On 8 and 9 November 2019, in the prestigious set of the Rootstein Hopkins Space East at London College of Fashion, will take place Fashion and the Politics of Heritage, the European Fashion Heritage Association Sixth International Conference. The conference is organized in collaboration with the London College of Fashion – University of the Arts London, The New School – Parsons Paris and Università Iuav di Venezia. It will gather academics and professionals from museums and brand archives.  

Fashion and the Politics of Heritage will critically explore physical and virtual encounters between fashion, culture and history, contextualizing the role of politics in their interaction and investigating the diverse fashion narratives set by public and private institutions dealing with fashion heritage. The official press release of the conference can be downloaded here: https://fashionheritage.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/EFHA-Conference-2019-Press-Release-2307-3.pdf

The conference will focus on the processes of framing, re-framing and de-framing these narratives; it will directly explore the practices of archiving and preserving fashion by gathering some of the most established and structured museums and fashion archives, reflecting on their day-to-day practices; finally, it will enter some hybrid territories, analyzing the queering grounds between the academic world and the curation of exhibitions on topics related to dress and fashion. 

The line-up of speakers will count, amongst others, academics as Julia Petrov, Rhonda Garelick and Fabio Cleto, museums as Centraal Museum Utrecht and the Museum of London, and brand archives as Christian Dior, Missoni, Vivienne Westwood and Ermenegildo Zegna. The presentations will tackle a variety of issues: the management and role of archives for either museums or brands; the relationship between material culture and digital technologies; the meaning of ‘politics’ in the context of the archive.

Moving on from some of the core issues that emerged in the fifth EFHA International conference, Fashion and the Politics of Heritage will deal with the complexities linked to the definition of fashion heritage. The aim of the conference is to contribute to the ongoing conversation with new insights on the academic discourse and on the role of archives and fashion displays in museums, galleries and in the digital realm. 

Stay tuned for the final program, but first secure your ticket at https://fashion-and-the-politics-of-heritage.eventbrite.co.uk  

Hurry-up, early bird tickets are limited!