One of the major research strengths of the Centre for Design History is in Fashion and Dress History. Last month, CDH members Suzanne Rowland, Charlotte Nicklas, Veronica Issac and Aurore Damoiseaux organized a successful research day on the 21st of June, based on the ongoing project Redressing History: Pursuing a Global Perspective on Dress and Textile History. The research day aimed at continuing important discussions on how to best work towards decolonizing the curriculum and fostering ideas for new research based on the Dress History Teaching Collection at the University of Brighton. Below is a brief reflection on the day by Aurore Damoiseaux.

The day began with a panel chaired by Elli Michaela Young (Middlesex University). The first presentation was led by Tanveer Ahmed (Central Saint Martins, UAL), who discussed the idea of extractivism in history and fashion design. Michael McMillan (London College of Fashion, UAL) followed with a talk on black dandies and the representation of black masculinities. To round off the first set of presentations, Elli Michaela Young presented her work on the Jamaica Fashion Guild with a display of some of the pieces made by the Guild, from her personal collection.

After a short break for lunch, participants had the pleasure of listening to pre-recorded presentations by PhD students Anika Shaikh and Pragya Sharma, who are both part of the CDH. Anika presented her work on Ethel Mairet, her travel journals and her experiments with vegetable dyes. Pragya followed, with a presentation on ‘Hastings Handies’, and their importance in the understanding of the tradition of hand-knitted garments in India.

Anika Shaikh presenting her work on Ethel Mairet

The afternoon continued in the Design Lab, where Charlotte Nicklas briefly presented the Dress History Teaching Collection. A recent BA graduate Jasmine Gillanders from the School of Art and Media at Brighton shared her dissertation work for which she digitized part of the Biba collection from the Dress History Teaching Collection. She talked about using multiple software to render a 3D image of garments and her work with the history of the garments which she gathered from interviews with the previous owner of the collection, Marysia Golaszewska.

Jasmine Gillanders presenting her dissertation project: ARC.

 

Charlotte Nicklas showcased some items from the Dress History Teaching Collection.

Following this, participants had the chance to explore the Dress Collection and to think about potential new collaborative projects based on objects in the collection. Lastly, the day was rounded off by a roundtable discussion on how to work with the Dress Collection, and ideas on taking the Redressing Histories project forward. 

Some items on display from the Dress History Teaching Collection.