“Gender, Bodies and Technology”
Interdisciplinary Conference Sponsored by the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at Virginia Tech
April 22-24, 2010
Roanoke, Virginia
Proposal Deadline: September 15, 2009
Proposals are invited from scholars in the humanities, social and natural sciences, visual and performing arts, engineering and technology for papers, panels, new media art and performance pieces.
The proposals are expected to explore:
The technological production of gendered and racialized bodies, historical and contemporary feminist appropriations of technology in aesthetics and representations of embodiment, and the gendered implications of technology in contexts ranging from classrooms to workplaces to the Internet.
Specific topics might include, but are not limited to:
Racialized, aged and gendered bodies
Performance, new media and other creative expressions as sites for engaging/enacting/destabilizing conventions of embodiment and technology
Biopolitics and medical engineering of reproduction
Sexual identity and gender
Personal narrative and oral history as sources of embodied theorizing
New media art and feminist aesthetics
Augusta Auctions Catalog Sale and Discovery Sale
September 10, 2009
Host Hotel, Sturbridge, Massachusetts
Augusta Auctions is an auction house for couture & vintage fashion. They have this sale coming up in Sept. and then another in NYC in Nov.
Click here for their site.
For the Sept. 10 auction: Augusta’s first New England specialty antique costume and textile auction will take place during antique market week at Brimfield. Rain or Shine.
To be sold: European and Asian treasures from the 17th through late 20th centuries: vintage & designer garments, abundant 19th C clothing, 19th C dolls and French doll clothes, quilts, coverlets, hand embroidered & woven textiles, quantity of handmade & machine made paisley shawls, exceptional heirloom laces, early Chinese & Japanese embroideries, weavings and robes, hundreds of fans, parasols, hats, bonnets, beaded bags and other fashion accessories.
Consignors: These rare objects have been hidden away for decades in storage of legendary American museums: The Montclair Art Museum (NJ), Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts (MA), The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (VA), Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising (CA) and the first of many objects from the internationally renowned Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection. These amazing collections, as well as selections from other institutions, estates and individual consignors will be sold to the highest bidder, free of minimum bids or reserves. All catalogued auction lots and discovery sale objects will sell on September 10.
If fashion is ultimately about seeking or rejecting certain group affiliations, then a study of international dress should be replete with examples of sartorial signs of loyalty. Surely, when there are no other groups left to join, one always has his/her country.
Patriotism, and the lack there of, is actually the theme of the “Fashion and Politics” exhibition currently on view at the Museum at FIT. And while we are all pretty familiar with the various American flag symbols decorating clothing here in this country, or all the images of the Queen or the British flag that parade around England, I want to think a little about some other signs of national loyalty through clothing that may not be as obvious to spot.
What does it mean to be genuinely patriotic in the way you dress? How does one show allegiance to one’s country in a way that isn’t forced or clichéd?
It goes without saying that national pride in dress isn’t always as overt as plastering a flag on a t-shirt. In fact, in some places, allegiance through dress isn’t even a choice a person is free to make. With the current debate swirling in France over making the “burka” illegal, many are beginning to ask the question: exactly how much can a government dictate what one wears? See an article on this issue from the BBC here.
While the idea of a governmentally enforced dress code seems totally abhorrent in our culture that so clearly values individualism (and the right to religious freedom), governmental laws regarding clothing are not a new concept at all. It’s actually true that governments have always had something to say about what its citizens are to wear. Although clothing laws have frequently dealt with the limitations on bodily exposure, there are some countries where the laws are more involved.
Sumptuary laws were really some of the first dress regulations imposed on citizens by their national governments. These laws were ultimately an attempt to stabilize class divisions. Governmentally imposed laws (which go as far back historically as ancient Greece and Rome) prohibited individuals of the lower classes from dressing in ways that mimicked the upper classes. Certain kinds of sartorial imitation was strictly forbidden.
