Ripple: A Wearable Environment is an experimental large-scale textile installation by Deanna Armenti that explores subspace. Within the kink community, ‘subspace’ has been explained as a meditative, dream-like state that feels like floating in water which is experienced when engaging in BDSM scenes. However, since most submissives experience subspace in a multitude of ways, the liminal temporality of subspace has remained a vague and generalized phenomenon. Experimental practice-based research techniques are utilized to dive deeper into subspace by exploring the flow of subspace and fetish items as talismanic sacred objects through an embodied lens.

Ripple pushes against the misconceptions of the queer kink experience by redefining not only fetish fashion, but also what ‘sexy’ is and can be. Throughout the project, the use of unconventional colour palettes, loose knits, and free-form crochet creates an “anti-aesthetic” to the well-known styles found in fetish fashion. The intention is not to make queer kink and fetish fashion more palatable, but rather to create an embodied wearable that speaks more genuinely to the emotional and internal experience of submissive kinksters. Ripple touches on informed consent within BDSM play with concepts such as Betty Martin’s wheel of consent, as well as intimate play as a form of creative expression and BDSM as a conduit to safely play with and explore hierarchical systemic power structures. Ripple was displayed at STACKT Market during DesignTO 2024. It was most recently featured in the group exhibition The F-Word: Fun, Agency, and Creativity as a Life Ethic at Abbozzo Gallery as a part of OCAD's CADN graduate conference.

bio

Deanna Armenti (She/Fae) is a Queer Genderfae poet, zine creator, and textile researcher. Deanna completed the Fashion Master’s program at Toronto Metropolitan University in 2023 and is continuing at TMU in the Media and Design Innovation PhD program, having received the Ontario Graduate Scholarship for her first year of study. Her article, Subspace: An Internal and Liminal Place, has been published in Volume 5, Issue 1 of Fashion Studies. She is currently a guest editor for issue 14 of Feral Feminisms, Feminist Forms of Submission in which her article, Ripple: a Wearable Environment, is currently under review. Deanna also curates her own publication, The Sapphic Printing Press, which publishes queer writers worldwide in a collaborative zine called SAPPHIC. Her creative writing has received publication in Feels Zine, Carousel Collective, and Sinister Wisdom. Her poetry zine I Know My Own Heart was nominated for best Litzine at the Broken Pencil 2022 zine awards. Deanna’s research is practice-based and explores queer kink identities through the lens of embodiment and affect to investigate the queer erotic form. She seeks to combat the pathologization and stigmatization of the queer kink community through demystifying the lifestyle. Her creation of accessible material installations is an embodied practice which invites folks to engage with the community. Deanna's research focuses on queer temporalities, seeking liminal spaces and 'slices in time' as a means of conveying the non-linear spectrum of queerness. She also explores the community's use of signalling as semiotics, investigating alternate forms of communication such as sign-based discourse. More recently, Deanna’s work sits at the intersection of Gender Studies, Folklore, and Ecology as she begins to bring focus to the multi-faceted shimmers that crystalize the Genderfae experience.

Stephen Severn

Toronto Metropolitan University
“Worry Lines”

Abstract

Worry Lines is a wearable art piece and ongoing performance that makes visible the anxiety-producing experience of living within systems of power that conflict one’s identity. This tension is explored through the material process of rope coil technique, guerrilla performance, and the manifestations of “worry” as an embodied state and a political tactic. Over time, the repetition of certain facial expressions results in worry lines. The wearable piece emphasizes these physical bearings of emotion while its wearing/performance is an activation: an agitation designed to worry-back. Worry Lines is a call for perseverance: to worry along, “to get through...by persistent effort or struggle; ‘keep going’, in the teeth of trials or difficulties.” The wearable piece and performances offer a queer phenomenological experience that (dis)orientates through its materiality; queer ways of being that “keep going” are embedded in the continuous oblique lines of rope while spontaneous performances create uncanny spaces that diverge from normative forces. Worry Lines explores the intersections of materiality, costume, performance, and queerness as tools to confront and transform: to unravel narratives embedded in dress, identity, place, and the body.

Bio

Stephen Severn (he/they) is an artist, educator, and scholar whose work examines human-material encounters through the lens of queer theory and phenomenology. Through practice-based exploration, they collaborate with objects, materials, and spaces to investigate shared participation in world-building. Their research aims to position queer methodological approaches in visual art practice as emergent sites of queer futurity. Stephen’s work has been exhibited internationally, and frequently employs photography, video, sculpture, and installation, informed by their commercial experience as an art director and a set/prop/display designer for the photography, video, and retail industries. Their creative research has been supported by the Toronto and Ontario Arts Councils, the Ontario Graduate Scholarship, and by the Canada Graduate Scholarship for their Joseph-Armand Bombardier-funded MFA in Interdisciplinary Art, Media, and Design from OCAD University. Currently, Stephen is a Contract Lecturer in the School of Interior Design and Ph.D. student in Toronto Metropolitan University’s Media and Design Innovation program.

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”

Abstract

There is heavy demand for queer joy representation both in and out of academia. Dear Diary, This is My Gender Today is an active reimagining of approaches to gender discourse through embodied relationships to fashion via scrapbooks and zines. As shown in Dear Diary, scrapbooking and zines are vehicles for dialogue and community, queer joy, greater self-knowledge, and ultimately, queer empowerment through their allowance for self-reflection, self-celebration, and connection within difference. Dear Diary proves that research can be centered around the participant compassionately and respectfully while still providing valuable insights into fashion studies. As identities and their discourses evolve, Dear Diary helps the field and beyond keep up with our growing collective consciousness on gender variance and how it can be fashioned. The culmination of this research is exhibited in both a printed and digital zine that shares the process and findings of the research.

bio

Mia is a non-binary multidisciplinary artist born and raised in Toronto, Ontario. After receiving their Bachelor of Design in Fashion (2021) and their Master of Arts in Fashion (2024) at Toronto Metropolitan University, they are working as a freelancer specializing in graphic design, photography, illustration, visual storytelling, and more. Their research and creative projects often focus on gender identity and expression, embodiment and affect, artistic practices, community, and philosophical frameworks built on existentialism and absurdism. Mia's work is embedded with, but not limited to, prompts for self-reflection, explorations of self, and invitations to dialogues. Mia seeks to disrupt and subvert conventions in academia and research with “alternative” research methods, radical thinking, community care, and unapologetic expression. During their time at TMU, Mia has been the Graphic Design & Project Lead for Fashion Studies (2019-), President of the Asian Fashion Student Association (AFSA) (2021-2024), Art Director of StyleCircle (2020-2021), and more. Check out more of Mia's work on their website at www.miayaguchichow.ca, on Instagram @bitchfits, and on YouTube at https://youtube.com/bitchfitsproductions.

