Photos by Megan MacMurray

Fashion Projects readers might be familiar with Giana Gonzalez, an interaction designer and artist who seeks to hack into the fashion system. I had interviewed her back in 2006 about her Hacking Couture workshops. Results from her workshops given in New York, Chicago, California and Istanbul are on view now at Eyebeam as part of the exhibition Re:Group: Beyond Models of Consensus.

Giana and I will be giving a FREE workshop this coming Wednesday, July 14th, at Eyebeam using the hacking methodology Giana has created. Only this time, instead of trying to hack the code of fashion brands, we are setting our sights a bit higher – we aim to hack into the sustainable fashion movement. In fact, we know that ultimately, a hack into sustainable fashion is really about hacking the entire fashion system…something we are very excited to try. Please do attend if you can, as we cannot do this alone.

Of course, we will be posting the code we develop on the Fashion Code Wiki.

More images from the Re:Group: Beyond Models of Consensus exhibition after the jump.

Sarah Scaturro
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New York-based Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts (VLA) recently announced a four-part workshop series focusing on social and legal issues in the fashion industry. The first segment in the series, Social & Legal Issues in Fashion Series: Ethical and Sustainable Practices, explores both the sociology of the fashion industry and legal issues that surround trademarks and counterfeits. It takes place Tuesday, June 15th, 6:00-8:00 pm.

Other topics include: human rights issues, sustainable manufacturing, repurposed goods, and a movement towards “local fashion.” The workshop will be taught by VLA’s executive director, Elena M. Paul, Esq., and Anna Akbari, Ph.D.

Click here to register, or for more information, call Joni Todd at 212.319.2787 x10, or e-mail her at jtodd [at] vlany [dot] org.

Kim Burgas

Natalie Chanin, founder and designer of Alabama Chanin, will give a talk tonight at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. Chanin’s company is an integral part of the burgeoning slow fashion movement. I had the opportunity to help out with the recent teen Design Directions stitching workshop here at the museum that she taught – rather than being at “work”, I found myself lulled into a peaceful state as I stiched my own fabric while listening to her kind, insightful words. I can say with certainty that this talk is not to be missed!

Details:
Alabama Chanin: American Fashion
Wednesday, May 19, 2010 | 6:30 – 8:00pm
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, 2 East 91st Street
Students are FREE, others: $10
Register HERE
Galleries will be open before hand for a private viewing of the new Triennial exhibition.

Sarah Scaturro

Julian Red. Photo: Mikael Schultz @ Swedish Institute

by Francesca Granata

The Eco-Chic: Towards Sustainable Swedish Fashion Exhibition at the Scandinavia House opened with an interesting panel discussion including Marcus Bergman (managing director of Ecocotton, a pioneer in organic cotton production), Sass Brown (a professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology whose research focuses on women’s cooperatives in Latin America) and Karin Stenmar (a founder of the Swedish eco-fashion company Dem Collective). It was moderated by Hazel Clark, Dean of the School of Art and Design History and Theory at Parsons, who has a longstanding interest in slow fashion and the secondhand clothing trade.

Organized as a roundtable discussion, it covered the difficulty in sourcing sustainable material, partially attributed to the lack of innovation in the textiles industry, the need for living wages and the development of women’s cooperatives. Bodkin tied her interest in eco-fashion to her interest in Swedish Modernism and a drive towards functionality in clothing. However, it was interesting to hear how, according to Bergman, the ethos of Swedish design “of functionality and honesty in design” did not sufficiently enter the realm of fashion, due to the fact that fashion/textiles studies developed separately from other branches of design, at least in Sweden. The need for a new fashion design education was thus addressed to allow for the development of more aware designers. Also mentioned was the need for mass-market companies to join the conversation. According to Brown, this is actually occurring: As an example she mentioned Wal-Mart’s commitment to transitional cotton—a company which seemed odd to bring up due to their long-standing history of labour exploitation.

