History Theory Practice
An International Multidisciplinary Conference
Organized jointly by
Fashion Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center (MALS & IDS) and The Department of Art and Art professions, Costume Studies @ New York University
Friday May 4th
9:15am – 6:00pm @ The Graduate Center (Room 9205)
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Fashion is an economic force, a culture industry and a powerful way to convey identity, politics, status, and personality. Fashion can simultaneously express freedom and constriction, be both democratic and totalitarian; and both repress and liberate the body and gender roles. A thorough study of the history of fashion in its symbolic, creative and coercive faces, shows how it has been crucial in the construction of national identities in fascist regimes or in processes of decolonization, such as in India, or in the remapping of the world economy, including China, India and Brazil, even in past epochs like the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
Underlining all the recent scholarly attention that has been given to fashion is the intent of stripping it of its apparent light and frivolous reputation, and replacing it with a serious scholarly investigation that seeks to uncover the many complex layers that its surface conceals. The study of fashion, costume and dress has not only involved a series of disciplines, but has also had the effect of expanding the boundaries of these disciplines.
This Multidisciplinary, International Conference will bring together practioners of fashion, filmmakers, journalists and international scholars from a wide span of disciplines, institutions, universities, design schools and museums to investigate the growing field of fashion studies. The aim of the conference is to rethink the traditional organization of the social sciences and the humanities to include the impact of the study of fashion. The papers will draw on a wide range of approaches, from history to art, sociology, film studies, literature, philosophy etc.
Co-sponsored by the CUNY Ballalaureate for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies; Women’s Studies Certificate Program at the Graduate Center; University of Stockholm, Sweden (Center for Fashion Studies); New York University; London College of Fashion; University of the Arts, London; University of Technology, Sydney.
