MY WORLD: ORIOLE CULLEN
MEET ORIOLE CULLEN, the V&A CURATOR BEHIND A MAJOR DIOR RETROSPECTIVE, OPENING this MONTH. AIMEE FARRELL EXPLORES HER LIFE and STYLE
The curator behind the V&A’s major Dior retrospective opens up about her life and style
As an academic working for a world-renowned historic institution, it’s no surprise that Oriole Cullen’s office is packed, floor to ceiling, with books. ‘They’re an addiction,’ says the Victoria and Albert Museum’s curator of fashion and textiles. There are volumes on the history of dress and biographies of British designers and their muses – many authored by Cullen herself. It’s here, in this cosy space jutting off the museum’s cavernous Furniture, Fashion and Textiles department, that she spends most of her time. ‘It’s practically the size of a postage stamp,’ she says of the room, which feels part-library, part-extraordinary auction house and has a quiet, academic atmosphere. Recently, she has also been spending a considerable amount of time at Dior Heritage, the luxury house’s archive space in Paris, ahead of the V&A’s major retrospective curated by Cullen, Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams, opening in February.
It’s a monumental moment in her career; her largest show to date. Yet as she shuffles papers on her desk, finessing the final pages of the show catalogue, you wouldn’t guess it. She wears the responsibility lightly, cracking jokes as she shows me around.
Effortlessly put together in a black suit by Osman (‘He’s a friend; I wear his clothes a lot’), with white Pharrell for Adidas trainers and a woollen Hermès scarf, clues to Cullen’s latest epic fashion adventure are everywhere. Pinned to a notice board are early drafts of the exhibition’s poster art, fabric swatches, vintage renderings of Dior’s Bar suit and the business card of the house’s Parisian archivist, who has been on speed dial throughout the forensic show prep. When realised, the exhibition will see 5OO pieces brought together in one space, including 23O dressed mannequins and a replica of the townhouse façade of Dior’s 3O Avenue Montaigne atelier. ‘Everything on show is handmade,’ she says of the clothes and sets.
The way Cullen works is similarly analogue. On her desk stands a neat line of black Moleskine notebooks and a pot of sharpened pencils. Pens are contraband in an office where precious objects from the annals of fashion history pass across the desk daily. Today, that’s a stack of mid-century sketchbooks by British illustrator Francis Marshall (the subject of Cullen’s most recent book). In a pre-digital age, Marshall produced beautiful drawings of the couture collections. He was there when Dior first debuted his New Look in February 1947, and when he made his London debut at the Savoy five years later. Marshall’s work will go on display with some of the original looks he recorded.
‘It’s all haute couture,’ she says of the looks going on display. ‘You get to really see the incredible work – the hours someone spent taking a piece of fabric, folding it and adding beads you won’t even see and a crystal on top. It’s staggering.’
Cullen, born in Dublin, joined the V&A in 2OO6, after studying the history of dress at the Courtauld Institute and working at the Museum of London as curator of dress and decorative arts. Much has changed for the 42-year-old since then. ‘When I first arrived, it was all very behind