Mediatization: Understanding the Rise of Fashion Exhibitions

Abstract

Fashion exhibitions are no longer a novelty in art museums. At a time when institutions are immersed in a continuous struggle for resources, these exhibitions have become a key element in their programming agendas thanks to their ability to attract large audiences and wide visibility in public opinion. Academic research on the rise of their popularity has been developed mainly from the field of fashion studies and from the field of museology or fashion curation. The paper aims to summarize these two fields and describe how the digital communication ecosystem influences the conditions of production, distribution, and consumption of exhibitions. The main conclusion reached is that communication studies are a necessary approach to explain the popularity and visibility of fashion exhibitions in museums robustly, and to account for the progressive normalization of the cultural offerings of such exhibitions.