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)”

Abstract

From 2007 to 2018, people around the world collectively expressed themselves by creating digital mood-boards on Polyvore. This community-powered website let users clip products from retailers and save them to a collective and endless index of images to create paperless collages, called “sets.” Since its closure, the platform’s lasting impact is apparent. Examining recollections, archived sets, and continued engagements with Polyvore since reveals how its conditions of digital collaging fostered experimentation and participation in fashion without the hindrances that occur when self-fashioning is restricted to the physical body. The platform removed barriers — economical, social, and practical — that dictate the ways how and people who participate in fashion. Furthermore, theorizing the semiology of fashion collage proves that creating sets was and still could be a way of building and exploring identity and subcultures. This case study shows Polyvore was a unique, powerful, but imperfect platform for expressing identity through fashion. As it ventured further towards emphasizing actualized consumerism rather than fantasized exercises in style, its significance as an expressive space was less appreciated. SSENSE, purchasing Polyvore for its software, failed to value the special environment it fostered for style exploration. In Polyvore’s absence, one must ask: is it back to paper collage for now?

bio

Claire A. Calvert (she/her) is an artist, educator, and fashion scholar. She completed her BFA degree from Cooper Union, School of Art before pursuing her MA degree in Fashion and Textiles Studies: History, Theory, and Museum Practice from Fashion Institute of Technology. Particularly interested in how process influences form, Claire’s independent work, both as an artist and scholar, looks into collage and collecting as methods of self-fashioning and identity expression.

Katie Ibsen

Parsons The New School
“Vintage Style, Vintage Lives: Clothing and Social Media in the White Nationalist Moment”

abstract

Previous research on vintage fashion often focused on defining the term ‘vintage’, examining consumer’s motivations and inspecting its connotations of time, but few have explored its political potential nor its significant presence on social media. However, as Maria Mackinney-Valentine argues, “Vintage could be regarded as a fashion system in its own right”, highlighting the importance of continually examining vintage in all contexts. Thus, this paper compares the use of vintage styles on social media by two politicized subcultural groups, #Tradwife and #VintageStyleNotVintageValues (#VSNVV), to understand how political narratives are both reinforced and unraveled on social media through old clothes. This research tracked the divergent evolution of the hashtags #Tradwife and #VSNVV on Instagram and performed semiotic analysis of a selection of posts. Building on previous studies of vintage enthusiasts and their use of vintage to understand and reinterpret the past, this study offers #Tradwife and #VSNVV as an example of vintage as embodied practices that allow an individual to visually assert the legitimacy of their beliefs. This research illustrates how sartorial subcultures on social media may utilize the technical functions of social media, and how clothing can connote history and time, embodying and disrupting political, social and cultural beliefs.

bio

Katherine Ibsen is an imminent graduate of the Fashion Studies MA at Parsons School of Design in New York City. Katherine’s MA research, supervised by Dr. Heike Jenss, focuses on an ethnographic investigation of the spatialities of vintage markets, titled: Exploring The Physical and Digital Spatialities of Constructing Vintage: A Current Affair Vintage Pop-Up Market in Los Angeles and Brooklyn. She received her BA with honors from the University of California, Berkeley in 2022, where she studied Anthropology as a transfer student from Sacramento City College. Katherine is dedicated to furthering the mission of Fashion Studies as a discipline through public education, producing publicly available multimedia content which attempts to bridge the gap between academia and the public. Additionally, she enjoys working as a Teaching Assistant for Dr. Jonathan Square and Dr. Anya Kurrenaya, guiding students through courses such as Intro to Fashion Studies and History of Fashion. Katherine hopes to continue her mission of education around Fashion Studies after graduation, while taking some time to indulge in a little vintage shopping herself.

Beata Wilczek

Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
“Decentralization in Fashion: Technological and Decolonial Perspectives”

abstract

The aim of my presentation is to answer the question: What is decentralization in fashion today? This inquiry is framed through a dual lens: the technological, drawing on Primavera De Filippi's writing on blockchain; and the decolonial, informed by Achille Mbembe's concept of radical decentering. By examining various fashion practices and educational examples, this presentation proposes a holistic approach to decentralization, emphasizing the active engagement and transformation signified by terms starting with the prefix 'de-.' These terms, including defashion, degrowth, decenter, and decentralize, signal a movement away from the status quo, advocating for a critical reflection on the fashion system’s limitations and the pursuit of change. Decentralization is presented as both a process and an umbrella term that encompasses a range of methods, some of which overlap. This paper bridges fashion studies with digital humanities and enhances the broader dialogue on how digital and decolonial approaches are reshaping fashion discourse, underlining the need for a global, inclusive, and decolonized approach to both understanding and advancing in this field.

bio

Beata Wilczek (b. 1986, Poland) is a researcher, educator, and strategist in tech and fashion, specializing in building projects for digital, diverse, and sustainable fashion futures. She is a Founder and Director at Unfolding Strategies, a Berlin-based consultancy and education lab, and a host of the Fashion Knowledge podcast. Wilczek is pursuing a Ph.D. on digital fashion education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and Aalto University, Espoo. www.beatawilczek.net

Textile Traditions

Aneri Shah

Parsons The New School
“Threads of Liberation: Navigating Patriarchy in India through Saree”

Abstract

The research delves into the profound significance of the traditional Indian garment, the sari, in challenging conventional notions of femininity and its portrayal in media as a tool of patriarchy. Aneri's exploration highlights the deeply ingrained societal constructs surrounding the sari, intertwining gender roles, colonial legacies, mythological symbolism, political discourse, and women's agency in self-representation. Through a meticulous analysis of the layered symbolic meanings woven into textiles, the work sheds light on the sari's intricate role in contemporary gender discourse, emphasizing women's assertion of autonomy in cultural representation.

