Fashion curation, collaboration and men’s clothing: Taking the work where it needs to go

As part of the inaugural Locating Menswear Forum on 5 July 2024 in Liverpool, Andrew Ibi, Neil Macdonald, Danielle Sprecher, Tory Turk and Ben Whyman took part in a panel that explored fashion curation and men’s clothing. We covered notions of identity, collaboration, personal practice-based research, interdisciplinary research and locating objects in narratives where there may be states of flux. The conversation was not recorded. What follows is not an exact transcription of our conversation but a reimagining that allows the memories and thinking around the practices of fashion curation that we spoke about to have developed and changed through reflection and ongoing practice. The aim, with our conversation in Liverpool and this article, is to foster further conversations around locating masculine identities in exhibitions, contextualizing narratives in increasingly unstable times, the power of collaboration, intersecting cultures and cultural exchange, and inclusive practices. We had a lot to say between us when we talked in July, responding to ideas around menswear and identity and menswear as cultural exchange. This article offers an inclusive, practice-based and interdisciplinary approach to describing the practice and theory of fashion curation – why we do what we do.