Alison Bancroft is a scholar of fashion studies and, perhaps most notably, the author of book Fashion and Psychoanalysis, first published in 2012. While she works on her second novel, she keeps us informed of her current discourse on fashion in her self-titled blog.
Bancroft began her lecture with a brief background on psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, and the idea of the looming unconscious. The connection that she drew between Freud and fashion was simple yet significant—psychoanalysis can work to show how the operation of the human mind can be manifested in creative forms. She went on to compare the polar approaches of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano’s approaches to fashion, women, and the possibly underlying unconscious reasons for their differences—all major themes which are discussed more in depth in her most recent novel.
One of the current events in the realm of fashion and psychoanalysis that was brought up was the new French law requiring photoshopped images to be labeled as such. Bancroft’s mentioned that “…instead of addressing the issue of images being too photoshopped and the need for them to be labeled as such, or models being too thin and being criticized for it, it may be more interesting to ask why we are using fashion as a scapegoat for showing us something that we may already know.”
Alison Bancroft offered a thorough explanation of the advent of Lacan’s “mirror stage”, walked us through her own work, and spent the latter part of the afternoon not only answering questions, but fostering an engaging discussion with all of the students in class.
Written by: Katherine Wilkes
Above Photo Courtesy of: I.B. Tauris
Featured Photo Courtesy of: Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis
