Fashion & Philosophy
“Fashion & Philosophy” may at first seem like a reluctant pairing that refracts disparate notions and contrasting fields. While Fashion conjures notions of ephemerality, spectacle, consumption, and is often associated with frivolity and superficiality, Philosophy is more traditionally aligned with grand ideas of wisdom, reason, the absolute, and the Self.
By looking beyond this perceived delineation, however, fashion and philosophy are perhaps not so exclusive, since fashion—as a system of codes, as an industry, as a creative force, and as a mode of (self-)expression and communication—has increasingly permeated our present-day cultures, provoking not only criticism but thoughtful reflection, thus venturing into the realm of the philosophical. In leaving aside the apparent distinctions between fashion and philosophy and in joining the two fields together, we will begin to question how the two can inform each other in a way that is altogether significant, challenging, and alluring.
The symposium will investigate the many ways through which fashion and philosophy deal with shared themes and issues such as temporality, identity, materiality, the body, perception, aesthetics, and political and ethical matters. In addressing and combining the various concepts and paradigms surrounding both fashion and philosophy, the event wishes to create a fertile space wherein fashion can be approached through a philosophical prism and, alternately, philosophy can be considered through the realm of fashion.
In bringing together various academics, intellectuals, and fashion professionals the symposium aims to generate provocative and illuminating discussions that will delve into the colliding and compelling worlds of fashion and philosophical thinking.
Program
AMSTERDAM - FRIDAY, 22ND OF APRIL
HÔTEL DROOG
Staalstraat 7B
18:00
Abstraction, Minimalism, and the Hand of the Maker
Discussion between Alexander van Slobbe (fashion designer) and Marie-Aude Baronian (philosopher)
19:30-20:30: drinks
20:40
The Assembled Self. Or, Ruins in Reverse by Camiel van Winkel (art theoretician)
Real by Joke Robaard (visual artist, Rietveld Academy)
AMSTERDAM - SATURDAY 23RD OF APRIL
UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM, DOELENZAAL
Universiteitsbibliotheek Amsterdam, Singel 425
10:45 am. Introduction: Fashion and/or Philosophy? by Marie-Aude Baronian (UVA)
Session I: 11:00 -12:30
Subverting Fashion, Decoding Identity: A Deleuzeoguattarian perspective upon fashion by Rebecca Louise Breuer (philosopher, AMFI)
Clothing Fluxes by Joke Robaard (visual artist, Rietveld Academy)
- BREAK -
Session II 13:30 – 15:00
The Instruments of Secrecy: Lingerie and the Transformation of Intimacy by
Laurent de Sutter (philosopher, VUB)
Metallurgic Fashion by Patricia Pisters (media theorist, UVA/ASCA)
Coffee break 15:00 – 15:30
Session III 15:40 – 16:30
Fashion and Pop-Theology by Mark Alizart (philosopher and curator)
Session IV 16:45 – 17:45
Fashion in Baudrillard’s way by Françoise Gaillard (historian of ideas)
Fashion in a Time of Nihilism by Francesco M
Deel
