Adjunct Instructor
Kenna Libes
- School of Liberal Arts and Sciences
- History of Art
Fashion’s Missing Masses
The representation of marginalized populations in collections and exhibitions of dress
Fashion’s Missing Masses fills a gap in literature on museums and fashion collections and focuses on the display of clothing and fashion that has historically been left out of the canon. The fifteen essays in this volume span topics on Indigenous and traditional dress; disabled and fat bodies; and queer and ethnic identities. Their authors study the ways that the associated dress materials have been collected, displayed, and passed over across a century and a half of museum exhibitions.
The reexamination of dress history is an emerging topic of interest in the field, and while there have been recent conferences and forthcoming journal issues on the topic, there are no books that specifically and solely deal with representation in fashion museums. This is a new and rapidly evolving area of research, and these chapters provides unique information and perspectives valuable to a wide group of audiences. The authors are curators, conservators, and scholars who study the dress of marginalized populations and believe strongly in diversifying the bodies and cultures included in exhibitions.
This volume touches on practical concerns of exhibition, including mannequin availability and difficulties of mounting dress, as well as broader questions of scholarship and activism that will be key for educators and researchers who wish to stay abreast of developments in this field. Diversity in fashion is a hot topic, and understanding the line between tokenization and representation in spaces of institutional authority is crucial to learning how we can better serve our diverse populations in the teaching of history.
How did you first come up with the idea for this work?
I was approached after a conference presentation I gave about my research in May 2023.
What was your research process like?
It was completed research that I had done for my FIT MA degree in 2021.
How long did you work on this before it was published?
May 2023 to present! 2.5 years.
Does this work relate to your role at FIT? If so, how?
Tangentially, in that I was educated here and refer to the Museum at FIT in my chapter.
What was your biggest challenge? What was most rewarding?
Wrangling sixteen other authors & editing a 420-page book mostly on my own!
Is there other information we should know?
Michelle McVicker, previously at the Museum at FIT, also contributed to the book.
Have you published any other books or have any upcoming publications?
No other books; I just published a short Bloomsbury Costume Library article ( “Plus-sized Patternmaking as Historic Dress Scholarship,” Bloomsbury Dress and Costume Library [online] (Autumn 2025). http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781350878327.001 ). I have an article in progress at Costume right now (peer review stage) and will be publishing my dissertation as a book in the future.
- Professor at FIT since Spring 2025
- Book published in Jan 2026