In other words, the upper classes reserved the right to dress in ways that distinguished them as explicitly “upper class.” These sumptuary laws actually promoted class segregation and discrimination, which had an opposite effect of decreasing national pride and equality. If you’re interested, French Renaissance write Michel de Montaigne wrote a brief essay on sumptuary laws which you can find here.
Other governmental laws regarding dress typically reinforce gender roles and are usually affiliated with various religious beliefs (in a sense, France’s law against burkas stands directly in contrast to certain religious beliefs).
But does patriotism in dress then imply simply following rules instituted by governments? Or is there something more subtle or more personal in revealing a love of one’s country through clothing?
Indeed, underneath whatever staunch laws and regulations governments may enforce, there still lingers a beautiful global kaleidoscope of ethnic styles of dress, which have been preserved and passed down through hundreds of generations of weavers, textile designers, etc. So the affiliations of family and tradition may be stronger than any outright national loyalty, and those more intimate connections may in fact be what keeps varieties of regional dress as stunningly diverse and intriguing as they are today.
Published in 1955, it is Hartnell’s autobiography. Hartnell (1901-1979) was an English designer best known for designing Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation gown in 1953 and was the primary designer for English Royalty beginning in 1935.
Thus, much of this book focuses on his work for the Royal family. But, a good section also focuses on his fashion work in the 1930s. It includes a number of full page photographs, sketches and full color illustrations of various gowns designed by Hartnell between about 1930-1955. Eye candy to say the least.
The tone of the book is a bit of mind candy as well – you’ll see what I mean by this quote (pg 80)
“The pastel shades of velvet are almost irresistible in palest turquoise, lilac and candy pink, but resisted they are, for they would prove too costly for the young wearer and too enlargening for the mature. Some exquisite silks and satins are rippled out at our feet and the temptation is to buy the whole lot, but common sense enters to resist the rustling flowerstrewn taffetas and metal threaded brocades, often too rich in beauty for women to wear. I have to remember reluctantly that at my dress collections a woman may refuse the most beautiful dress in preference for a little workaday number. Recklessly, however, I do order one or two of these glorious products, to be included in the collection merely for the sake of decoration and personal satisfaction.”
Flowery descriptions and gossipy notes on the Royals and lessor nobles abound. This fashion show by Hartnell from 1938 not only shows (quickly) his collection, but also explains much of his inspiration – Victoriana, Egyptian drapery, English flowers, fur, sequins, jewels and crystals.
More on the Royal wardrobe can be found here at the official website for her The British Monarchy.
1.) Assistant Professor of Costume Design, Towson University
The Department of Theatre Arts at Towson University seeks a qualified individual to teach undergraduate costume design courses and design, or mentor student designers, for a season of approx. four main stage productions, and oversee selected undergraduate and graduate student productions.
As a member of the faculty, the candidate is expected to: share the responsibilities of service to the department, college, and university; continue to develop as a designer through professional design opportunities and research; work closely with the costumer, who supervises the costume shop, in the execution of the costume designs, assist in the costume shop, attend dress rehearsals, develop the budget with the costumer, help organize costume crews.
Ten-month appointment with the possibility of summer compensation for teaching. Tenure Track position.
Start date: August 17, 2010.
QUALIFICATIONS:
An MFA degree with a preferred concentration in costume design. Applicants should have a strong commitment to excellence in teaching and provide evidence of outstanding design potential. A background in costume history, make-up, and/or a secondary interest in other areas of theatre design is preferred.
The successful candidate must support and enhance the department’s commitment to the exploration of traditional, contemporary and experimental work. Evidence or interest in securing external funding preferred.
Apply to:
Daniel Ettinger, Search Chair, c/o Michele Madden
College of Fine Arts and Communication
Towson University
Department of Theatre Arts
8000 York Rd.
Towson, MD 21252-0001
2.) Academic Director, Fashion & Retail Management, The Art Institute of Austin
The Art Institute of Austin has an opening for an Academic Director for Fashion & Retail Management. The Academic Director is the principal academic officer for these programs. The AD provides support and guidance to students and faculty and maintains a leadership role in all program functions. The AD ensures student progress toward a successful completion and maintains responsibilities for teaching. The AD is co-responsible with the Dean of Academic Affairs for the fiscal well being of the programs, and for achieving key education targets. Key responsibilities include coaching and managing faculty, ensuring appropriate and current curriculum and student progression toward satisfying degree requirements.
