Fashion Territories? Northern France, Belgium, South-East England, XVe-XXe s.
Leavers’ Lace, André Laude, France| Ref : 18516 – Calais-Caudry- © Alex Gallosi
Abstract deadline (250 words + author bibliography: Nov 5, 2021, 8PM.
For centuries, the territories bordering the Pas de Calais have been one of the high places of European textile production. From at least the 12th century until the deindustrialization in the second half of the 20th century, the countryside and towns of Northern France and Belgium lived to the rhythm of spinning and weaving, in close liaison with their commercial partners across the Channel. This very long history has forged a lasting image, that of an area bustling with the factories of the industrial era—like Roubaix, "the city of a thousand chimneys". It would hardly occur to most to associate these territories with the more glamorous and glittering term “fashion,” with the possible exception of the splendor of the 15th century Burgundian court, and of Antwerp since it exploited the fame of the "Antwerp Six" in the late 1980s. The international seduction exerted by brilliant neighbors, Paris and London, has left these other territories in the shade (Steele; Breward and Gilbert; Menkes; Xavier Jimino Martinez). But weren't these textile territories also, by nature, fashion territories?
Like economic history before it, the history of fashion has opened up to taking the spatial dimension into account in its analyses, even if it has done so by privileging the economic and cultural construction of the “fashion capitals” (Paris, London, New York, Milan, etc.) and the study of micro-urban phenomena (Potvin, Crewe). However, the approach can be made at other scales. According to the geographer Solange Montagné-Vilette, several types of fashion territories can be distinguished: showcase territories, invested by groups carrying and showing fashion, creation territories, places where an avant-garde capable of giving form to its intuitions, manufacturing territories and finally sales territories. The spaces bordering the Pas de Calais were, obviously, territories of manufacture. This does not disqualify them as places of creation, innovation, or even fashion display, even though they have not been home (or only belatedly) to a “fashion capital”.
The study days of the IN:FaTE Dover project will aim to study the territories of Northern France, Belgium and South-Eastern England—without presupposing any unity, coherence or historical stability to this space—as fashion territories, i.e. as places of production caught up in the industrial and commercial dynamics of fashion, but also as places of clothing innovation and fashion consumption. The aim is to bring together the impressive bibliography on textile production in these regions throughout history with the currently very dynamic field of the history of fashion and consumption, for this given geographical area.
The chronological and geographical scope of the project disqualifies any claim to exhaustiveness, and studies circumscribed in time and space are expected, like so many spotlights. Papers may address, among other possible topics, the following themes:
- production sites and business models for fashion and textiles
- catalysts of creation and design; design techniques, innovations
- designers and manufacturers living or working in the region
- relations with European or global fashion capitals
- networks and exchanges placing the region in a global context
- circulation of fashion and innovations
- case studies of partnerships, exchanges or collaborations within the area under consideration
- regional consumers
- clothing, textiles, lace and fibers produced in the region
- public or private collections from the region
The communications can take the form of a classic academic communication but can also be presented in the form of a poster, a video, a presentation of a project or a museum collection, a garment analysis, etc.
The study days, which will take place in Lille on March 17 and 18, 2022, will mark the launch of the IN:FaTE Dover project (Interwoven Networks: Fashion and Textiles Exchanges around the Strait of Dover, 15th-20th century). Supported by the I-Site Université Lille-Nord-Europe, it brings together researchers from the University of Lille (Institut de Recherches Historiques du Septentrion), the University of Ghent (Department of Art History) and the University of Kent (Department of Art History) working on the history of fashion and textiles. It aims to encourage transnational collaborations on these themes. The study days will therefore include a time for meetings and exchanges between researchers interested in such collaborations.
Contacts : Marjorie.Meiss-even@univ-lille.fr , maude.basskrueger@ugent.be Karen.VanGodtsenhoven@UGent.be
Abstract deadline (250 words + author bibliography: Nov 5, 2021, 8PM.