Drawing inspiration from Simone de Beauvoir's conceptualization of femininity as perceived through a male lens, the project confronts the entrenched patriarchy that shapes societal perceptions of women. Aneri's work transcends mere analysis, employing fiber arts to engage in critical dialogues surrounding the male gaze and patriarchal control over women's self-expression.

Comprising a comprehensive research paper and an art installation, the project endeavors to unravel the complex tapestry of the sari's significance within patriarchal contexts, particularly in India, while acknowledging its global impact. Through meticulous craftsmanship and labor-intensive textile-making techniques, Aneri's endeavor seeks to dismantle the patriarchal framework that has historically constrained women's agency and cultural representation.

bio

Aneri, an Indian woman from the state of Gujarat, investigates her complex connection to the sari, an emblem of her cultural heritage yet also an instrument for enforcing gender roles. Coming from an Indian family where women enjoy equal rights and economic standing, she was intrigued when she encountered the inequalities facing women in other parts of her country as she ventured across the subcontinent in her professional pursuits. Employing a range of textile techniques including knitting, embellishment, crochet, natural dyeing, and print design, she often incorporates heirloom brocade saris, which have a story of their own, into her interdisciplinary practice. She recently graduated from the MFA Textiles course at Parsons School of Design in May 2024. Through fiber arts and textile crafts honoring artisans across India, Aneri gives an artistic expression to her critique of injustice and advocacy for social and political change. Her work reflects her commitment to excellence and a passion for advancing her skills in the dynamic intersection of textiles and fashion using craft.

Nikita Shah

Fashion Institute of Technology
“Fursat: Crafting Community, Rest, and Care Through Textiles”

abstract

I spent a decade across textile clusters in India as Head Designer for an influential textile-focused fashion brand before I came to the Fashion Institute of Technology to study fashion design. In India, I learned over 13 different craft-based techniques of weaving, dyeing, embroidery, and beading. More importantly, I learnt the traditions of it. Among the artisans who work with natural dyes that require time in between processes, a common saying is “Let it be for today”. This has come to inform my artistic and community practice “fursat” [a South Asian term embodying leisure, reflection, and wisdom]. My presentation details the methodologies of how I have translated these learnings into a fashion brand, artist practice, and community-based learning space for minoritarian people in the New York area in which we learn histories and techniques from the grassroots, creating community, and opening up avenues for healing. Textile traditions of “letting myself be” gave me the medium and space to process childhood trauma and intergenerational healing. I host monthly fursat gatherings at my home studio which sees people who are on journeys of healing. Through textile-crafts my co-participants have created story cloths about ideas that are difficult to verbalize like home, gender, oppression, geo-politics and more. These workshops integrate historical, visual, and tactile sample studies with practical learning of crafts such as kalamkari, bandhani, leheriya and embroideries. Fursat is conducted with the intention to decolonize academic knowledge and uphold the integrity of oral knowledge transfers inherent in traditional arts, transmitting value and respect for the artisans’ skills.

bio

Nikita Shah is a multidisciplinary artist, educator and independent researcher exploring the convergence of fashion, craft, and healing. She spent over a decade developing practices in weaving, embroidery, prints, paints and craft; amongst 13 different textile clusters across India before she migrated to NYC. She has conducted workshops in Kalamkari (a 3000-year-old temple textile), Sari draping, embroidery and South Asian textiles at large for New York Textile Month, Asia Society, Brooklyn LGBT Community Centre, South Asian New York Fashion Week, Bloomberg, Shopify, the Agaati Foundation, Pike Place Market, the Temple of Belonging, and the Indian Institute of Technology. Nikita received her bachelor’s degree in 2012 from the National Institute of Fashion Technology in Kannur, India and completed an Associate Degree in Fashion Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC in 2019. She has worked with multiple fashion export and design houses in India and the USA. In 2021 she launched her brand “untitle,” focused on an eco-conscious commitment to upcycle memorial clothing and dead stock textiles sourced for artisans in India.

Vega Shah

Bard Graduate Center
“The Kalamkari and Mutual Intelligibility: A Case Study on Western Representation of South Indian Textile Traditions”

abstract

The kalamkari is a type of hand-painted and hand-dyed cotton textile that originates from the state of Andhra Pradesh in southeast India. In contrast to other forms of Indian cotton, the kalamkari is distinct as a vehicle for storytelling and commemorating important events. A kalamkari made in the Srikalahasti style has historically portrayed narrative scenes that span across multiple locations and timeframes, often depicting religious myths and epic stories. The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 2013 exhibition, Interwoven Globe: The World Textile Trade 1500-1800, featured a mid-eighteenth century painted cotton from India’s Coromandel Coast titled “Hanging depicting a European Conflict in South India”. The hanging, which portrays a multi-register epic battle scene, was not identified as a Srikalahasti kalamkari, but rather as a rare chintz history painting. This paper will examine how this piece tells a broader story surrounding narrative scenes on South Indian kalamkaris and their significance to both Indian and European textile traditions. Additionally, it will assess how the hanging fits into and reconsiders current trends surrounding Indian chintzes in global circulation–was the narrative scene depicted in “Hanging depicting a European Conflict in South India'' actually that rare?

bio

Vega Shah has a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin. She is currently an M.A. student at the Bard Graduate Center for the study of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture. Her research interests include textile and fashion history, with a particular interest in South Asian textile production and global trade in the early modern period. Prior to starting graduate school, she worked at an arts and humanities education non-profit based in Austin, Texas.