QUALIFICATIONS:
Candidates must have master’s degree, previous teaching experience, and industry experience. The applicant must have at least five years experience in the fashion industry, either in retail, management or fashion design. Buyer experience strongly preferred.
The Art Institute of Austin consists of 100 dedicated and talented staff and faculty serving approximately 550 students in Bachelor’s and Associate degree programs. Courses of study include Graphic Design, Interior Design, Media Arts & Animation, Digital Filmmaking and Video Production, Fashion & Retail Management, Photography, Web Design & Interactive Media, Audio Production and Culinary Arts.
Apply to:
Hiring Manager
101 W. Louis Henna Blvd.
Suite 100
Austin , TX 78728
Here at Worn Though most of the book reviews are about cultural or historical topics relating to dress or something similar. We don’t go over a lot of how-to primers. However, as previously mentioned, Worn Through gets a nod in Nina Garcia’s new book The Style Strategy: A Less-Is-More Approach to Staying Chic and Shopping Smart. So, I thought I should give it a solid once-over and provide some brief thoughts.
Rather than walk you through it page by page, I’ll give you the basic picture. I haven’t read a book like this in a while; one that is coming from the fashion industry/high or mass fashion point-of-view. Also, I very rarely read how-to or self-help, so I didn’t know what to expect and even admittedly was a little skeptical. Probably the closest thing I’ve read in recent days was Simon Doonan’s Eccentric Glamour: Creating an Insanely More Fabulous You which is half funky fashion memoir and half interviews (A++ on that book BTW).
I know I should start with the text, but I’m not. The first thing on my mind when opening the book was how great it looks. It is eye catching, with its golden glossy cover, mix of staid and scripty fonts, and fuchsia accents, all exuding a certain “this is expensive and feminine, yet fun” feel. The best design feature is, of course, the collection of AMAZING illustrations on every page by the illustrious Ruben Toledo. The colors enliven the illustrations which jump right off the page, and the expressions of the characters do the same. The delicate shoes, handbags, and floral motifs, and let’s not forget pampered pooches, could easily be a set of designer note-cards or artistically framed as a sassy and even elegant wall piece.
Ok, so now onto the text. The philosophy is crystal clear right from the start. Along with the blatant title, the book begins with a quote from Vivienne Westwood“Buy less, choose well, and mix it all.” This type of sentiment obviously sits well in our current cultural climate with the recession and being green swirling around everyone’s mind every time they head to a cash register. Additionally, design thinking has finally permeated the public consciousness, and therefore people want attractive and affordable to be more synonymous, and, are also willing to be creative to make it happen. This is all discussed throughout the Author’s note which serves as the introductory chapter.
After the intro commentary, it is then broken into the sections “What do I want?” and “What do I need?” with chapters including “Making investments”, “The luxe life” and “Make do and mend.” The chapters are written in the first person with a causal tone and incorporate tips ranging from a big-picture redo of one’s shopping mentality to small-scale, practical hints. It is the kind of book you can read cover to cover, or, skim for the images, list, and pull quotes, or, dive into the section that pertains to you and shelve the rest. There are also a surprising number of historical references, and often they are paralleled with contemporary information for relevance.
The pull quotes I mentioned are one of my favorite parts, as I’m a sucker for a witty fashion quip, and there’s no shortage of wide reaching personalities voicing in including Giorgio Armani, Michelle Obama, Audrey Hepburn, Liberace, and Miss Piggy, to name a few.
