Interview: Reconstructing the Meaning of Fashion

In Blog PressSeptember 10th, 2014

Back in March, I was interviewed by Renata M. Black for a series on Paradigm Shifters published on The Huffington Post.

Renata: Among the extremely successful exhibitions you have curated is Love & War: The Weaponized Woman. What was your inspiration for the Weaponized Woman and what legacy do you want her to leave behind?

Valerie:The Weaponized Woman was a way of looking at both armor as well as clothing and lingerie as being a kind of chic armor that make women feel empowered. This was part of a longer analysis of fashion and not intended to oppressed women, but to be an experience that women engaged with on their own terms and that helped them create a changing embodied identity and that was what that show dealt with. At first nobody understood it. People kept saying “are you doing this show about uniforms?” But then one day Prada gave an interview and she said, you know “women have to be stronger and present themselves in stronger ways,” and I thought, “That’s really more what I’m talking about.”

Read the full interview here.