Organised by Dr Alex Nora Esculapio, Dr Annebella Pollen and Dani Trew, with support from the Centre for Design History (CDH) at University of Brighton, UK, this free online conference aims to explore histories of resourcefulness, reuse, creative ingenuity, remaking, repair, durability, mending and sharing in twentieth century fashion and dress. We are particularly interested in critical accounts that span cultural and historical contexts and intersect with histories of modernity, urban development, globalisation, craft, race, colonialism, popular culture as well as gender, disability, sexual and body politics.

The conference mobilises design theorist Tony Fry’s concept of ‘sustainment’ (2003) as a practice of sustaining life and the material world which challenges the entanglement of the concept and practice of sustainability with Eurocentric modernity, economic growth and a techno-functionalist understanding of the world. We are keen to explore dress and fashion histories that can make critical contributions to sustainable futures, which we understand as futures which can be sustained. Thus, the conference aims to refocus our attention to practices that have taken place before the development of the concept of sustainability, alongside or outside of established sustainable industry practices, and at the periphery of and beyond the West and the Global North.

We welcome proposals for presentations of 20 minutes. Please send proposals of up to 300 words alongside a biography of 50 words to fashioning.sustainment@gmail.com by 5th November 2021. Acceptance will be confirmed by 19th November 2021.