Ephemeral Matters. Into the Fashion Archive
all photos: edgingtology
Ephemeral Matters. Into the Fashion Archive was presented at the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo, on view from 19 October 2024 to 23 March 2025. (Nasjonalmuseet)
The exhibition proposed a critical re-evaluation of fashion ephemera—those fragile, often discarded printed materials such as invitations, catalogues, press releases, and promotional objects produced around fashion events. Though typically conceived as temporary, these items were repositioned as key documents of cultural, economic, and aesthetic histories within the fashion system. (Fashion Research Library)
Developed in collaboration with guest curator Marco Pecorari, the project drew on six private and institutional collections from Europe and the United States, including rare archives, zines, and printed matter spanning from the 18th century to the present. (Fashion Research Library) The display brought together over 500 objects—many rarely or never previously exhibited—offering insight into the backstage mechanisms of fashion production and communication. (Fashion Research Library)
Installed within the museum’s Prints and Drawings galleries, the exhibition foregrounded the paradox of ephemera: materials produced with significant creative and economic investment, yet intended to be short-lived. By inviting visitors to engage directly with archival formats—opening drawers, navigating documents, and tracing connections—the exhibition emphasised the active role of collecting and preservation in constructing fashion history. (Fashion Research Library)
Beyond a historical survey, Ephemeral Matters positioned ephemeral printed matter as a critical lens through which to reconsider the archive itself—not as a neutral repository, but as a site shaped by cultural hierarchies, omissions, and acts of recovery. In doing so, it underscored the continued relevance of ephemera in the digital age, where questions of memory, circulation, and materiality remain deeply contested.
Fashion ephemera is a term used to identify flimsy printed documents such as invitations, catalogues, press releases and other paraphernalia created on the occasion of fashion shows and other special events in the fashion industry and beyond. Although generally the result of great creative and economic investment, these documents are often thrown away after serving their original purpose, with the outcome that few of them survive. Ephemeral Matters. Into the Fashion Archive explores this paradox and brings to light these overlooked printed remains through the presentation of six private and public archives.
The exhibition displays a unique selection of historical and contemporary fashion ephemera. It explores different collecting practices and reveals the importance of this material in the history of fashion and printed media more broadly.
What stories do these objects and documents reveal about the history of making and collecting the ephemeral in fashion? Why and how are ephemera collected and conserved?
You are invited to delve into the collections, open drawers, uncover unexpected links between past and present, and, finally, learn more about the power of these printed fashion ephemera in our current digital age.
The meaning of the ephemeral is constantly changing. The term ‘ephemera’ derives from the Greek ephēmeros, meaning ‘lasting for one day’. It was originally adopted by scientists to describe a fever and then a category of mayfly in the Ephemeroptera order.
During the 16th and 17th centuries, the term became associated with the increased production and consumption of ‘less lasting’ objects typical of Western consumer culture, as depicted in vanitas paintings. In the late 19th century, the term was adopted by collectors and amateurs to refer to printed artefacts that were not intended to survive beyond their initial purpose. Here you find a selection of documents, objects and an immersive video work that illustrate how this change in meaning resonates in today’s fashion ephemera.