Clark asked about the creation of memories and narratives through clothes, something that Stenmar’s company, Dem Collective, addressed by having buyers record the life of their clothes in a project called One in a Thousand Jeans. This reminded me of an evocative and inspiring project I had been meaning to write about by a Dutch designer Ruby Hoette—Worn Relics—which involves the recording of the life story of one’s favourite piece of clothes.

The exhibition, shows the diversity of design comprising Swedish eco fashion, and proves a real commitment on the part of Sweden and the Swedish design community to the search for sustainable solutions for the fashion industry. It remains open through August 21.

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by Marco Pecorari

What is the Future of Fashion studies? If one year ago affirmed fashion scholars met in Warwick to find an answer (McNeil 2010), “Finding Our Fashion Footing” was the occasion for Phd students to discuss their research future as a possible answer to such challenging question.

Organized the last 19th March by the research students at London College of Fashion and the Center for Fashion Studies – Stockholm University, this first International Fashion Phd workshop was hosted by LCF. The presentation of each project was the occasion to discuss, problematize and individualize personal experiences, methodological issues and future research connections. As the title of the meeting suggests, it was also an opportunity for placing each individual work in a global geography of Fashion research.

The one-day meeting started with a session on Style and Youth Culture that saw the presentation of “The Indie Project: style and youth culture in London” by Rachel Lifter. Her research cuts across three diverse trajectories: the London fashion environment, theoretical style’s approaches and contemporary youth culture. Despite the diverse disciplinarian affiliation, Lifter’s use of Foucault’s discourse is shared by Pecorari’s Phd that aims to argument an archeology of the fashion discursive formation on contemporary ephemera through three different but generative dimensions of such discourse: academia, museum and designers.

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Jane Fonda in Klute

by Sarah Scaturro

This spring there are a lot of events occurring around NYC with fashion as the main focus. Here is a breakdown of the ones that I’ve been able to find, and they are all free! Please leave a comment if I’ve left anything out.

April 9th – Richard Martin Visual Culture Symposium
Tonight is the Annual Richard Martin Visual Culture Symposium at NYU, which allows the graduating students of the Visual Culture MA program to lecture on their thesis topic. Worn Through has a breakdown of the topics and schedule.

April 13th, 20th and 27th – Fashion In Film: New York City
The brand new MA program in Fashion Studies at Parsons The New School for Design is hosting a fashion in film series for the entire month of April. Curated by Jeffrey Lieber, Assistant Professor of Visual Culture Studies, the series has some fashion classics – Annie Hall and Sabrina – but also some lesser-known films with impressive fashions, such as Klute (Jane Fonda) and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (Barbara Streisand).

April 15th – 16th Bard Graduate Center Annual Symposium
Bard Graduate Center is having their annual symposium on April 15-16th on the topic of Secondhand Culture: Waste, Value, and Materiality. I can’t wait for to hear Senior Curator of Costume at the ROM Alexandra Palmer speak on “Back to Back: Retro-fitting Fashion within the Museum.” There will also be a screening of the film “Secondhand.”

April 19th – Anna Wintour Lecture
According to NY MAG Anna Wintour is giving a free lecture on the 19th at 6 pm at Pratt Institute.

April 22nd – FIT’s 4th Annual Sustainable Business & Design conference
This year’s theme is Redesigning for a Sustainable Future. Go here for more information.

April 27th – Mannequins in the Museum: Perspectives on Curating Fashion
The lecture I’m most excited for is by Joanne Dolan Ingersoll, a truly talented curator from RISD. She will be giving a lecture for SVA’s Design Criticism MFA lecture series on a topic I have great interest in due to my work: “Mannequins in the Museum: Perspectives on Curating Fashion.”

April 29th – Predicting Color Trends in Fashion
FIT is hosting the seriously hardworking historian Reggie Blaszczyk on April 29th when she’ll give a lecture on the history of predicting color trends. I was fortunate enough to meet her at the Business History conference last year in Milan – I had just read her article on Dorothy Liebes called “Designing Synthetics, Building Brands” in the Journal of Design History. As someone who studies synthetics and has handled Liebes’ textiles, the article about blew my mind.