(Un)disciplining the Fashioned Body

Emma Hodgson

York University
“Athleisure and the Moral Imperative to Self-Optimize”

abstract

This paper explores athleisure as an embodiment of neoliberal expectations and ideals. Characterized by its ability to blur boundaries, athleisure bridges fashion and sport, optimizing both performance and appearance for the everyday wearer. The dominant narrative surrounding athleisure clothing is one of freedom and women’s rights. Its predecessor, sportswear, was born in the mid 1800s out of a desperate need for women’s activewear. Indeed, athleisure evolved throughout the twentieth century alongside social progress and, in many aspects, its development centered women. Tracing athleisure’s inception from the repurposing of girdle fabric for leggings to the shame-inducing ideals wielded by a burgeoning women’s fitness industry, a second narrative emerges: one of self-surveillance, aesthetic labor, and aspirations toward a thin-fit bodily ideal. Through the writing and praxis outlined, I hope to problematize athleisure by highlighting how it impacts perceptions of the self. My critical design work bridges self-tracking, athleisure and parody branding in the form of a faux brand, Vye, and prototype of its clothing. Built on neoliberal tenets, Vye leverages negative reinforcement to motivate its wearers (Vybers) via public shaming. Parodying existing technologies and commercial brands, the project aims to promote questioning around the levels of self-optimization we are consistently incentivized to strive for.

bio

Emma Hodgson is an artist, graphic designer and design researcher. She is in the final stages of completing her Master of Design degree at York University in Toronto, Ontario, and teaching in the Design at York program. Emma locates her Master’s thesis among other speculative critical works in the areas of Graphic Design, Fashion History. and Science and Technology studies.

Philippa Nesbitt

Toronto Metropolitan University, York University
“The Paradox of Disability Inclusion: Authenticity and Tokenism in the North American Fashion System”

abstract

This paper explores how adaptive collections and specialized campaigns by major fashion brands and publications that feature disabled models can play a dualistic role in disability representation, advancing inclusivity while contributing to tokenization. The dominant image of the fashion model maintains dominant bodily ideals, favouring tall, thin, white and able-bodied models (Mears 2011), while cultural representations position disabled people as joyful despite their disabilities, maintaining disability as shameful, undesirable and valueless (Chandler & Rice 2013). In recent years there has been an increase in the inclusion of disabled models, with brands producing adaptive fashion lines and publications offering special issues on disabled models. While these can be an achievement in shifting dominant body ideals and fostering greater diversity, their continued separation and limited representation continues to hold disability as a separate category and an afterthought. Drawing from interviews with 10 with disabled models and industry insiders, I discuss recent moments of disability inclusion in fashion that fall short in providing authentic representation. I also highlight the experiences shared by models that point to what makes disability inclusion in fashion feel authentic, illuminating what it looks like when disability is valued as a part of fashion, rather than subsidiary.

bio

Philippa Nesbitt is a Ph.D. Candidate in Communication and Culture at Toronto Metropolitan University, and a Visiting Scholar at The New School Parsons School of Design. Her research explores the representations and experiences of fashion models with multiply marginalized identities within the contemporary global fashion industry, and evaluates fashion media as a tool for social change. She is also the co-author of the book Fashion, Identity, Image (Bloomsbury 2022).

Fanni László

Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design
“Embracing the Gorgeous Weirdo: A Fashion Project from Eastern Europe”

abstract

Eastern Europe has long been depicted as a cultural landscape of "Othering", often portrayed in popular culture as lacking style, taste, and original design; instead associated with vampires, monsters, and uncivilized beings. However, the region’s local costumes have played a significant role in high fashion, inspiring collections from designers such as Paul Poiret, Yves Saint Laurent, and Jean-Paul Gaultier. Our project carries a subtle tone of activism, aiming to challenge the absence or misrepresentation of Eastern Europe in contemporary fashion by addressing cultural appropriation and introducing the concept of the "gorgeous weirdo" – a figure capable of reclaiming cultural narratives. Authored collaboratively by fashion designer Fanni László and fashion studies researcher Anna Keszeg, this article employs the methodology of research through design. László's fashion collection gives life to the “Gorgeous Weirdo”, a quintessentially Eastern European female monster characterized by unconventional taste, exaggerated proportions, and an affinity for avant-garde fashion and textile experimentation. The article seeks to explore the critical design elements inherent in a fashion collection where the pursuit of monstrosity is central. The collection collaborated with MidJourney, delving into the AI’s quest for perfection while integrating Eastern European monstrosity into its algorithms. The article operates on three interconnected levels: first, drawing inspiration from cultural studies, it examines Eastern European folklore and mythology to inform the creative process; second, influenced by critical AI studies, it analyzes the cultural implications of AI-generated prompts and their role in perpetuating Othering; third, inspired by the material turn in Fashion Studies, it explores the creation of innovative sartorial prototypes, such as the "bug coat." Through this interdisciplinary approach, the article seeks to challenge conventional notions of beauty, authenticity, and cultural representation in fashion, paving the way for a more inclusive and diverse industry narrative.

bio

Fanni László, a fashion designer from Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Budapest, marked her debut at the Eastern European Fashion Week in Budapest in January 2024. Her collections boldly challenge conventional notions of beauty and womanhood.

Justine Woods (she/her) is a garment artist, creative scholar, and educator. She is a Doctoral Candidate in the Media and Design Innovation practice-based Ph.D. program at Toronto Metropolitan University. Justine’s research and design practice centres Indigenous fashion and garment-making as practice-based methods of inquiry toward re-stitching alternative worlds that prioritize Indigenous resurgence and liberation. Justine was born and raised in Tiny, Ontario, and is a member of the Georgian Bay Métis Community (St. Onge and Berger-Beaudoin families). Her ancestors come from Drummond Island and were relocated in 1828 to Penetanguishene, Ontario where they built diasporic roots with their kin and community that continue to hold strong to this present day.

