Unravelling Fashion Narratives
Friday June 7 - Saturday June 8, 2024
at parsons the new school, new york
Meet us at: A404 and A407 at Alvin Johnson/J.M. Kaplan Hall, 66 West 12th St.
We are excited to announce the first Fashion Studies Network Symposium – Unraveling Fashion Narratives – co-hosted by the School of Fashion at Parsons School of Design and the School of Fashion at Toronto Metropolitan University. The symposium will take place on Friday, June 7 and Saturday, June 8, 2024, at Alvin Johnson/J.M. Kaplan Hall, 66 West 12th St. at Parsons The New School in New York, NY.
Agenda
Friday, June 7
9:30-9:40 AM
opening remarks
Dr. Ben Barry, Dr. Alison Matthews David, Dr. Jaclyn Marcus
Room: A404
9:45-11:05 AM
Thinking Through Cloth: Contemporary Creative Practice
Deanna Armenti
Toronto Metropolitan University
“Ripple: A Wearable Environment”
Stephen Severn
Toronto Metropolitan University
“Worry Lines”
Mia Yaguchi-Chow
Toronto Metropolitan University
“Dear Diary, This Is My Gender Today: Reflecting on Gender-Variant Dressed Identities through Scrapbooking and Zines as a Vehicle for Queer Empowerment”
Chair: Liliana Sanguino, Parsons The New School
Room: A404
9:45-11:05 AM
Untangling Digital Worlds: Fashion and Identity in the Internet Age
Claire A. Calvert
Fashion Institute of Technology
“Digitally Collaging Identity and Style: The Lasting Impact of Polyvore (2007-2018)”
Katie Ibsen
Parsons The New School
“Vintage Style, Vintage Lives: Clothing and Social Media in the White Nationalist Moment”
Beata Wilczek
Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
“Decentralization in Fashion: Technological and Decolonial Perspectives”
Chair: Natalie Nudell, Fashion Institute of Technology
Room: A407
11:05-11:25 AM
break
Light refreshments will be served.
11:30 AM-12:50 PM
Textile Traditions
Aneri Shah
Parsons The New School
“Threads of Liberation: Navigating Patriarchy in India through Saree”
Nikita Shah
Fashion Institute of Technology
“Fursat: Crafting Community, Rest, and Decolonization through Traditional Textile Practices”
Vega Shah
Bard Graduate Center
“The Kalamkari and Mutual Intelligibility: A Case Study on Western Representation of
South Indian Textile Traditions”
Chair: Hilary Davidson, Fashion Institute of Technology
Room: A404
11:30 AM-12:50 PM
(Un)disciplining the Fashioned Body
Emma Hodgson
York University
“Athleisure and the Moral Imperative to Self-Optimize”
Philippa Nesbitt
Toronto Metropolitan University
“The Paradox of Disability Inclusion: Authenticity and Tokenism in the North American Fashion System”
Fanni László
Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design
“Embracing the Gorgeous Weirdo: A Fashion Project from Eastern Europe”
Chair: Emma McClendon, St John's University
Room: A407
12:55-2:00PM
Lunch
2:00-3:20 PM
Appropriation and Integration: Discussing Indigenous Dress and Textiles
Regan de Loggans
City University of New York
“In Our Own Hands: Mayan Textiles Appropriated in Western Fashion”
Amanda Thompson
Bard Graduate Center
“Indigenizing Technology: The Sewing Machine and Florida Native Seminole Fashion, 1880-1930s”
Justine Woods
Toronto Metropolitan University
“Indigenous Fashion: A Genealogy of Material Brilliance”
Chair: Sariah Park, Parsons The New School
Room: A404
2:00-4:45 PM
New design high school fashion show
Sustainable Fashion show
Pre-registration required.
3:20-3:40 PM
Break
3:40-4:40 PM
Pass-Down: Purveying and Preserving Dress Practices of the African Diaspora
Lauryn Grubbs
Parsons The New School
“Hand-Me-Downs: The Meaning of Handed-Down Clothing and Other Items to a Black Family”
Cameron Williams
Parsons The New School
“Needle and Thread, Kill ‘em Dead: An Examination of the Subversive Mardi Gras Dress Practices of the Black Masking Indians of New Orleans”
Chair: Jonathan Square, Parsons The New School
Room: A404
5:00-6:00 PM
plenary: Manifesting the Intangible: Keepin’ it Real with Conscious & Authentic Making
Preeti Gopinath
Parsons The New School
Room: A404
7:30-9:30 PM
Mix and Mingle
Fashion Studies Network X Fashion Studies Alliance
O Cabanon
245 W 29th S (Between 7th Avenue and 8th Avenue) New York, NY 10001
Saturday, June 8
9:30-10:50 AM
Bodies and Materials of Fashion Practices
Charlotte Little & Kirsten Mann
Toronto Metropolitan University
“Making Material Intimacies: Theorizing Research-Creation through Embodied Practice”
Mary Jane MacDonald
Toronto Metropolitan University
“Municipal Textile Diversion Programs in Canada: A Viability Assessment for Ontario Rural Municipalities”
Julia Wilmott
Northumbria University
“How Materiality and Language Intertwine to Encourage
Further Use of Available Broad Wool Fibres for Fashion”
Chair: Jaclyn Marcus, Toronto Metropolitan University
Room: A404
9:30-10:50 AM
beyond the binary
Lilly Compeau-Schomberg
Toronto Metropolitan University
“‘Things Being What They Are Not’: Camp Femininity and the ‘Lesbian Earring’ Trend”
Pune Draker
City University of New York
“Fashion & The Fleshy Body (In a White Jumpsuit): David Cassidy as Unsung Nonbinary Style Icon”
Dhvani Ramanujam
York University
“Sartorial Encounters on the Gravel Road: Re-visiting Masahisa Fukase’s Untitled Series as Queer Fashion Photographs”
Tashi Lahmu
Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London
“Fashioning Identities in the British-Asian Diaspora”
Chair: Daniel Drak, Parsons The New School
Room: A407
10:50-11:10 AM
Break
Light refreshments will be served.
