Our conference celebrating 50 years of dress history at the Courtauld is drawing closer, and we can now reveal the programme for the event, which will be taking place on Saturday 16 May.
Speakers will explore the relationship and significance of women in designing, wearing, promoting, curating and writing about dress, from both the perspective of those working in the field and those who wear, consume and document fashion. The conference will provide the opportunity to question how changes in dress, and its representation and exploration through the media, academia, and exhibiting have impacted upon relationships between women and fashion, since 1965.
Women, including Stella Mary Newton, who set up the first Courtauld course in the History of Dress, have been central to developing the discipline and exploring dress’ multifaceted meanings. They have also been important in the design and dissemination of fashion as a product and as an idea. This conference celebrates and critiques the role women have taken in making fashion, and, by extension, the role fashion plays in making women – by defining and constructing notions of gender, sexuality, beauty and ethnicity. We will take a global, interdisciplinary perspective to seek an overview of women’s significance to fashion and dress and vice versa.
PROGRAMME
09.30 – 10.00 Registration
10.00 – 10.15 Introduction: Lucy Moyse (PhD Candidate, The Courtauld)
10.15 – 10.45 Lecture: ‘Dress & History since 1965,’ Dr Rebecca Arnold (Oak Foundation Lecturer in History of Dress & Textiles, The Courtauld)
10.45 – 11.00 Discussion
11.00 – 11.30 TEA/COFFEE BREAK (provided – Seminar room 1)
Fashion Media
(Chair: Dr Sarah Cheang, Senior Tutor Modern Specialism, History of Design, RCA)
11.30 – 12.00 Clip: People in the Street, Pathé (1968) followed by discussion led by Katerina Pantelides (PhD candidate, The Courtauld)
12.00 – 12.30 Panel: ‘Zuzu Angel: Fashioning Resistance to the Brazilian Military Dictatorship, 1971-76’, Elizabeth Kutesko (PhD candidate, The Courtauld) & ‘The Feminine Awkward,’ Dr Eugenie Shinkle (Senior Lecturer in Photographic Theory & Criticism, University of Westminster)
12.30 – 12.45 Discussion
12.45 – 14.00 LUNCH (provided for the speakers only – Seminar room 1)
Fashion History
(Chair: Dr Robin Schuldenfrei, Lecturer in European Modernisms, The Courtauld Institute of Art)
14.00 – 14.40 Keynote lecture: ‘Designing Women,’ Cheryl Buckley (Professor of Fashion & Design History, University of Brighton)
14.40 – 15.00 Discussion
15.00 – 15.30 Panel: ‘Interpreting Memory and Image: Women, Spaces, and Dress in 1960s France,’ Alexis Romano (PhD candidate, The Courtauld), & ‘Misfit: Aspirational Fashion Practice and the Female Body,’ Kathryn Brownbridge (Senior Lecturer in Clothing Design Technology, Manchester Metropolitan University)
15.30 – 15.45 Discussion
15.45 – 16.15 TEA/COFFEE BREAK (provided – Seminar room 1)
Fashion Curation
(Sonnet Stanfill, Curator of 20th Century & Contemporary Fashion, V&A Museum)
16.15 – 16.25 Clip: Ancient Models, featuring Doris Langley Moore, Pathé (1955)
16.25 – 16.45 Lecture: ‘Women and the Fashion Museum,’ Rosemary Harden (Manager, Fashion Museum, Bath)
16.45 – 17.00 Discussion
17.00 – 17.40 Keynote lecture: ‘Feminine Attributes,’ Judith Clark, (Professor of Fashion & Museology, London College of Fashion)
17.40 – 18.00 Discussion
Organised by Dr Rebecca Arnold (Oak Foundation Lecturer in History of Dress & Textiles, The Courtauld), and Elizabeth Kutesko and Lucy Moyse (PhD candidates, The Courtauld)
Ticket/entry details: £16 (£11 students, Courtauld staff/students and concessions)
BOOK ONLINE Or send a cheque made payable to ‘The Courtauld Institute of Art’ to: Research Forum Events Co-ordinator, Research Forum, The Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN, stating ‘women make fashion conference’. For further information, email ResearchForum@courtauld.ac.uk
