[ecrea] Cfp "Fashion Tales 2015. Feeding the Imaginary "

Fashion Tales 2015. Feeding the Imaginary

18-20 June 2015
Università Cattolica of Milan - Italy


Since its beginnings in the middle of the 19th century, fashion has been 
narrated through multiple media, both visual and verbal, and for 
different purposes such as marketing and advertising, art, costume 
history, social research and cultural dissemination. Since then, fashion 
has represented an important piece of material culture in modern 
industrial urban societies and in postcolonial and non-western contexts: 
artefacts that embody workmanship, tastes, lifestyles as well as the 
costume and art traditions of different countries.

Today, the discourses and the products of material culture developed in 
the field of fashion are ever more concerned with the issue of 
sustainability. This issue is seen not just in terms of ecological and 
ethical practices of production and consumption, as already well 
established in fashion studies, but also by revealing how fashion is 
able to create a virtuous circle between the aesthetic innovation of 
collections and the psycho-physical wellness of the person. The 
sustainable imaginary of fashion is one which promotes multiple models 
of beauty, which originates from fashion’s own encounter with other 
visual cultures worldwide and its dialogue with a variety of fields and 
disciplines. These can act as a tool to build new social images of 
bodies, of their health and wellness, new models for actions and 
practices and for the nurturing of diversity.
Since fashion is a system of material production and consumption, and a 
system of signs, it involves differently skilled people. Their purposes, 
however, have often been divergent and too rarely overlapping. Media 
professionals, communication and marketing consultants, scholars, 
curators and other actors of the field of fashion develop their own 
discourses and expertise, but often with little cross over between them. 
Indeed, comparing and sharing experiences,
concepts and methodologies can be difficult. When these grow out of 
different national or regional traditions the dialogue can become even 
more challenging.

The conference Fashion Tales 2015 aims to address this challenge. It 
hopes to be a platform that facilitates encounters between, skills, 
knowledge, disciplines and cultures the better to nurture and develop 
the many products and practices of fashion across which one’s gaze and 
thought can navigate; those art exhibitions, catwalks, photo books, 
movies, magazines, ads, blogs, scientific essays and interviews which 
feed the fashion imaginary.

Call for papers
Recommended topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
1. Fashion and imaginary: how fashion is represented in the fine arts, 
architecture, music, photography etc., and how these representations 
inform a sustainable imaginary.
2. Fashion languages and linguistic codes: how to develop a new language 
for writing and talking about fashion in traditional and digital media 
(magazines, newspapers, fashion films, blogs, fashion-themed TV series, 
advertising etc.).
3. Visual methodologies for fashion studies: how to use images and 
videos in fashion research and communication.
4. Body and beauty: how to represent contemporary bodies in a 
non-stereotyped way, respecting the differences and the richness of body 
shapes and ethnic and cultural traits against a standardized image of 
the body.
5. Fashion and sustainable consumption: how fashion can enhance 
responsible practices of consumption, including in non-fashion related 
industries, and act as a tool of identity construction.
6. Social responsibility: how to spread social responsibility through 
fashion, at different levels (design, production, retail, communication).
7. Fashion houses: how to study and narrate the living culture of the 
fashion houses, which is an important part of the cultural capital so 
secretly treasured and guarded by companies.
8. Fashion schools, museums, institutions: how fashion institutions 
contribute to shaping the sustainable imaginary of fashion.
9. Fashion blogging and social networks: how to promote new fashion 
communication patterns (top down, bottom up, peer to peer) through web 
2.0 and 3.0. How to contribute through them to the construction of new 
fashion discourses.
10. Fashion trends: how to understand (and forecast) the evolution of 
society by reading the socio-cultural signals embodied by fashion codes.
11. Fashion and technology: how smart textiles can interact with human 
body and modify both design and consumption practices on a sustainable 
basis.
12. Digitalization and materiality: how new personal digital devices 
influence the construction of fashion materiality and its representation.
13. Living fashion vs museum pieces: how to exhibit fashion in museums 
and in private and public collections without losing its essential dynamism.
14. World tales: how non-Western and postcolonial tales and practices 
can challenge the Western representation of fashion.
15. Resistant tales: how individuals and groups can produce or use 
alternative and counter-hegemonic fashion tales.

If you wish to present a paper at the conference you will have to submit 
electronically, using the web-based submission form, an *abstract of 
maximum 350 words* and a 120 words profile of each author (including 
affiliation and, if desired, your two main publications) in English by 
*1st October 2014.*

Files should include the following information in this order:
a) author(s) b) affiliation c) email address d) title of abstract e) 
body of abstract

Please use plain text and abstain from using footnotes and any special 
formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline).

We are using EasyChair for the submission and the review process. To 
submit your abstract please first read carefully the abstract submission 
guidelines and then connect to *FT2015 EASYCHAIR WEBSITE.*

Conference website: http://convegni.unicatt.it/meetings_5303.html
Conference facebook page: FashionTales Modacult