Practice Im/Perfect is a conversation series hosted by Dr Cyana Madsen, curator and researcher, exploring how creative practitioners across curation, performance, design, and digital innovation define, develop, and reshape their practice. Through conversations with specialists across the cultural sector, the series surfaces shared learnings, evolving approaches, and the passions that continue to inspire their creative and professional outputs.
In this episode of Practice Im/Perfect, we have a curator roundtable discussion on the lived realities of fashion curatorial practice with host Cyana Madsen, and guests Jeffrey Horsley and Matteo Augello.
Jeffrey is a curator, writer and researcher specialising in fashion exhibitions and innovative approaches to the display and interpretation of dress. Originally trained in theatre design, he has developed and produced award-winning exhibitions and events spanning fashion, contemporary art, design and archaeology. He completed his PhD at the University of the Arts London in 2012, researching the relationship between personal biography and fashion exhibition-making. He is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Fashion Curation at London College of Fashion, UAL, and Principal Investigator of the AHRC-funded 'Exhibiting Fashion' research project, which explores how exhibition-making can contribute to the development of museum practice. His research examines the histories, methods and possibilities of exhibiting fashion, with a particular interest in experimental display, collaboration and the representation of dress in museum contexts.
Matteo is a fashion curator, researcher and lecturer whose work explores fashion history, costume, textiles and the cultural politics of fashion curation. He studied fashion design before completing an MA and his PhD examining the role of Italian fashion and textile industries in the development of fashion curation. His research investigates how museums, exhibitions and corporate collections shape narratives of national fashion heritage, with particular attention to the influence of industry on cultural institutions and curatorial practice. He has worked with museums and cultural organisations in the UK and Italy, and his practice extends into performance, exhibition-making and collaborative research. He is the author of 'Curating Italian Fashion', and is Fellow at the Harry Ransom Center in Austin, Texas, researching the archive of actress Gloria Swanson.
Cyana is a curator, cultural producer and researcher whose work explores material culture, object biography and the narratives through which clothing and collections are interpreted. She is Course Leader of the MA Fashion Curation and Cultural Programming at London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London, where she completed her PhD in 2024, and Research Fellow at UWE Bristol on the AHRC-funded project 'A Museum of Uncollected Things'. Her doctoral research developed the concept of “curatorial interruption”, examining how individual subjectivity, institutional structures and professional working environments shape the interpretation and documentation of worn clothing, and whose histories are represented in museum collections. Drawing on her background in film and television production, styling, archiving and exhibition-making, she explores material and immaterial approaches to critical curatorial practice, including olfactory interpretation. She is co-founder of MADSEN SYLVESTER STUDIO, an experimental exhibition space in Kent, where her practice brings critical research into dialogue with contemporary exhibition-making.
In this wide-ranging conversation, we explore what Jeffrey and Matteo's practice looks like today, issues in the field around gender, class, and performance, and what motivates their work.
More on Dr Jeffrey Horsley here: www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-horsley-76673a26/
and Dr Matteo Augello here: www.linkedin.com/in/matteo-augell…elfProfile=false
Produced by Cyana Madsen
Recorded by Nicholas Sargeant and Adam Whitcomb
Edited by Oliver Furlong
Research Assistance from Madi Hough
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