Building New Zealand’s Fashion Profile Online

The New Zealand Fashion Museum is a very modern affair with a strong online presence, organising exhibitions around the country but without a physical location of its own.

It is only one of a score of new fashion museums or exhibition sites that have opened worldwide in the last couple of years. From this online platform curated in Auckland to a glass house in Santiago, the fashion museum is definitely à la mode.

Created in 2010 as a charitable trust by Doris de Pont, a fashion historian, the Web site recently promoted a one-month exhibition, “The Age of Aquarius – A ’70s Revolution in Fashion,” in Auckland and continues to invite New Zealanders to upload photos to help create an archive of the country’s fashion history.

“There is no doubt that fashion has become a big winner for cultural institutions,” said de Pont, who lists the museum’s corporate sponsors and individual donors on the site. “Attracting valuable media attention and a huge audience has enabled museums and galleries to build their profile and generate revenue through entry fees and prestigious sponsorship opportunities.”