Frances Crossley

AHRC Networking Project Administrator

Portrait of Frances Crossley

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

@francesrosec

Frances Crossley, Documenting Fashion

Frances Crossley, Documenting Fashion: Dissertation Discussion