Research Centers & Labs

This lab develops studio-based projects, workshops, and discussions dealing with art and politics in collaboration with artists, designers, creatives, and cultural institutions. Examining subjects ranging from the environmental crisis to issues of race, gender, equity, and social justice, Art, Media, and Technology students, faculty, and guest specialists create work exploring politics and the human condition.

Contact: Bridget O'Rourke, Director, Art, Media, and Technology Program

The Fashioning Theory Lab investigates new and cutting-edge theoretical approaches to fashion and responds to the significant absence of theoretical investigations of fashion at French universities. The lab offers talks, research seminars, and publications in which international scholars discuss the state of theoretical and methodological debate in fashion studies, and present innovative uses of theory in fashion studies.

The ideas of "translating theory" and "transatlantic connection" play an important role in the explanation of the migration of concepts within - and outside of - fashion studies. One area of focus is the interconnection between French theorists and their interpretation in the Anglo-Saxon landscape of fashion studies.

Contact: Marco Pecorari, Director, MA Fashion Studies Program

The Fashion Archives, Politics and Heritage Lab explores the cultural scope of fashion archives (public and private), publications, exhibitions, and performances through the investigation, problematization, and re-animation of European and Parisian experiences. Its aim is to develop a series of research seminars, symposia, talks, publications, and exhibitions that rethink the mediation of fashion in the contemporary scene, and further explore the current state of practices such as fashion publishing and fashion exhibition as well as the cultural relevance of archives as spaces where fashion is produced, conserved, communicated, disseminated, performed, and institutionalized.

Contact: Marco Pecorari, Director, MA Fashion Studies Program 

The Unmaking Fashion Media and Creative Industries Lab focuses on the exploration of printed and digital fashion media. The aim is to uncover and examine hidden networks, actors, and practices in the mediation of fashion, its histories, and its imaginaries. The lab includes and gathers academics, practitioners, curators, and critics who focus on the economic and cultural value of historical and contemporary print fashion publications, the relations between digital and printed media, creative labor in the fashion industry, collaboration between creative fields, publications as curatorial projects, institutional versus independent publishing practices, and the issue of representability and national discourse in fashion publishing. All of these topics are explored through conferences, publications, and projects in collaboration with brands, archives, foundations, and museums. A central event is Printing Fashion, a yearly international festival with talks, lectures, and exhibitions that is followed by the publication of a magazine.

Contacts:
Marco Pecorari, Director, MA in Fashion Studies, [email protected]
Justin Morin, Faculty, MA Fashion Studies, [email protected]
Morna Laing, Assistant Professor, MA Fashion Studies, [email protected]
Antoine Bucher, Faculty, MA Fashion Studies, [email protected]
Giulia Mensitieri, Faculty, MA Fashion Studies, [email protected]