May 4th – Towards Sustainable Fashion Symposium
In conjunction with the Scandinavian House’s Eco-Chic exhibition, there will be a panel discussion featuring Marcus Bergman, Karin Stenmar, Sass Brown and Eviana Hartman, and moderated by Hazel Clark, Dean of the School of Art and Design and Theory, Parsons: The New School for Design.

May 8th – FIT’s Annual Fashion and Textiles Symposium
This year’s topic for FIT’s Annual Fashion and Textiles Symposium on May 8th sounds great – Americans in Paris: Designers, Buyers, Editors, Photographers, Models, and Clients in Paris Fashion.

May 21st and 22nd – Costume Collections: A Collaborative Model for Museums
The Brooklyn Museum and the Costume Institute are hosting a 2-day symposium about their new costume collaboration. I’m looking forward to seeing both exhibitions this spring!

Still from Michelangelo Antonioni Blow Up.

Opening this Friday at the James Gallery of the CUNY Graduate Center is an exhibition on Film and Fashion, which celebrates the symbiotic relation the two enjoyed in the 1960s. Titled “Fashion+Film The 1960s Revisited,” the exhibition, which is curated by CUNY’s Professor Eugenia Paulicelli, is comprised of dress, photographs, and costume designers’ sketches, as well as screenings of film and TV commercials from the decade.

In concert with the exhibition, is a symposium taking place this Friday the 12th. The symposium, which brings together fashion and film academics with costume designers, will explore the impact these two culture industries had on the construction of individual and collective identities, with a particular focus on fashion and film of the 1960s.

Below is the symposium’s full schedule Read the rest of this entry »

Slow and Steady Wins the Race at Ethics + Aesthetics

Coming up Tuesday January 26th is a panel in conjunction with the exhibition Ethics + Aesthetics, which I co-curated at the Pratt Institute Manhattan Gallery. The panelists include Julie Gilhart, senior vice president, fashion director of Barneys New York; Mary Ping, designer and founder of Slow and Steady Wins the Race; Caroline Priebe, designer and founder of Uluru and it will be moderated by Sarah Scaturro and I

The Sustainability Equation: Ethics and Aesthetics,” will examine what constitutes sustainability within the American fashion system and will explore the sustainable fashion practices of American fashion designers including “Ethics + Aesthetics” designers Ping and Priebe.

“Ethics + Aesthetics = Sustainable Fashion” is on view now through February 20, 2010 and features work by artists and designers including Alabama Chanin, Bodkin, Loomstate, SANS, Slow and Steady Wins the Race, SUNO, and ULURU, Susan Cianciolo, Kelly Cobb, Zoë Sheehan Saldaña, and Andrea Zittel and Tiprin Follet.

A full color catalog of the exhibition will be available at a discounted price made possible by a generous grant from the Coby Foundation, Ltd. To order the catalog click here. The catalogue would include a smock pattern from Andrea Zittel’s smockshop project.

Uluru at Ethics + Aesthetics

Francesca Granata

Below are the participants’ bios:
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Camilla Norrback, Autumn/Winter 2009-2010

A number of sustainable fashion panels and symposiums are taking place. In Antwerp, the ModeMuseum is hosting a sustainable fashion panel on September 29th. Titled “Towards Sustainable Fashion,” the panel features the Swedish designer Camilla Norrback, as well as Mathilda Tham, who teaches design and sustainability both in Sweden and at London’s Goldsmiths, alongside Margues Bergamn—lecturer at the Swedish School of Textiles.

Meanwhile, Fashioning an Ethical Industry will be hosting a seminar on Education for Sustainable Fashion at the Ethical Fashion Show in Paris on Sunday October 4th.

Also, I will be co-curating with Sarah Scaturro an exhibition on sustainable fashion: titled Ethics+Aesthetics = Sustainable Fashion, which will open at Pratt Manhattan Gallery on November 20th. More information on the exhibition will soon follow!

