The first Fashioning Theory Research Seminar was held on Wednesday October 4th, featuring guest lecturer and prominent fashion theorist Ulrich Lehmann. This seminar series was created in order to investigate some of the most current fashion theories and to instigate a critical discussion on the effects of theoretical discourse within today’s industry practices. The seminar focuses specifically on the ‘transatlantic connections’ between a variety of theorists and their different cultural perspectives in order to further enhance our understanding of the world of fashion studies as a whole.
During Ulrich Lehmann’s discussion, he focused on looking at fashion production systems and materialism in order to better understand the fashion industry. He started off explaining how fashion is retrospective in nature amidst the positivist nature of technological process. Lehmann quoted theorists such as Baudrillard, Bellers, Babon, and Marx while explaining his ideas of modernity, labor, the value of commodities, and how that value changes throughout production processes. He claims that capitalism has succeeded in masking the production processes, giving them a certain illusion that alienates the consumer from the real value of the commodity and the labor involved in its creation. He believes that in order to progress forward, fashion theorists must attempt to understand the fashion system through the material processes rather than just analyzing the end product that we are presented with. Through this, designers and other contributors to the industry may be able to escape these cycles of deception and find alternative processes of creation.
Ulrich Lehmann’s lecture was followed up by the respondent Michele Spano who commented and critiqued the presentation on fashion and materialism, bringing in examples of the Italian Workerism movements of the 1960’s and how those systems have shaped materialism within the fashion industry. The post-presentation commentary was also open to the audience to ask questions and engage with Lehmann’s theoretical discussion.
If you are interested in joining in on the next Fashioning Theory Research Seminar discussion, it will be taking place on November 8, 2017 at 6:30 PM in the Gallery at Parsons Paris. It will feature a lecture by Paul Jobling from the University of Brighton on the intertextuality in fashion spreads.
Written by: Ariel Stark
Photo by: Philippa Nesbitt
Featured Photo Courtesy of: Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times, from Senses of Cinema
