Introduction to Fashion Studies
Mon 13 Oct – Mon 24 Nov 2014
7 weeks

Course Outline

Recognizing the growing significance of Fashion Studies in contemporary cultural critique, this course introduces participants to an accessible approachto the study of dress. The curriculum, supported by one film screening, will provide learners with knowledge of culturally relevant issues that are of interest to this fascinating field.

The 'red thread' that will run throughout and connect the different sessions of this course will be an idea of dress as a means for fashioning the self and its daily performance, as display of ideas, ideals and of ways of thinking and dreaming about ourselves.

Course attendees will become familiar with the key concepts of class, the body, gender, sexuality and ethnicity - all inevitably engraved on the clothed form - and what happens when these concepts meet. Fashion will be understood as a form of visual art and of creation of meaning though presentation of the body.

Suitable for beginners.

Led by: Alessandro Bucci

Course screening: One Zero One (Cert TBC), Mon 27 Oct, Time TBC

Week 1. Wardrobe moments
Mon 13 Oct
18.30 – 20.30
It’s a well-worn cliché to associate fashion with a frivolous, disposable lifestyle but because of this, fashion is often denied a platform of respect in many cultural debates. Our opening lesson will introduce attendees to the cultural critique proposed by Fashion Studies as a legitimate field. It looks at fashion (and at anti-fashion), defines it as a cultural phenomenon and as a tool for the representation of the self. We will encourage awareness of dress and of the clothed body as a reliable system that allows us to explore what we think and dream about ourselves, but also what we want others to think and dream about us.
Week 2. “Bodies that matter”
Mon 20 Oct
18.30 – 20.30
This lesson will explore the social functions and roles that fashion has played in the past and how these have evolved to produce the contemporary concept of fashion. These notions will be investigated via open discussion and breakout groups to look at the interrelations between style, gender, sexuality and class across periods of contemporary British popular culture; drawing upon the multiple eras and trends that make up the rich visual history of youth culture in the UK post-WWII. From Teddy Boys to Mods, from Punk to Gothic, from Glam to Hipster, we will be asking what message these fashion-tribes wished to communicate, and how their choices resonated beyond the body of any one individual.
Week 3.Film screening: One Zero One
Mon 27 Oct
Cert TBC / Time TBC
A documentary that captures the unique friendship between drag queens Maroccaine-German Mourad, just 149cm high, and Dutch Antoine, better known as CYBERSISSY and BAYBJANE, two otherworldly spirits who light up the stages of the international party-circuit. Blending behind-the-scenes footage with private interviews and opulent fantasy sequences, the movie celebrates the unique friendship and restless lifestyles of two unlikely heroes as their individuality triumphs over standardised normalization and societal expectations.
Week4. The surreal body
Mon 3 Nov
18.30 – 20.30
This lesson will deal with the use of the female body as a site for Surrealist experiment. In fashion and in fashion art the human body has often been manipulated, exaggerated and fetishized to produce a highly erotized interpretation of femininity that has influenced standards of beauty that feel far from human reach. Corsets, swan-like necks and vertiginous heels can all trace their lineage to the mannequins in Parisian shop windows, which first fuelled the amplification (and abstraction) of desire that the Surrealists used to grant visual form to the unconscious mind. In this module, we will also look at specific examples of fashion designers influenced by similar aesthetics.
Week 5. Fashioning faith
Mon 10 Nov
18.30 – 20.30
This module focuses on the development of fashion from a cultural perspective, paying attention to the materiality of clothing. Beginning with the notion of extended self, this lesson’s focus moves to the principal case study of the veil; frequently covered in news reports as being loaded with significance and a contentious area of debate. Is the veil a religious object? A marketing strategy? A uniform? A symbol of repression, or conversely, liberation? By placing faith and religious affiliation amongst those categories that fashion can contribute toward, we also question to what extent non-Western views are present within the global fashion agenda and in the cultural debate on fashion and costume.
Week 6.Fashion flashback
Mon 17 Nov
18.30 – 20.30
Nostalgia is a perpetual act of selecting memories, of remembering and forgetting. Through memory the past becomes a source of comfort and safety in the present and future. When it comes to fashion, nostalgic feelings materialize through the thriving interest in vintage items, re-use, upcycling and revival trends of yesteryear. Through them a relation between the consumer/wearer and the passage of time is established by this form of fashion-as-time-machine. In the course of this session, we will be looking at various examples of invocations of the past with a particular emphasis on the phenomena of Eastern European Ostalgie, Nazi and Soviet chic, whereby uniforms, tailoring, insignia and accessories are re-appropriated, albeit loaded with association.
Week 7. Fashion photography
Mon 24 Nov
18.30 – 20.30
Not only is fashion photography necessary to the fashion business, but it is capable of capturing a mood in addition to the physical garments, and can effectively represent an historical moment. This session offers an essential overview of the evolving role of fashion photography as well as the significance of the photographer. By focusing on four fashion photographers - Helmut Newton, Terry Richardson, David la Chapelle, and Tim Walker - this session will also compare a range of social, cultural, and theoretical models for our final group discussions addressing the resonance and ripple-effect of fashion photography. When does styling and direction become pornographic? To what extent is the viewer able to distinguish fantasy from an impossible goal?