Pass-Down: Purveying and Preserving Dress Practices of the African Diaspora

Lauren Grubbs

Parsons The New School
“Hand-Me-Downs: The Meaning of Handed-down Clothing and Other Items to a Black Family”

abstract

Hand-me-downs are defined as “a piece of clothing given to a younger family member or friend because the person who owns it no longer wants it, or it no longer fits.” Black cultures have historically practiced handing down garments due to collectivistic mindsets aimed at maintaining heritage, family values, and ensuring community survival. Thus, the aim of this paper was to explore the use of hand-me-down clothing and items within the Black family, and to investigate the meanings that these items may have. My guiding questions were: 1) What is the significance of hand-me-downs to a Black family?; and 2) What meanings are created or renegotiated through the act of handing down clothing and items? To conduct this research, I used my own family as a case study, conducting both a wardrobe analysis and a semi-structured group interview. The results of this research fell under 4 key themes: 1) The use of hand-me-down clothing and items as alternative currency; 2) The difference between hand-me-downs and inheritance; 3) The ability of hand-me-down clothing and items to connect one to another and another’s past; and 4) The social benefit and social responsibility involved in giving and receiving handed down clothing and items.

bio

Born and raised in Atlanta, GA, Lauryn Grubbs is a multidisciplinary artist and graduate student in the Fashion Studies (MA) program at Parsons School of Design. Her current academic research focuses on the (mis)representation of Black women in the fashion and beauty industries, the use of stereotypical imagery to represent Black women throughout visual culture, and the impact that the representations have on Black women’s self-presentation, identity formation, and societal perception. Lauryn connects her research to her creative and entrepreneurial ventures, by taking a Black feminist approach to decolonize the gaze and diversify authorship of images of Black women within the arts.

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”

abstract

Few places capture the imagination like New Orleans during carnival season. Despite this worldwide renown for Mardi Gras in the city, local Black revelers have historically been an afterthought in the discourse around the festivities. I aim to rectify this by examining the dress practices of the Black Masking (or Mardi Gras) Indians, an often misunderstood group of Black New Orleanians who dress up in intricate suits in the style of Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Through various forms of historical analysis, visual analysis, and ethnographic research including interviews and participant observation, I seek to interrogate how the Black Masking Indians employ subversion as a central part of their carnival dress practices. Black Masking Indians, who can be seen masking for Fat Tuesday, St. Joseph’s night, Super Sunday, and other cultural events, have a long history of using costume as a visual form of cultural resistance against the prevailing power structures, and examining this can help us understand how marginalized people challenge authority using dress. This project is contextualized through an examination of the history of the dress practices of the Masking Indians, practices that are rooted in African, Indigenous, and Black American traditions, as well as the history of colonialism and segregation in New Orleans. To situate these dress practices, I explore the roots of Mardi Gras Krewes during the mid to late 19th Century and examine their rapid evolution as a tool of cultural repression by white supremacist institutions. The contemporary dress practices of the Black Masking Indians originated in response to the oppression faced during this era, so understanding this history is a necessary starting point. This project also adds to the existing scholarship about style activism but focusing on what this looks like in the more celebratory setting of Carnival allows us to expand our understanding of the topic as a whole.

bio

Cameron Williams is a writer, researcher, sustainable fashion advocate, and event producer who has long fought to reduce textile waste through reuse. Cameron is a recent graduate from the MA Fashion Studies program at Parsons School of Design and his work explores Black visual culture, style activism, and the intersection of football (soccer) and fashion. Cameron is currently working on his thesis, which examines the subversive dress practices of the Black Masking Indians in New Orleans. Cameron is also the founder of DUALITY NYC, a boutique consulting firm specializing in communications strategy and event production, and has organized events for the second-hand and sustainable fashion community in NYC.

Bodies and Materials of Fashion Practices

Charlotte Little & Kirsten Mann

Toronto Metropolitan University
“Making Material Intimacies: Theorizing Research-Creation through Embodied Practice”

abstract

The proposed project consists of Material Intimacies, a creative photography project by Kirsten Mann and an accompanying paper written in collaboration with Charlotte Little, a subject/participant of the creative project. This series of editorial photographs represent specific materials used by designers from the MA Fashion class of 2025. The goal of this creative research was to use materiality as inspiration through visual storytelling to harvest a further understanding of the relationship between the made and maker. In Making Material Intimacies: Theorizing Research-Creation through Embodied Practice, the role of the creative process is explored through the lens of the researcher and the research participant. Acknowledging the collaborative nature of Material Intimacies, the authors engage in a qualitative discussion on the relationship between the maker and their work, citing research creation as an increasingly valid and valuable form of knowledge generation. This paper explores existing theoretical frameworks in the realm of research-creation, further contextualizing Material Intimacies and its implications for research-creation dissemination. The authors investigate the embodied knowledge created through making and the “more-than-human intimacies” created between the maker and their material (Springgay, 2019). The aim of this written addition to Material Intimacies is to explore the embodied connection created between maker and material while simultaneously reflecting on the intimacies created during the making process of Material Intimacies.

bio

Charlotte Little is a maker and researcher in her first year of the MA Fashion program at Toronto Metropolitan University. Her background is in textiles, completing a BFA from Concordia University in 2022, working as a dye technician and attending an artist residency at the Icelandic Textile Centre before matriculating at TMU. Charlotte’s research interests include sustainable textile production, localism, materiality, and research-creation.

Kirsten Mann is a first-year MA Fashion student currently studying at Toronto Metropolitan University. Mann completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts at NSCAD University in 2020, graduating with a double major in photography and art history. Between her studies and over the pandemic, Mann worked as an e-commerce and editorial photographer for a Halifax-based fashion company, was a photographer and social media manager for RCR Hospitality, and a production assistant within the film industry in Toronto. Mann’s passion and interests lie with photography, people, fashion and art.

