Costume Institute Conservation Fellows
Current
Margherita Barone
Margherita Barone has been the Gerald and Mary Ellen Ritter Memorial Fellow since September 2023. During her first year as fellow, she focused on the historical and technical research of four late 18th-century silk panels from The Costume Institute’s collection which had been embroidered to be made into a dress (1998.191a–d). Her project revealed that the intended garment was likely a robe à la piémontaise. To explore its construction, she made a muslin reproduction that was also used in a visitor activity that Margherita developed and coordinated with the Education Department. In her second year, she is studying cleaning methods for deodorant stains on a 1960s Geoffrey Beene romper (1977.412.4a–c), which has been analyzed in collaboration with the Department of Scientific Research.
- Barone, Margherita. Forthcoming. “Discovering the “Unfinished”: Historical and Technical Study of a Late 18th-century Fabric Embroidered à la Disposition from The Costume Institute Collection.” In Mending Threads, Filling Gaps: Conservation Narratives of Loss and Renewal. North American Textile Conservation Conference.
- Barone, Margherita. 2024. “Robe à l’anglaise.” In Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion, by Andrew Bolton. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Past
Kris Cnossen
Kris Cnossen was a junior fellow at The Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from 2022-2023. They graduated from the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation, specializing in textiles with a focus in modern art and materials. They previously interned at the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, where they assisted in the preparation and completed treatments for the 2022 Stephen Sprouse exhibition. Kris has also interned at the St. Louis Museum of Art, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Toledo Museum of Art, Mountain States Art Conservation, and the Maryland Center for History and Culture. After their fellowship, Kris will be starting a private practice in Michigan.
Kris' project was called "Inconspicuous Plastics: What is the Potential for Damage When Cleaning Vintage Nylon?". Nylon is relatively under-researched by conservators and untested by time. Kris spent their year at The Costume Institute on an experiment to understand the potential for damage to vintage nylon during wet cleaning. Cleaning involved bathing the samples using traditional textile conservation methods. Nylon samples taken from a non-accessioned vintage garment were analyzed in collaboration with the Department of Scientific Research before and after cleaning to track whether damage occurred to the nylon. The samples were then artificially aged in collaboration with the Scientific Research & Analysis Department at the Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library and analyzed again to see how the vintage nylon would age. The results of the analysis will be published in a future journal.
- Sanchez, Sarah, Sarah Nunberg, Kris Cnossen, and Matthew Eckelman. “Life Cycle Assessment of Anoxic Treatments for Cultural Heritage Preservation.” Resources, Conservation and Recycling 190, Article 106825 (March 2023). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2022.106825.
- Camp, Annabelle, and Kris Cnossen. “Mixing Solutions: Combining Paper and Textile Approaches to Treat Iron-mordanted Printed Cotton.” Paper presented at the 50th American Institute for Conservation Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, California, May 13–18, 2022.
- Camp, Annabelle, and Kris Cnossen. “Dyes, Paints, and Inks: An Overview of Visual Compensation Techniques in Textile Conservation.” Paper presented at the 6th International Meeting on Retouching of Cultural Heritage, Valencia, Spain, November 4–6, 2021.
Kaelyn Garcia
Kaelyn Garcia was Polaire Weissman Fund Fellow from 2019 to 2022. Kaelyn’s work, in collaboration with the Department of Scientific Research, focused on synthetic materials in The Costume Institute’s collection that had begun to deteriorate, with the goal of improving storage, documentation, and display practices. An initial survey to categorize plastic materials including buttons and zipper fasteners using instrumental analysis gave rise to a subsequent study of the paints employed by Elsa Schiaparelli and analysis of surface efflorescence on buttons used by couturier Mainbocher. After concluding a real-time ageing experiment begun by previous fellows, Kaelyn developed and implemented new anoxic PVC-P and polyurethane storage protocols to prolong the life of these materials.