synthetic Materials, on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was led by exhibition curator Sarah Scaturro, head of the conservation lab at the Met’s Costume Institute, who is also a BGC doctoral student.
The exhibition explores the conservation of synthetic materials used in fashion, and highlights the innovative ways that plastics are used by fashion designers and promoted by manufacturers. During the tour, Sarah gave an in-depth analysis of the challenges conservators face when preserving plastics that have a condition called “inherent vice,” which is a conservation term referring to an intrinsic characteristic of an object that contributes to its degradation. These challenges were exemplified by objects such as Commes des Garcons boots containing polyurethane and polyvinylchloride, and a pair of identical Elsa Schiaparelli belts, both made from clear cellulose acetate, but in remarkably different condition based on their past use and chemical formulations—one belt is still stable and clear, while the other is broken, yellowed, and cracking.
The students left the exhibition with a deeper understanding of the ubiquitousness of plastics within fashion, and an appreciation for the exciting new territory forged by conservators in charge of preserving synthetic materials.
