A letter from guest editor, Chinouk Filique de Miranda, on her Fashion & Digital Engagement issue of The Fashion Studies Journal.
Letter from the Editor
Editor’s Letter for FSJ’s Fashion & Partnership Issue
Introduction: Fashion & Mental Health
An Introduction to FSJ’s Fashion & Mental Health Issue
Teaching from Home: The Uncertainties of Faculty Life During a Pandemic
Anthony Palliparambil, Jr. speaks with seven fashion studies educators about their experiences teaching during the pandemic, the support (or lack thereof) they’ve received from their institutions, and how they attempt to prioritize their own wellbeing in the face of an unprecedented challenge to higher education.
Reflections and Observations on the QUARANTINE S/S20 Archive
In just a few weeks time, both of us had already experienced major changes in our usual dress practices while we were quarantined. We were curious to see if others had experienced the same effects.
Making it Work: A Survey by The Fashion Studies Journal
The inspiration for our “Making it Work” survey was born of both curiosity and desperation: curiosity about the people who make up our very interdisciplinary, global field and desperation to know how these individuals were managing to piece together careers and making financial ends meet.
A Letter from the Editors
The current team finds ourselves in 2020 facing a lot of uncertainty, like all of you, but committed to making FSJ part of the solution. Our new mission statement — hashed out in many, many video calls and emails threads over the last few months — represents a renewed sense of purpose.
A Conversation with FIT's Melissa Marra-Alvarez, Curator of Minimalism/Maximalism
Donelle Wedderburn speaks with curator Melissa Marra-Alvarez about her 2019 exhibition, Minimalism/Maximalism at the Museum at FIT.
To Give and Regret: On the Closet Purge
The closet purge is controversial but undeniably emotional. Have you ever gotten rid of something in the hopes of ascending to that higher spiritual plane, only to bitterly regret it when it came back in style, or you just longed for the comfort it brought, the coziness of a previous self? We’ve been there.
![Appropriate[d] Dress Syllabus](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/575085fa859fd016768e7b48/1574349865659-9NUH7EP1I94ENBT1DQMV/Screen+Shot+2019-11-21+at+9.24.02+AM.png)
Appropriate[d] Dress Syllabus
This multimedia syllabus was as a resource following the exhibition, Appropriate[d] Dress: Native American [Mis]representation In Fashion & Culture researched and curated by students in FASH 383: The Fabric of Cultures at Columbia College Chicago (November 19-December 10, 2019).
Critical Thinking and Making on Fashion: “Dead Fashion Designers Society”
Reflective practice requires the critical reframing of a designer’s work, while technical practice can be trained with repetition. We observed that students were eager to learn meaningful theoretical content in tandem with advancing their hands-on skills.
Notes from the Field: Kutch and Maheshwar Weaving
On a cool New Year’s Day in Bhujodi village, Kutch district in Gujarat, I started weaving my first length of fabric after four days of preparing the warp, starching, bobbin winding and joining. Before starting a new warp, a puja (act of worship) is performed to bless the loom and pray that the weaving will go well. The day was an especially auspicious one, being the first of the new year.
Notes from the Field: Extravagant Female Fashions in Nineteenth-Century Argentina
The Fashion Studies Journal Research Grant supported my participation in the 2018 Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies Association (INCS) supernumerary conference “Measure and Excess” held at Roma Tre University in Italy. The INCS convention is one of the most prestigious international meetings in the field of nineteenth-century literary and cultural studies.
Notes from the Field: IMMEDIATE Fashion School
IMMEDIATE Fashion School is a rolling collective of artists and creatives working in a variety of media who aim to playfully challenge dominant fashion through study, art and performance. Our work is not a rejection of fashion or the fashion industry per se, but an effort toward knowing fashion as more than just a commodity and ultimately contributing to a more equitable and empowering fashion. The dominant exchanges in fashion are centered around industry and commerce.
My Jacket is Japanese, Not Me
Last week, I walked out of the tube station and a man chased me all the way down the street calling, “Are you Japanese?” I couldn’t avoid him at the traffic lights, so I replied in my rather English voice, “No, I’m not.” This happens not only in London, but all around the world, and all because I am wearing a grey silk haori jacket that I bought in a vintage shop behind an industrial estate in the very unexotic Birmingham. Fashion allows the individual the freedom to combine clothing and choose styles. In the context of urban London, it seems that anything goes; but on what bodies are the national costumes of others off-limits for bricolage?
