In celebration of The Courtauld’s recently catalogued History of Dress journals archive, this one-day symposium examines how the fashion magazine has constructed and circulated social, cultural and political ideas concerning dress, body and identity. In opening up the collection, we will examine fashion magazines more broadly as documents of the time in which they were produced, reflecting changing tastes and attitudes as well as social and technological developments. We will explore how the fashion magazine has been consumed by readers, whether glanced through or thoroughly read from cover to cover, and consider the sensory connections to be made between looking, seeing, being, feeling and wearing. Speakers will consider these overlapping themes from the interdisciplinary perspectives of design history, fashion studies, visual culture, sociology, and those working professionally within the field. The day will include a viewing session of some earlier examples from our collection as well as an opportunity to see a fashion magazine display curated in collaboration with History of Dress MA students. This symposium will provide the opportunity to question changes in the way that dress has been documented, worn and consumed throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, as well as to study the fashion magazine as image, object, text and idea intertwined.
09.00 – 09.30 REGISTRATION
09.30 – 10.00 Introduction to the History of Dress journals archive Elizabeth Kutesko
Session 1: Viewing and Re-viewing Fashion Magazines – Chair: Katie Faulkner 10.00 – 11.00 Paul Jobling (University of Brighton): Fashion Figures: Reflecting on intertextuality in fashion spreads and advertising
11.00 – 11.30 TEA /COFFEE BREAK (provided for all, in Seminar room 1)
11.30 – 12.45 Rebecca Arnold (Courtauld Institute of Art): Behind the Scenes with Louise DahlWolfe and Toni Frissell: Alternative Views of Fashion Photography in Mid-Century America
Marta Franceschini (Royal College of Art): ARBITER. Fashion, Style and Masculinity in Italy, 1935-1952
Alice Beard (Kingston University): Nova 1965-1975: A Study of the Magazine as a Visual & Material Object Discussion (15 min)
12.45 – 13.00 Introduction to ‘Addressing the Courtauld’s Fashion Magazines’ display by Courtauld MA students
13.00 – 14.00 LUNCH BREAK (provided for speakers only) Opportunity for participants to view the display ‘Addressing the Courtauld’s Fashion Magazines’ outside The Courtauld library
Session 2: Archiving and Analysing the Courtauld’s Collection – Chair: Alexis Romano
14.00 – 14.30 Lluis Tembleque Teres (Courtauld Institute of Art): Managing the History of Dress Journals Archive
14.30 – 15.30 Magazine Viewing Session in SR1, SR2 and SR3.
15.30 – 16.00 Lucy Moyse (Courtauld Institute of Art): Uncovering Violence in Fashion upon the Printed Page
16.00 – 16.30 TEA /COFFEE BREAK (provided for all, in Seminar room 1)
Session 3: Fashion Journalism Now – Chair: Katerina Pantelides
16.30 – 17.00 Dal Chodha and Jane Howard of the Archivist: In conversation with Alexis Romano
17.00 – 18.00 Maria Angela Jansen (Independent Scholar): The Role of the Moroccan Women’s Press in Defining Moroccan Modernity
18.00 RECEPTION