Bronwyn Labrum
I am Head of New Zealand and Pacific Cultures at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Prior to this I was Associate Professor in the School of Design, Massey University, New Zealand and taught in the History Programme at the University of Waikato. From 1996 - 2000 I was Curator, History and Textiles at Te Papa, where I developed my abiding interest in material and visual culture, design, fashion and textiles, and how 'history' has been collected and displayed in museums.
I am the author of the best-selling Real Modern: Everyday New Zealand in the 1950s and 1960s which was named a top 100 book for 2015 by the New Zealand Listener and is long-listed in the illustrated non-fiction category for the New Zealand Book Awards. I co-edited Fragments: New Zealand Social and Cultural History (AUP, 2000) and Looking Flash: Clothing in Aotearoa New Zealand (AUP, 2007). All three books are ground-breaking interdisciplinary volumes that bring together fresh scholarship in their fields.
I have published widely in the history of women, asylums and mental health, and twentieth century welfare, all of which stem originally from postgraduate research and I have maintained an active publication programme in those areas. My main focus is on writing and creating history through objects and images, as much as texts and archives, and in tracing the changing connections between historical material culture and museums over time. I have contributed to significant international edited collections and reference works in these areas. I currently have 4 PhD students in the areas of historical material culture studies and fashion studies.
I am the author of the best-selling Real Modern: Everyday New Zealand in the 1950s and 1960s which was named a top 100 book for 2015 by the New Zealand Listener and is long-listed in the illustrated non-fiction category for the New Zealand Book Awards. I co-edited Fragments: New Zealand Social and Cultural History (AUP, 2000) and Looking Flash: Clothing in Aotearoa New Zealand (AUP, 2007). All three books are ground-breaking interdisciplinary volumes that bring together fresh scholarship in their fields.
I have published widely in the history of women, asylums and mental health, and twentieth century welfare, all of which stem originally from postgraduate research and I have maintained an active publication programme in those areas. My main focus is on writing and creating history through objects and images, as much as texts and archives, and in tracing the changing connections between historical material culture and museums over time. I have contributed to significant international edited collections and reference works in these areas. I currently have 4 PhD students in the areas of historical material culture studies and fashion studies.
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This account involves a shift from settler histories, honorary female museum professionals working in the background, and ‘decorative arts’, to the development of dedicated fashion galleries. These recognized New Zealand as situated in the Pacific with its own distinctive history of fashion and sat alongside international blockbuster exhibitions. New Zealand museums followed international trends, at a great distance from the centres of fashion and the famous world museums. They also brought a local sensibility and history that contrasts with, and sheds light on, the wider story of museum fashion.
This account involves a shift from settler histories, honorary female museum professionals working in the background, and ‘decorative arts’, to the development of dedicated fashion galleries. These recognized New Zealand as situated in the Pacific with its own distinctive history of fashion and sat alongside international blockbuster exhibitions. New Zealand museums followed international trends, at a great distance from the centres of fashion and the famous world museums. They also brought a local sensibility and history that contrasts with, and sheds light on, the wider story of museum fashion.