Fashion, Dress, and Society (Paris, 12-13 Dec 14)

[Addressing Fashion In Art (AFIA)]

From: Maude Bass-Krueger <maude.bass[at]bgc.bard.edu>
Date: Jan 9, 2014
Subject: CFP: Fashion, Dress, and Society (Paris, 12-13 Dec 14)

Paris, December 12 - 13, 2014
Deadline: Feb 15, 2014

Call for Papers

Fashion, Dress and Society in Europe during World War I

A French-British-German initiative under the direction of Dominique
Veillon and Lou Taylor

To be held at the Institut Français de la Mode in Paris on December
12-13, 2014
during the official French Centennial Commemorations

Fashion played an integral role in re-shaping European society during
World War I. In France, for example, the fashion industry adapted to
the war by turning to new materials, simplifying silhouettes, courting
foreign clients, and drumming up local and foreign business through
nationalist rhetoric that was trumpeted by the press. Yet the French
fashion industry was not immune to the war: male couturiers such as
Worth, Poiret and Patou left their houses to join the front, or were
obliged to undertake some kind of military service, leaving women
designers such as Callot Soeurs, Chéruit, Lanvin and Paquin to reign;
female couture workers went on strike during the darkest year of the
war to demand better wages from an increasingly profitable industry
that had nevertheless maintained their workers at reduced ‘war wages,’
and the fashion press played its part in creating and informing
societal debates regarding gender, femininity, and patriotism, as did
caricatures, postcards, and other wartime imagery. Many women worked in
war time factories and charity organizations necessitating the design
and manufacture of new uniforms and working dress. Our exploration of
narratives on a European scale uses the history of the fashion
industries as a focal point and lens for a political, economical,
social, and cultural analysis of clothing, people, consumption and
politics between 1914 and 1918.

Each nation has a different story of the degree to which the industry
played a role in the war economy, and the extent to which cultural
representations of fashion and dress contributed to shaping national
identity. A century after the start of the Great War, it is our desire
to foster a comprehensive pan-European discussion on the cultural
history of fashion and the fashion industry during World War One. Our
conference intends to assemble an international community of scholars
and curators who have an interest in exploring gender, dress, fashion
producers, consumers, workers, and the press between 1914 and 1918. We
aim to provide a systematic inquiry into the cultural history of
fashion in Europe during the Great War.

We invite papers that adopt a critical approach to the relationship
between fashion and society in Europe during WWI. We are particularly
interested in papers that use surviving garments and unexplored
archives as sources. Additionally, proposals from young scholars in all
areas of the social sciences or humanities are welcome. Panel
suggestions will also be considered.

The conference language will be in both French and English (with
simultaneous translation depending on the funding obtained). We hope to
be able to provide a certain amount of funding for those in need. We
anticipate compiling the papers given at the conference into a book to
be published by a French press.

The following perspectives are encouraged:
-    Fashion industry history
-    Material culture of dress
-    Fashion and gender
-    Fashion press and identity
-    Wartime fashion consumption & production
-    Garment workers and social history
-    Representations (illustrations or cinematic) and identity
-    Biographical approaches to WWI dress history
-    Fashion intermediaries during WWI

Submitting a Paper Proposal
Deadline: February 15th, 2014

Please send a 500 word abstract that indicates the subject of your
talk, the questions you will be answering, and the sources you will be
using. Include a brief curriculum vitae.
Paper proposals to be sent to europeanfashionwwi[at]gmail.com.

The committee will send out their responses by March 15, 2014.

Scientific Committee
Patrick Fridenson, PhD (Director of Studies at EHESS, France)
Adelheid Rasche, PhD (Chief Curator Sammlung Modebild Lipperheidesche
Kostümbibliothek, Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Germany)
Lou Taylor, PhD (Professor of Dress History, University of Brighton, UK)
Dominique Veillon, PhD (Director of Research at IHTP-CNRS, France)

Organizing Committee
Maude Bass-Krueger, ABD (Bard Graduate Center, NYC)
Sophie Kurkdjian, PhD (IHTP/CNRS)
Thierry Maillet, PhD (IHTP/CNRS)
Eleonore Testa (IHTP/CNRS)