The end portion of the book, “Resources” is the only part I have somewhat mixed feelings about. This chapter is the “shopping destinations and style resources” and is broken into the sections “Shopping”, “Hair and make up”, “Style, Style, Style”, “How-to”, and “Everything else.” Each section contains a brief list of go-to sources, both online and brick and mortar. (This is where the Worn Through reference is in the book). Basically, I like the concept of the lists, and generally I appreciate the indie ideas and direction to some of the obvious and not-so-obvious places. But it’s those obvious ones that initially struck me as too easy and somewhat uninventive. J. Crew, eBay, H&M, Target…these seem like too much of a given. However, they are outnumbred by the more unique sources listed, and thoughtful blending of resources is the point of the book.
The end of the book and my resulting lone significant criticism reminded me that a few years back I was heading to a larger city then my own, and asked a friend’s girlfriend to take me shopping. She was reluctant, saying she didn’t know where to begin regarding clothes that would appeal to my style sensibilities. My reply surprised her in saying that much of my shopping is done (sometimes with a weird guilt) at chain stores, malls, department stores, and often outlets of high-end stores. I guess maybe it does surprise people that you can piece together strong fashion statements from seemingly generic and moderately priced retailers. So I get it as the key with a style guide aimed at the mid-priced consumer is to indicate how to mix The Gap with boutique pieces and flea market finds.
No, this isn’t a book that’ll be incorporated into my classroom or my reference library. But it isn’t meant to be. I tend to hate the makeover shows on TV and generally steer clear of the shopping guides at the bookstore. But this book does a very successful job at achieving its goal and with a lot more panache than the average style primer. And no, I’m not just saying that because my blog is in it. If I hated it I probably would have just avoided writing anything at all. Instead, don’t be surprised if this is a hot holiday ‘09 present for the fashionable friend or coworker, as it’s helpful without being overbearing, is smart enough for even your snobbiest of peers, and let’s not forget those illustrations!
2.) Medieval Association of the Midwest
Costume in Medieval Literature
Kalamazoo, MI in 2010
Any examination of medieval literary costume is welcome, including, but not limited to, fabrics used, color, dyestuffs, ornamentation, etc. Papers dealing with costume in Chaucer’s works are welcome, and any medieval literatures in English or other languages.
Please submit an abstract for a 15-20 minute presentation, and a
Participant Information Form (link below), by September 15, 2009
I’m sure you’re familiar with Garcia from her work as a judge on Project Runway, and from her positions at Elle and now as Fashion Director at Marie Claire.
The book also includes illustrations by acclaimed artist Ruben Toledo.
Pictured here with his wife, fashion designer Isabel Toledo
Toward the back of the how-to primer Garcia lists a handful of pages of what she refers to as shopping destinations and style resources. WT is listed alongside such notable sites as The Sartorialist, Etsy, and Bluefly, as well as a small slew of other corporate and independent sites.
WT is the only academically-oriented site listed, which makes sense as mostly the book is geared toward how to “look chic, all while saving money.” This of course explains Garcia’s funny comment about WT (funny to me at least) “The commentary on style and fashion may strike you as a little academic, but I find it so interesting.” Well, it’s true, academic is our mission, and, probably our primary audience. However, I like to think “academic” doesn’t exactly equate stuffy or boring, and thankfully Garcia did qualify her phrase saying we’re “so interesting.” I’ll take “interesting” over many other fluffier adjectives any day!
If you are wondering, no I don’t know Garcia or her staff. For anyone who checks my CV, you’ll find I did intern at the same publishing house as Elle, and knew a few other interns and the like back then, but that was over a decade ago and that isn’t the connection point. So, I’m thrilled to hear Garcia is a reader, and admittedly I was a little surprised. In fact, when Harper Collins emailed me to let me know of the impending publication I asked if they were spammers as I get a ton of junk mail and product promotions. But alas, not spam–instead it’s some nice support for the blog, which I also interpret as helpful support for our field in general.