Mary Jane MacDonald

Toronto Metropolitan University
“Municipal Textile Diversion Programs in Canada: A Viability Assessment for Ontario Rural Municipalities”

Toronto Metropolitan University, York University
”Navigating Academic Publishing in Creative Fields: A Comprehensive Guide”

abstract

Are you an emerging scholar in the creative realm, eager to share your insights and research with the world but unsure of where to start? Join us for an enlightening workshop led by the Managing Editor of the Fashion Studies journal. In this comprehensive guide to academic publishing, we will embark on a journey to navigate the intricate processes of getting your work published. Beginning with an exploration of the Fashion Studies journal itself, we'll uncover its objectives, procedures, and mission to celebrate diverse ways of knowing and sharing knowledge. New and seasoned scholars alike will have the opportunity to learn about the phases of peer review and the criteria academic journals like Fashion Studies seek in submissions. We will also delve into the realm of open-access scholarship, exploring its advantages and the growing movement of scholars advocating for greater accessibility and inclusivity in publishing. Learn how you can contribute to this important shift and harness the power of open access to reach wider audiences with your research. By the end of this workshop, you'll feel empowered with the necessary tools and confidence to share your academic and creative endeavors with the world. Join us in fostering inclusivity and accessibility in publishing, and let's create a platform that amplifies diverse voices and perspectives.

bio

Carlea Blight (she/her) is a writer, artist, and graduate student in the TMU-York Communication and Culture program. Currently serving as the Managing Editor of the Fashion Studies journal, Carlea strives to pursue a career in academic and creative publishing. In addition to her academic pursuits, Carlea also finds fulfillment in her role as a writing consultant and as a facilitator of digital storytelling workshops within her community.

Tricia Crivellaro Grenier

Toronto Metropolitan University
”Uniforms (re)done: A Workshop in Experimental Reconstruction Methodologies”

abstract

Uniforms and military attire have been in a constant state of flux – it remains unclear what future forms and applications they may take in view of rising conflict over natural resources, social unrest and population movement en masse. How can uniforms be repurposed and reconceptualized in a manner that speaks to the current atmosphere and which embodies our prevailing conditions? Using already-produced uniforms as research instruments, participants will engage in an experimental process of reconstruction. Imaginative thinking and unmaking/making processes will be explored in an attempt to reveal new tactile forms that possess speculative materialities. Through discussion and collaboration, this workshop will be used as a means to assist in exploring a sense of embodied connection with reconstruction. Participants’ presence and intuition will guide the creative methods and outcomes – be prepared to use both hands. The session will be documented by video. This workshop expands on a recent research publication entitled ‘Uniform-undone: A study in the repurposing of military attire through history and in experimental practice’. Thanks to Re.Shape Lab (TMU) for the generous help and feedback.

bio

Tricia Crivellaro (she/her/elle) is an artist-designer based in Toronto and Montreal, Canada. She holds an MA in Fashion from Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU). Her artistic research explores the intersections between fashion, art and technology through practice-led methodology. She draws on feminist and sustainable theories to creatively engage with experimental garment-making and new media installations. She draws upon and artistically explores various concepts —unbecoming, fragmentation, and reconstruction— to raise questions about the relationship between patriarchy, capitalism, and the creative industries more generally. Crivellaro is currently a Contract Lecturer at the Fashion School at TMU as well as a researcher in the Data Materialization Studio (OCAD University).

Natalie Nudell

Fashion Institute of Technology
“The Fashion Calendar Research Database Demonstration and Uses for Researchers and Educators”

New Ideas in Curation: What Should A Modern Museum Look Like?

Tarah Burke

Toronto Metropolitan University
“Diversifying Educational Fashion Research Collections, a Path Forward”

abstract

Globally, museums and archives are beginning the complex task of institutional diversification in response to growing social interest in decolonization and increased inclusivity. Cultural institutions have a history of reinforcing value concepts through which contextual histories are included and excluded, serving as a national “collective or cultural memory”. They can represent political power and historical records or be colonial trophies (Keene, 2011, p. 84). This can result in a potential unconscious institutional bias undermining efforts to pursue increased access, diversity, equity, and inclusion (Cuyler, 2020). The 2004 Arts Council of England report, Not for the Likes of You, makes three recommendations for change: access, positioning, and messaging (Smyth). This paper will address the challenges of diversifying educational fashion research collections, specifically the Seneca Fashion Resource Center, and develop a plan to expand inclusion in the collection. A literature review identifies the challenges and barriers, explores the use of object biographies to recontextualize objects, and reviews the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action for museums and archives to address the representation and inclusion of indigenous culture, artifacts and ways of learning. To achieve meaningful progress, cultural institutions must address their policies and strategies regarding access, positioning, and messaging.

bio

Tarah began her studies in International Fashion Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology with study divided between their New York, Paris, and Florence campuses. In addition, she has a Bachelor of Arts from the London College of Fashion and a Master of Arts from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University) and is in the first year of her doctoral studies in the Communication and Culture program at Toronto Metropolitan University. Her doctoral research focuses on recontextualizing and diversifying educational fashion research collections as an experiential learning tool to support the preservation of intangible cultural heritage through craft. Tarah grew up in the Canadian fashion industry, participating in her family’s retail display business. She worked professionally as a costume designer and technician for film and television, as well as a cross-promotional product developer and strategic production management consultant, before transitioning to a career in post-secondary education. Tarah is a professor at Seneca Polytechnic and manager of the Seneca Fashion Resource Centre.

Irene Calvi

University of Bologna
“Fashioning Italian Museums: Embracing New Disciplines for Institutional Renewal”

abstract

How might an interdisciplinary study field be advantageous to institutions? This presentation delves into the study of Italian fashion museology, aiming to portray trends in Italian fashion exhibitions over thirty years, while looking at the museum as a space for reinterpretation. Drawing from compelling case studies—one dating back to the innovative fusion of contemporary fashion and art at the 1996 Biennale in Florence, and another showcasing a current prototype for a brand using new technologies for heritage display—the presentation examines the role of multidisciplinary and collective collaboration in reshaping institutional environments. In order to uphold this proposition, two challenging factors are being investigated: on the one hand, the absence of a well-defined academic discipline, and on the other a wide array of museums in need to recreate their fashion exhibition history. A crucial recent work (Augello: 2022) traced the growth of Italian fashion studies, culminating in corporate institutions being the protagonists of the 2000s. What if museums in the future want to reclaim their function and relevance? Beyond mere emulation of foreign best practices, the Italian context calls for a nuanced understanding of historical precedents and a visionary embrace of hybrid possibilities, where the synthesis of past experiences with future aspirations offers a promising trajectory.

bio

Irene Calvi is a PhD student within the fields of visual and fashion studies at the University of Bologna, and is passionate about fashion interpretations in museums, especially when emerging technologies are involved. She supports the creation of international networks and for this reason, she is a member of the executive committee of The Association of Dress Historians, and participates in the activities of the CFC - Culture Fashion and Communication International Research Centre, among others. In between her MA in Arts, Museology and Curatorship and starting her PhD, she worked at Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art in Turin, Italy.