11:15 AM-12:35 PM Workshops
The Fashion Calendar Research Database Demonstration and Uses for Researchers and Educators
Facilitated by Natalie Nudell, Fashion Institute of Technology
Room: A404
Navigating Academic Publishing in Creative Fields: A Comprehensive Guide
Facilitated by Carlea Blight, York University, Toronto Metropolitan University
Room: A407
Uniforms (Re)Done: A Workshop in Experimental Reconstruction Methodologies
Facilitated by Tricia Crivellaro Grenier, Toronto Metropolitan University
Room: Dean’s Conference Room, 39 W 13th St, Room 305
12:35-1:35 PM
Lunch
1:35-3:00 PM
New Ideas in Curation: What ShouLd A Modern Museum Look Like?
Tarah Burke
Toronto Metropolitan University
“Diversifying Educational Fashion
Research Collections, a Path Forward”
Irene Calvi
University of Bologna
“Fashioning Italian Museums:
Embracing New Disciplines for Institutional Renewal”
Alexandra Foxwell
London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London
“Collaborative Autonomy: A Framework for Curator-Designer Dialogue in Fashion Exhibition Development”
Jonathan Lee
Toronto Metropolitan University
“A Mirror of Time and Space through a Curatorial Story—the Postcolonial Hong Kong
in the 2020s: A Prologue or an Epilogue?”
Chair: Alison Matthews David, Toronto Metropolitan University
Room: A404
1:35-3:00 PM
Continental Histories
Antonia Anagnostopoulos
Bard Graduate Center
“‘Are You French, Greek, Ottoman, Hellene or Roman?’:
‘Amalia’ Dress in the New Greek Nation, 1832-1865”
Cara Green
Fashion Institute of Technology
“Inheriting A Nasjonaldrakt: The Synchronicity of Memory & Tradition in My Great-Grandmother’s Norwegian Bunad”
Cora Harrington
Fashion Institute of Technology
“What is a ‘Worth’ Worth?: A Case Study on Developing a Methodology of
Historical to Modern Day Price Conversions for Dress”
Celine Khawam
Fashion Institute of Technology
“Violette Marsan, Erik Braagaard, Henri de Chatillon:
French Milliners of New York, 1930–1968”
Chair: Caroline Elenowitz-Hess, Bard Graduate Center
Room: A407
3:05-3:15 PM
Closing remarks
Dr. Nigel Lezama
Room: A404
About the Symposium
The Fashion Studies Network (FSN) is a collaborative scholarly community focused on sharing innovative research, methodologies, and practices in the field of fashion. Founded in 2023 and led by the School of Fashion at Parsons School of Design – the New School and the Masters of Fashion program at Toronto Metropolitan University, this network is focused on developing connections between fashion-focused New York City and Toronto graduate students, community members, and educational- and cultural-centered institutions. A bi-annual symposium hosted by FSN institutional members is a key goal of the network, resulting in an evolving creative space where innovative research can be shared, conversations can be had, and new connections between communities can be made.
The fashion system's processes of production, circulation, consumption, and expulsion weave stories begging to be told and important lessons to be learned. While the worst cases expose the domination and exploitation prevalent within the industry, there are also inspiring instances of sustainability, equity, and decolonization gaining visibility and momentum as we strive to make fashion a safer and more accessible creative space. Textiles and the garments they construct serve as the physical manifestation of diverse communities' histories, communities, and politics, working to both expose and disrupt oppressive dominant ideologies and provide a means of embodied self-expression. Our upcoming graduate symposium "Unravelling Fashion Narratives" will feature a wide range of panelists investigating fashion from all angles. Alternative fashion narratives will be explored through the lenses of curatorial, material culture, fashion, and performance studies; as well as exhibited through the creations of dyers, weavers, and other makers in the field of fashion.
Potential topics include, but are by no means limited to:
Critiquing and challenging dominant narratives in fashion
Archival collections’, museums’ and curatorial stories
Decolonial perspectives in design and representation
Fashion reality vs. fantasy
Stories concealed and revealed by dress
Global dress and textile stories
Inclusion and accessibility in fashion and dress practices
Sustainability in micro and macro practices
Threads of identity and dress
Fashion studies as an interdisciplinary field
Materiality
Personal and political narratives in dress
Dress history
We welcomed graduate students, makers, and artists from various backgrounds submitted to the field of Fashion Studies. Priority was given to students at institutions affiliated with the network.