I’d like to extend my thanx publicly to the contributors to WT: Heather, Lauren, Tove, and Lucy. When I started the blog over two years ago I was on my own, and it certainly was tough to keep it up regularly, with quality, in conjunction with maintaining my schoolwork, my job, and general life stuff. The addition of each contributor has brought more and more quality posts representing varied voices within the field of apparel studies and socio-cultural/historical approaches to looking at dress. The team has slowly grown over the years and now works together to provide content we’re proud of and find interesting and useful ourselves.
Hopefully you enjoy the blog and if you’d like to see new types of ideas represented, please drop me a line or include it in the comments of this post. We’ve got a lot of new ideas for directions to grow, including more interviews, which you’ll start to see this fall.
So, thanx Nina for your plug!! We appreciate it.
Again, look for my book review on Monday Aug. 24.
7th International Conference For Consumer Behaviour, Tourism and Retailing Research
Hosted by:
Escola Superior de Hotelaria e Turismo do Estoril (ESHTE) (Estoril Higher Institute for Tourism and Hotel Studies)
Lisbon, Portugal
April 7-9, 2010
Please send an abstract of no more than 500 words by October 26, 2009.
The Conference Tracks will include:
• Marketing Communications And The Impact On Consumers
• Innovative Practice And Methods In Marketing And Consumer Behaviour
• Role Of Relationship Marketing On Consumer Behaviour
• Retailing And Merchandising For Local And International Organisations
• Fashion Marketing
This post was a long time coming, but well worth it. As many of you know, there are currently three exhibitions of Richard Avedon’s work on both coasts.* The exhibit at the SFMOMA, Richard Avedon: Photographs, 1946-2004, however, is the only one of the three to offer a complete retrospective of his work and originated in Denmark in 2007. This is an important distinction for the purposes of WT as it looks at his entire career – thereby placing his fashion photography within the context of his other commercial and non-commercial work over a 50 year period.
Veruschka, dress by Kimberly, New York, January 1967
The exhibit includes a wide cast of characters from throughout Avedons career. His subjects are models (Dovima, Veruschka, Dorian Leigh), artists and writers (Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, Samuel Beckett), politicians (Cesar Chavez, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagon), celebrities (Marilyn Monroe, Janice Joplin, Bjork) and thundering hords of individuals. The show was broken into several rooms, each representing both a different themeatic focus of the artist, and somewhat chronologically. Upon entering the exhibition, fashion photography is first, followed by celebrity portraits, then key political figures, then artists, followed by his series In the American West (1980–85), and ending with the iconic images he took at the end of his career.The exhibit not only showcases the talent of the photographer, but the significant historical points that occurred during his lifetime. If you were important, Avedon took your picture. The images were presented in both large format photographs (some larger than life-size) as well as in magazines (including many recognizable and memorable photo spreads).
I highly recommend that you go and see this exhibit for yourself (it’s on view through November 29)- the size and presence of these images really have a significant impact on your experience of them, and of the photographers intention. Many have an almost three-dimensional quality. Marilyn Monroe is hauntingly sad; Charlie Chaplin is devilish and fuzzy; and some figures resemble ghosts. The fashion photography is, of course, brilliant. It’s hard to pick a favorite, but I tend to enjoy the images that show movement. Enjoy these photographs from the exhibition. Feel free to comment below on your favorites.
*”Avedon Fashion, 1944-2000″, The International Center for Photography in New York on view through September 20th; “Richard Avedon: Portraits of Power” at San Diego Museum of Art runs through Sept. 6.
by 
. So, I thought I should give it a solid once-over and provide some brief thoughts.
which is half funky fashion memoir and half interviews (A++ on that book BTW). 
and its mix of the good sense and whimsy–an all altogether too rare combination. 
by Richard Avedon and Anne Hollander (yes, the Anne Hollander)
by John Lahr, Andre Gregory, Mike Nichols, and Twyla Tharp
by Carol Squiers, Vincent Aletti, Philippe Garner, and Willis Hartshorn
by Renata Adler, Frank Goodyear, Paul Roth, and Richard Avedon