Alexandra Foxwell

London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London
“Collaborative Autonomy: A Framework for Curator-Designer Dialogue in Fashion Exhibition Development”

abstract

Addressing the symposium’s theme of “Unravelling Fashion Narratives”, this thesis draws on insights from academic research, personal experience, and curator and designer interviews to explore the mutual benefits of collaboration between curators and designers in presenting living designers’ work. Curators play a pivotal part in directing exhibitions’ narrative and thematic focus. This research proposes a framework to guide curator-designer interactions, positioning the curator as a pivotal figure to foster communication between the designer and the exhibition narrative. Through case studies and theoretical analyses, the research highlights the tensions and competing constraints inherent in curator-designer relationships, advocating for “collaborative autonomy”. The proposals seek to encourage co-creation and achieve balance between the disciplines, allowing designers’ work to be displayed and represented more authentically, inclusively, and accessibly, whilst embracing tension as a creative force. Insights from industry professionals underscore the importance of dialogue in shaping exhibition narratives. This research challenges traditional methodologies by de-emphasising “curatorial autonomy” and proposing a shift in the curator’s role towards “mediation-curation”, recognising their responsibility to nurture creative relationships and facilitate diverse perspectives within the fashion industry. This research contributes to enhancing the effectiveness and innovation of curator-designer collaborations, fostering a culture of collaboration, trust, and mutual respect.

bio

Alexandra Foxwell is an exhibition-maker, curator and former fashion designer, based in London, and a recent graduate of the M.A. Fashion Curation and Cultural Programming course at the London College of Fashion, University of the Arts. Her curatorial interest lies in contemporary fashion, the representation of designers’ narratives within museum spaces and how the design process is presented and comprehended in these settings. Alexandra graduated from Kingston University, London with a 1st Class Honours degree in Fashion Design and worked as a designer for global brands such as Calvin Klein. Upon graduating, she became a certified member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA+) and was listed by Vogue Italia New Talents as one of the ‘Emerging Designers in Europe’. Her design work has been included in publications including “Designing a Fashion Collection” (Bloomsbury) and “Europe: Rising Fashion Designers” (Schiffer Publishing Ltd.).

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?”

abstract

This bilingual exhibition, The Postcolonial Hong Kong in the 2020s: A Prologue or an Epilogue? delves into Hong Kong fashion and material culture in the current decade. Echoing Cheang and Kramer’s (148) observation, the critique of colonialism was seldom brought up by the East Asian circle within the postcolonial scholarship. East Asian fashion still often remains understudied and portrayed in a Eurocentric narrative that situates around Orientalism and emancipation (Fu 584; Ling et al. 9). To counter this, this exhibition takes on a decolonial approach to illustrate Hong Kong as a unique cultural entity that is distinct from mainland China.

As a Hong Kong-Canadian scholar, my in-betweenness allows me to study Hong Kong from both an insider and outsider perspective. Employing autoethnography, I will situate myself and my lived experience in the city, and thus form a reflexive curatorial narrative (Butz and Besio 1660). With the two thematic storylines – “Triangle of Sadness” and “Nostalgia and Diaspora” – the exhibition illuminates current socio-political and cultural landscapes via curated garments, accessories, and artifacts. By showcasing Hong Kong's unique identity, the exhibition prompts future considerations for its study as an independent discourse within academia.

bio

Jonathan Lee is a soon-to-be graduate from the MA Fashion program at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU). As a Hong Kong-Canadian scholar specializes in East Asian fashion discourse and decolonization theory, he is particularly interested in exploring a wide range of cultural topics such as identity and in-betweenness. In his current research, Jonathan is studying the cultural identity of postcolonial Hongkongers through a lens of fashion and material culture and aims to introduce the taste of Hong Kong as a unique cultural entity to the Eurocentric academia.

Continental Histories

Antonia Anagnostopoulos

Bard Graduate Center
“‘Are You French, Greek, Ottoman, Hellene or Roman?’: ‘Amalia’ Dress in the New Greek Nation, 1832-1865”

abstract

The enduring national dress of Greece is an ensemble that was devised by a Bavarian Queen for her newly established Athenian court in the late 1830s. Named the ‘Amalia’ costume after the monarch, the outfit’s historiography and continued relevance as a form of traditional clothing have cast surviving material culture into narratives of constancy and uncomplicated Greek patriotism. However, ‘Amalia’ dress emerged during a period of vast change and civil conflict following the Greek Revolution against the Ottoman Empire, when the installation of an absolute monarchy from Europe was highly controversial. This object-based study contextualizes ‘Amalia’ dress within the tumultuous history of the period and critically examines the origins of the ensemble. Through an analysis of early 19th-century garments, I argue that ‘Amalia’ dress was multivalent, dynamic, and intimately connected to existing and emerging fashion cultures that were implicated in political discourses about the threat of Europeanization and Greek identity. In the collection of the Benaki Museum in Athens, an assemblage of ‘Amalia’ garments worn by a woman named Vasiliki Hatziskou function as a material microcosm of the various sartorial lineages and novelties – French, Greek, and Ottoman – that were incorporated in the early nation.

bio

Antonia Anagnostopoulos is a recent graduate of the Bard Graduate Center’s MA program in Design History, Decorative Arts, and Material Culture. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto, St. George in Art History. Her research explores the dress of Greek peoples throughout the 18 th and 19 th centuries through object-based methods that attempt to integrate and rewrite disciplinary frameworks from Folk and Fashion studies. She has worked in curatorial and collections management departments at the Bata Shoe Museum, the Royal Ontario Museum, and the Benaki Museum of Greek Culture.

