About the International Conference

The conference will be hosted by The Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies, at the St. Lucia Campus of The University of Queensland. If you are interested in attending the conference and are not from Brisbane, click on these links for more information about Brisbane, in particular visa arrangements for international visitors, transport, accommodation, eating out and other helpful information, such as child care facilities, conversion rates, and rental car companies.

• The Conference
• Convenors

The Conference

In recent years fashion and dress studies have undergone dramatic disciplinary transformation. Anthropologists, sociologists, and theorists of consumption have shifted the subject from costume history to the position that it now occupies at the heart of social, political and cultural studies. This conference hosted by the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies brings together scholars, as well as industry practitioners, journalists and local designers, to debate the latest thinking on fashion, identity, the body and consumption.

The conference will take place over four days. The first three days will focuss on issues concerning fashion, consumption, and identity. We hope to place a special emphasis on the fashion industry and fashion today. The cultures of youth and new technologies will have a high profile in the program.

Day four is set aside for visits to local Brisbane art galleries and museums. The concluding conference reception, a conference lunch, will also take place on Sunday 13 July. We already have interest from various galleries to show-case local examples of dress and textiles including items by indigenous designers, extending perhaps more widely to art installations involving clothing. Exhibition details will be posted as they come to hand.

Each day will feature a plenary panel discussion on topical issues. Conference attendees, including students will have the unique opportunity to listen to discussion between academics, designers, journalists and fashion industry practitioners, and participate in the ensuing debate. These will cover the following topics:

The venue for the conference will be The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Brisbane. Some sessions will be at the Customs House location in Brisbane City.

The Keynote Speakers include:

Elizabeth Wilson              (recently from University of North London UK)
Valerie Steele                    (The Museum, Fashion Institute of Technology, NY and Editor of Fashion Theory)
Christopher Breward     (The London College of Fashion, The London Institute. )

• The Sociology of Fashion
• Dress and Religion
• Fashion, Leisure and Tourism
• Jewellery and Fashion
• Fashion, Clothes and Aesthetics
• Fashion as Representation - Body Image
• The Fashion Industry - The Cutting Edge
• Fashion, Sexuality and Gender
• Bodily Adornment and Modification
• Dress and the Dramatic - Stage and Cinema
• Hairstyles - East and West
• Fashion, Globalisation and Identity
• Dress, Ethnicity and Culture
• Fashion and Sport
• Fashion, Technology and the Future
• Dress - Transgression and Uniformity
• Fashion and Museology

• Fashion and Textiles
• Fashion and 'Affect'
• Fashion and Urban Life
• Writing about Fashion - Journalism
• Marketing, Brands and Endorsement
• Cosmetics and the Body
• Fashion and Food
• Fashion and Tradition
• Fashion and Music
• Retro Fashion and Recycling
• Fashion and the Cultural 'Turn'
• Fashion Photography
• Fashion's Hidden Industry
• Fashion as Autobiography
• Customisation and the Internet