Fashioning an Ethical Industry Conference

This post is long in the making. In March, I attended the Fashioning an Ethical Industry Conference at the Zandra Rhodes Museum, in London. Organized by Labour Behind the Label the conference focused on different ways to achieve an ethical fashion industry and featured a range of speakers, from Ineke Zeldenrust (one of the founders of the Clean Clothes Campaign) to Trish Clarke (who works on corporate social responsibility at Topman) to Kate Fletcher (a freelance sustainable consultant and promoter of slow fashion). Interviews with a number of the speakers can now be found on the conference site.

Concomitantly with the conference was an installation by the Amsterdam-based artist Siobhan Wall titled the Clothes She Wears. It consisted of eight outfits, which constituted the clothes worn by eight different woman working in the garment district in different countries. Each outfit was accompanied by a tag describing the women's relation to the outfits, as well as with the garment industry. Partially founded by the Clean Clothes Campaign, the installation was subtle and moving. (You can find a small catalogue of the exhibit on the Clean Clothes Campaign website.)

Francesca

Yinka Shonibare's Lecture at Goldsmiths

Yinka Shonibare's Installation at the Cooper-Hewitt (2005)

If in London, don't miss the talk by British artist Yinka Shonibare at Goldsmiths. The lecture is organized by the college's renowned Centre in Textiles in collaboration with Selvedge Magazine and will take place February 3rd 2007 from 11 to 1. (It requires signing up.)

Like much of Shonibare's work, the talk will focus on the relationship between textiles and colonial histories.

Research Centre for Fashion, the Body and Material Cultures

A few days ago, the Research Centre for Fashion, the Body and Material Cultures had its official launch. Opened by Central Saint Martins in conjunction with the London College of Fashion (where it is housed), the Centre draws from an array of scholars and practictioners around London and beyond through an exciting program of guest speakers and visiting artists. Speaking at the Centre’s opening was Harold Koda, curator at the Costume Institute and currently a visiting professor at Central Saint Martins. In their words, the aim of the Centre is: “Dedicated to the analysis of fashion, the body and material cultures, the Centre seeks to develop creative and theoretical work in these inter-related areas. The Centre brings together the University's internationally recognised researchers in historical and cultural studies and those working within fashion design and technology to explore the synergies and productive tensions that exist between theory and practice. “

Francesca

Sustainable Fashion

The Symposium Terra Matter organized by Material Connexion on occasion of design week had a surprisingly large number of people discussing fashion design. Leslie Hoffman, executive director of Earth Pledge, was among the most interesting speakers, as she underlined how fashion (from textile production to clothing care) is the new and (alas, as yet unexplored) frontier in sustainable design. She announced that Earth Pledge will follow their very successful fashion show organized around the Fall/Winter 2005 New York Fashion Week (which featured an array of designers—Tess Giberson Maria Cornejo, Norma Kamali, Mary Ping) with a number of new fashion initiatives and shows offering an ever-increasing number of sustainable materials for designers’ use.

Francesca

Forgotten Fashion Symposium

L-R: Premet daysuit & Callot Soeurs daysuit, c. 1930 from Ann Bony's book, Mode des Années 30

I apologize for the deplorable lack of recent updating!

For those of you who may not know me, I’m finishing up my last semester of my last year in the Fashion and Textile Studies Master’s program at FIT. Lately, I’ve been quite busy preparing a paper I’m presenting at our annual graduate symposium which is next Saturday, May 6th.

This year’s symposium is entitled Forgotten Fashion and will include lectures on forgotten designers, fashion editors, fashion models and even forgotten fashion materials. Our keynote speaker is Clare Sauro, Assistant Curator from The Museum at FIT, who will speak about the use of cellophane as an avant-garde fashion material in the 1930s. My lecture will be on the forgotten couture house of Premet.

The event is free, along with a complimentary lunch. I invite you to attend if you can. It should be a fascinating day for those interesting in obscure fashion history and fashion in general.

11am-5pm in Seminar Room 9, D Building Fashion Institute of Technology, Seventh Avenue at 27th Street, NYC

I have many topics in mind for new posts including the upcoming Balenciaga exhibitions in Paris and in Texas. I hope to have them up next week, so please stay tuned.

Sonya Mooney