Cara Green

Fashion Institute of Technology
“Inheriting A Nasjonaldrakt: The Synchronicity of Memory & Tradition in My Great-Grandmother’s Norwegian Bunad”

Abstract

Bunad broadly defines the uniquely Norwegian festive attire inspired by regional folk dress traditions. The Nasjonaldrakt (National costume), Norway’s first bunad, evolved out of Norway’s independence movement during the late-nineteenth century when authentic symbols of Norwegian identity were embraced. Bunads are still widely used today, and over 500 bunad styles have developed since Norway’s independence in 1905. The bunad has only just begun to be researched as a contemporary phenomenon, and there is limited scholarship that focuses on the complexities of privately inheriting a bunad. I recently inherited a Nasjonaldrakt (c. 1905) made by my great-grandmother, Agnes Rugtiv (born Ødven, 1893-1985), while growing up in Sandane, Norway. A multidisciplinary approach to studying this ensemble presents a case study that theoretically considers best practices for the life of objects with continuing traditions. Drawing from a period of ethnographic research in Norway, I incorporate object- and cultural-based research conducted with museums alongside observations of contemporary bunad practices. The chronological narratives of fashion studies often exclude a nuanced understanding of the temporal entanglements of traditional dress. Synchronicity as a theoretical framework emerges as I examine past memories and enduring traditions in order to address future inheriting practices for an ensemble of cultural heritage.

Bio

Cara Green is a dress and art historian, curator, and personal stylist. She holds a BA in History of Art with a minor in Dance & Performance Studies from UC Berkeley, and recently completed an MA in Fashion & Textile Studies: Theory, History, Museum Practice from the Fashion Institute of Technology. Her current research for her Master’s thesis, partially funded by The Decorative Arts Trust, explores the inheritance of a Norwegian bunad and contemplates the life of objects with interrelated expressions of genealogy, identity, and tradition.

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”

abstract

Comprehending historical pricing is important to fashion studies as it helps scholars understand the true value of clothing at the time of its creation. Yet most historical fashion currency conversions are rough approximations, using similes such as “equal to a house or car.” When a price equivalency is made, it often uses the Consumer Price Index (CPI) by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. I assert CPI, which relies on the cost of necessary goods such as bread, rent, and automobiles, is not robust enough for calculating the conversion rate of goods like haute couture. Instead, I believe wages or salary is a better way to understand historical pricing. As a case study, I use a Worth couture court gown worn by Mrs. Francis Fairchild, wife of former governor of Wisconsin and European ambassador Lucius Fairchild, during her presentation to the King and Queen of Spain in 1880 and for which she paid $365. The conversion calculator from the nonprofit Measuring Worth as well as contemporary wage statistics, gives a price conversion higher than CPI, but more reflective of what that price would have meant to someone of that time, and therefore how fashion historians today should understand it.

Bio

Cora Harrington is a current student in the Fashion Institute of Technology’s Fashion and Textile Studies MA program. Her previous career was as an internationally recognized intimate apparel author, and she has written one book: In Intimate Detail: How to Choose, Wear, and Love Lingerie.

Celine Khawam

Fashion Institute of Technology
“Violette Marsan, Erik Braagaard, Henri de Chatillon: French Milliners of New York, 1930-1968”

Abstract

Several designers who made significant contributions to Paris fashions throughout the 1930s have disappeared from the record of fashion history. Among them were Violette H. Marsan (1902-1997), Erik Braagaard (1912-2004), and Henri de Châtillon (1906-1972), three French milliners who were celebrated for their innovative hats. They achieved success in France before fleeing the country with the outbreak of World War II and settling in New York and Mexico City. They were part of the numerous French émigrés who had found refuge in the United States and Latin America during wartime, including intellectuals, artists, and fashion designers. Despite their talent, inventiveness, and presence in the fashion scene, the creations of Violette H. Marsan, Erik Braagaard, and Henri de Châtillon are not well represented in museum collections, and their names are no longer recalled. This investigative research will recover the respective careers of these creative individuals and chronicle their untold stories. It will shed light on their style, aspirations, and influence in New York and beyond between 1930 and 1968 - a time of democratization of fashion and greater recognition for American designers. It will also emphasize and evidence the crucial position that millinery occupied in fashion until the 1960s.

Bio

Celine Khawam is a fashion historian and textile designer based in New York City. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from Pantheon-Sorbonne University in Paris, France, and a Master of Arts in Fashion and Textile Studies from the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT). With her versatile experience and expertise in home textiles, Celine contributed designs for renowned high-fashion houses and American designers, such as Kenzo, Givenchy, Hermès, Tommy Hilfiger, and Ralph Lauren. She regularly hosts public seminars on color trend forecasting and eco-responsible innovation for the international textile show Première Vision in New York. As a researcher, she is passionate about uncovering the untold stories of influential yet understudied designers and milliners to restore their place and legacies in fashion history.

Plenary

Preeti Gopinath

Parsons The New School
”Manifesting the Intangible: Keepin’ it Real with Conscious & Authentic Making”

bio

Preeti Gopinath is an internationally experienced designer, educator and philosopher based in New York. She is the Director of the acclaimed MFA Textiles program and Associate Professor of Textiles in the School of Fashion at Parsons, The New School. A graduate of the National Institute of Design (Ahmedabad, India), a researcher and a CAD expert with 3 decades of design experience in the textiles industry and the craft sector, Preeti is passionate about conscious design and sustainable innovation. Her textiles practice ranges from creative textile design to craft research and managing fabric development for several major textile companies in India, Canada and USA. She is also a Bharatanatyam dancer and a philosopher with a special interest in Plato and Vedanta studies; all of which inform her career and that she seamlessly integrates into her daily life.

As the founding Director of the MFA Textiles program at Parsons, Preeti is pioneering a novel pedagogical system that prepares global citizens to create meaningful and transformative textiles that address the pressing concerns of the 21st century. Supported by an exceptional team of faculty, Preeti’s students are creating groundbreaking, award-winning, hybrid textiles that integrate timeless philosophical principles with craft and technology, on the bedrock of sustainability, social justice, beauty and wellbeing. Preeti is deliberately forging a textiles community that aims to radically transform the world of insatiable consumption and unconscionable over-production - through a textiles education that values community, collaboration and hands-on making.

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