The Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection hosted Sarah Scaturro, the Eric and Jane Nord Chief Conservator at the Cleveland Museum of Art, as their Ruth Ketterer Harris Lecturer Feb. 22.
This year’s lecture, titled “Mending the Museum: The Professionalization of Textile Conservation,” was specifically exciting as it’s the first time they have invited a conservator to speak — and it related directly to their newest exhibition, “Remaking the Renaissance.” Remaking the Renaissance Curator Sophie Pitman, said in her opening remarks, “This talk is long overdue.”
Scaturro’s lecture focused on how textile conservation became a profession and how it’s largely been overlooked as a legitimate form of conservation in the discipline.
To weave the narrative on how the profession and craft came to be, Scaturro took audiences back to Scandinavia in the early 1900s to the state of the profession today.
In order to be a conservator, one needs a copious amount of training not only in art history but also in science and in the craft. For fashion conservators this means they must be well trained in mending fabrics and understanding fabrics.
The main reason as to why fashion conservation has been overlooked as a profession is because it had to do with mending and sewing, things that were traditionally done by a woman in the household, Scaturro said during the lecture.
The difference between classic household mending and fashion conservation is that for the household, a garment should be able to be used again while in fashion conservation the goal is to stabilize in order to display a historical garment, without changing it too much.
Textile conservation is also largely objective, with different conservators having different opinions on how a garment should be mended. Some conservators prefer stitching while others believe that adhesives are the best way to do something, though neither is correct or incorrect.
One of the most important factors of fashion conservation is that everything done to the garment should be undone.
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These garments are not just clothes or materials, but also historical documents, Scaturro said. So a conservator has to take the time to investigate the textile including whether it’s dirty, if that’s historically significant and if the textile should be washed.
Toward the end of the lecture, Scaturro opened the floor up for questions. One attendant asked her about the controversial moment when Kim Kardashian wore Marilyn Monroe’s dress, a historical textile
Scaturro was quoted in several news sources regarding the situation when it happened — but her answer as to why it’s an issue had changed since 2022.
She responded to the question by saying it was “not a great idea.” She went on to add that at first, she was very against what happened since it set a dangerous precedent for how historical garments should be treated but says her thinking evolved when looking at the value of the dress.
When Monroe wore the dress for President John F. Kennedy’s birthday, it was meant to look naked, blending into her skin. She pointed to the fact that she was not as disappointed that Kardashian wore the dress, but rather the fact that she didn’t value it – It didn’t match her skin tone and it didn’t fit her well.
Scaturro’s lecture can be viewed on Facebook for those interested in learning more about textile conservation or are looking for further knowledge after visiting “Remaking the Renaissance” exhibit.
