Unravelling Fashion Narratives

About the Symposium

The Fashion Studies Network (FSN) is a collaborative scholarly community focused on sharing innovative research, methodologies, and practices in the field of fashion. Founded in 2023 and led by the School of Fashion at Parsons School of Design – the New School and the Masters of Fashion program at Toronto Metropolitan University, this network is focused on developing connections between fashion-focused New York City and Toronto graduate students, community members, and educational- and cultural-centered institutions. A bi-annual symposium hosted by FSN institutional members is a key goal of the network, resulting in an evolving creative space where innovative research can be shared, conversations can be had, and new connections between communities can be made.

The fashion system's processes of production, circulation, consumption, and expulsion weave stories begging to be told and important lessons to be learned. While the worst cases expose the domination and exploitation prevalent within the industry, there are also inspiring instances of sustainability, equity, and decolonization gaining visibility and momentum as we strive to make fashion a safer and more accessible creative space. Textiles and the garments they construct serve as the physical manifestation of diverse communities' histories, communities, and politics, working to both expose and disrupt oppressive dominant ideologies and provide a means of embodied self-expression. Our upcoming graduate symposium "Unravelling Fashion Narratives" will feature a wide range of panelists investigating fashion from all angles. Alternative fashion narratives will be explored through the lenses of curatorial, material culture, fashion, and performance studies; as well as exhibited through the creations of dyers, weavers, and other makers in the field of fashion.

Potential topics include, but are by no means limited to:

• Critiquing and challenging dominant narratives in fashion

• Archival collections’, museums’ and curatorial stories

• Decolonial perspectives in design and representation

• Fashion reality vs. fantasy

• Stories concealed and revealed by dress

• Global dress and textile stories

• Inclusion and accessibility in fashion and dress practices

• Sustainability in micro and macro practices

• Threads of identity and dress

• Fashion studies as an interdisciplinary field

• Materiality

• Personal and political narratives in dress

• Dress history

We welcomed graduate students, makers, and artists from various backgrounds submitted to the field of Fashion Studies. Priority was given to students at institutions affiliated with the network.