AHRC Networking Project Administrator
After completing my undergraduate degree at The Courtauld Institute of Art, London (BA Hons History of Art, 2018), I also gained my Masters degree from the Courtauld in July (MA History of Dress, 2019). In my postgraduate dissertation, I examined what the act of “copying” means or stands for when applied to the fashion industry’s essentially self-referential core. Set within the early decades of the twentieth-century, my dissertation aimed to thoroughly investigate how Parisian haute-couture’s structural integrity was left vulnerable with the rise of America’s competitive (and copyist-heavy) ready-to-wear mass market. Through case studies that pinpoint the change occurring from the beginning of the century to the late-1930s, including examples such as the cinematic vehicle William Dieterle’s Fashions of 1934 provides, my dissertation demonstrates how reproduction, a valid mode of fashion production, is a trend perpetually readdressed throughout fashion history.
I am very much interested in how repetition manifests within fashion. I harbour a deep fascination with late-twentieth century fashion in particular and how its instantly recognisable quintessence is reimagined and payed homage to (again and again) in contemporary fashion design.
Frances Crossley, Documenting Fashion
Frances Crossley, Documenting Fashion: Dissertation Discussion