Francesca

A Lucien Lelong coat on the cover of the August 1925 issue of Tres Parisian, located in the Special Collections department of the Gladys Marcus Library at FIT. Photo by Sarah Scaturro.

The recent Business History Conference in Milan, Italy had a robust program featuring a large number of important fashion scholars. Thematically, the conference centered around the role of business in fashion, as well as the “fashions” that occur in business practices. At first it seemed a somewhat disjointed group of participants (it was easy to distinguish the fashion historians from the business historians due to their, er, more fashionable dress), but soon after the conference began, everyone could sense a unique cross-pollination beginning.

The Fashion Institute of Technology had a strong contingent present, as they were also sponsoring some of the conference events. Significantly, Karen Cannell, the new Head of Special Collections at FIT’s library, was actively encouraging scholars to use this amazing resource, which contains not only historical fashion periodicals and sketches, but also important documentation regarding the business end of the garment industry. Operating at minimal capacity with restricted access over the past few years, many fashion scholars are relieved that this important asset is once again accepting research appointments.

One session with a strong New York and FIT affiliation was titled “Innovation in the Business of Fashion, 1900-1940″. FIT Professor Lourdes Font started off the thematically unified session by tracing the beginnings of a globalized fashion industry with a paper titled “International Couture: Expansion and Promotion in the Early Twentieth Century.” Lewis Orchard and FIT alum Rebecca Jumper Matheson followed up with papers on the topics of merchandising and the self-promotion of female designers, respectively. Associate Curator at the Museum at FIT, Molly Sorkin ended the session with her paper titled “The Limits of Expansion: Contraction and Collapse in the Haute Couture, 1920-1940,” which effectively placed the end of the first real “globalization” period of fashion at the beginning of World War II.

Another extremely strong session was “From Vionnet to Dior: Strategies of Exclusivity and Dissemination of Paris Haute Couture.” Featuring influential fashion historians and scholars such as Caroline Evans, Alexandra Palmer, and Dilys Blum, this session also had a thematic undercurrent about the rise of a globalized fashion industry. Véronique Pouillard started off the session with an interesting paper tracing the problems of copyrighting French fashion designs in the USA, an issue which is still very much a problem today. Alexandra Palmer, Senior Curator at the Royal Ontario Museum, followed up with her paper on the importance of Christian Dior’s global reach, which was a tantalizing peek at just one aspect of her forthcoming book, Dior. The session ended with Caroline Evans’ research on Jean Patou’s “Américainisme,” which was an entertaining view of how Patou embraced American rationalization and the American “look” to market his designs and grow his business. The influence of emerging American fashion business practices on the French couture industry was also explored in my paper on the French couturier Lucien Lelong that I presented during the “Entrepreneurs and Fashion” session.

Other engaging papers included Rebecca Arnold’s on The Fashion Group in 1930s New York City and Phyllis Dillon’s thorough explanation of the influence of German Jews on the American apparel industry. Naturally, there was a session on the ethics of fashion, which was to include papers on the toxicity of beauty products and the sustainably-minded brand Comme-il-Faut. Unfortunately, neither of these presenters showed up. However, Efrat Tseëlon’s paper “In Search of the “Ethics” of Ethical Fashion” provocatively challenged the current notion of what constitutes sustainable and ethical fashion. She contends that today’s version of ecofashion effectively fetishes and oversimplifies certain issues (such as the use of organic cotton), thus merely reinforcing the current fashion paradigm. She suggests holistic and inclusive investigations into the meaning of what constitutes ethical (such as issues of toxicity in products and the skinniness of models), as well as actively searching for a new fashion paradigm that could challenge the current one based on consumption.

This engaging conference demonstrated that fashion studies could definitely use more of business history thinking – one of the leading scholars out there combining these two areas is Regina Blaszczyk, who just happened to be the co-chair of the conference. I hope that more professional history associations begin to seriously consider fashion as an important theme, as the interdisciplinary nature of fashion studies lends itself to many fruitful collaborations.

Sarah Scaturro