Europe and Fashion: Questioning Identities and Cultures

EFHA International Conference 2018: Europe and Fashion: Questioning Identities and Cultures

The conference Europe and Fashion: Questioning Identities and Cultures focused on European sartorial heritage, its collecting and its archiving practices; it explored and contextualised spaces of cultural interactions, displacement and construction of national and transnational identities in the European landscape.
In recent years there has been considerable scholarly attention to the interrelationship between geographical and national identities on the one hand and cultural production on the other hand. Historians, art historians, anthropologists and philologists amongst others have focused on the role of geography, borders, territories and identities for the definition and demarcation of varied artefacts and practices. We contend that fashion will benefit from a similar approach. By assessing the current state of theory, history and practice-based research in the field of fashion studies, the conference Europe and Fashion: Questioning Identities and Cultures wanted to expand the existing knowledge on European identities and European cultures exploring the role of dress and fashion in these cultural formations.

At this link the conference podcast is now available: https://fashionheritage.eu/podcast/

The conference involved world-leading academic institutions, archives and museums, encouraging discourse across disciplines, institutional and national boundaries. Through a carefully selected line-up of speakers, the aim was to reconsider assumptions about the place of dress and fashion in the definition of European cultures and offer new and critical perspectives on the role of dress and fashion in relation to many issues, as: individual and collective identities, European policy, colonialism and post-colonialism, cultural exchange and transmission, cultural displacement and appropriation, the fashion capital and nation, centre and periphery. The contributions also addressed heritage, archives formations and museums as catalysers of cultural discourses, as well as explore identity formations in Europe in a wider socio-cultural context, both theoretically and historically.

The conference was organised by the European Fashion Heritage Association in collaboration with The New School - Parsons Paris, IUAV University of Venice and London College of Fashion - University of the Arts London, under the auspices of the French Ministry of Culture. The event was also listed among the initiatives part of “2018 - European Year for Cultural Heritage”.

Keynote speakers

• Miren Arzalluz, Galliera Museum


• Javier Gimeno Martinez, Free University Amsterdam


• Giorgio Riello University of Warwick


• Valerie Steele Fashion Institute of Technology

Confirmed speakers

• Judith Clark, London College of Fashion, UAL


• Bárbara Coutinho, MUDE Lisbon


• Serkan Delice, London College of Fashion, UAL


• Andrea Kollnitz, Stockholm University


• Paulina Latham, Polish Cultural Institute London


• Giulia Mensitieri, University of Brussel


• Gabriele Monti, IUAV University of Venice


• Marco Pecorari, The New School Parsons Paris


• Véronique Pouillard, University of Oslo


• Aurélie Samuel YSL Museum

Website: www.fashionheritage.eu