CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS

“Can fashion save the world?”

We are presently in a crisis that is nothing like anything we have ever faced before and we were reminded of our Antwerp experience from the beginning of the 1990s. Then, we were facing in Europe important societal changes, increasing globalization, an escalation in migration and the breakthrough of populist parties all over Europe. Antwerp became in 1993 the cultural capital of Europe and ran with the ‘tagline’: “Can the arts save the world?” What Antwerp 93 wanted to stimulate was a reflection and debate about the societal role that Arts and Culture (including fashion) could play and thereby offering innovative approaches through arts and culture as a utopic remedy. Does the crisis need something similar today? Thus, accordingly, we update our offer: can fashion save the world?

Many of you might quickly agree that fashion can be known for its disruptive
potential and therefore ahead of his time or alternatively you might see it
differently, rather that it is symptomatic of today’s problems? We claim that no other field of study and practice embraces change like fashion and here in
Antwerp, fashion designers have for a long time been known for their creativity and disruptive imagination. Therefore, we ask:

Might creatives play a greater role in a changing world?

Back in the 1980s creativity was mostly understood as still based on the individual genius and/or practice of certain skills (craftsmanship). Today, some forty years later, it might be more accurate to understand that creativity no longer resembles this guise, but rather, now has evolved into something that is no longer seen as exclusively individual, but rather something that draws for its inspiration from influences from new sources: sometimes from other disciplines, from other cultures or perhaps reevaluating our heritage, etc… Thus, we are witnessing a new birth and guise for creativity; perhaps one that is an interdisciplinary response?

We need to think differently…more creatively perhaps in terms of new ways of working including forms of collaboration? New technologies and processes? What business models are necessary in order to survive and prosper? What these observations lead to is a further question: do we need to break a few things down before we can re-build?

What are your thoughts? Perhaps you see these issues differently or you can offer ‘new’ ‘creative insights through fashion’? If you are interested in this potential then we would like to invite you to join us in Antwerp so we can share our mutual understandings and questions. Join us in Antwerp!

Conference theme

Keywords: Transition/change, Disruption, role of creativity, heritage and
craftmanship, technology, gender fluidity, intergenerational issues, inter-relational creativity, circular economy, ecosystem

Subthemes

• Breaking stereotypes – revisiting fashion imagery and gender fluidity
• Breaking the internet – New technologies fashion: COVID-19 have shown the possibilities and limitations of the digital world for fashion. How can digital strategies reinforce the design process, the distribution and retail, fashion marketing, and consumption in fashion.
• Breaking the mold – Do we need to develop new types contributors to the fashion world? How can we improve and find innovative and sustainable business models and new collaborative forms?
• Breaking down the economic system – how can we change the fashion economic system, one that has been based on fast fashion, hyper
  consumerism and exploitation into a more circular, and socially more
  balanced ecosystem?
• Breaking the rules – Reflecting on fashion education: How should we
  prepare young people for the fashion industry? As an independent
  designer or part of a collective or a larger company?
• Breaking down creativity – what have we learnt about managing creatives
  for the fashion industry? What does creativity and craftsmanship mean in the 21st century? How does this impact on notions such as authorship?
• Breaking down and building new roles – Fashion designers are looking to take on different roles within society: designing, curating exhibitions, collaborating with other arts sectors, and so on… And what is the role of leadership and management in this transition?

Abstracts/proposals

We welcome contributions from people from all backgrounds interested in fashion and its transition. We hope that you will be able to come to Antwerp but if not we welcome your participation digitally!

We invite abstracts (to be developed into full papers after selection) related to the conference theme and subthemes. A selection of the best contributions will be made and published after the conference. More information in this will follow. We are also keen to encourage other types of contributions (including: visual, exhibitions, displays, content for poster sessions, cases-studies etc). If you want to propose other types of content not listed here, then please submit your ideas.

Abstracts should meet the following requirements:

• All the abstracts must have a title and a word count of about 500 words, & should be written in English & submitted in Microsoft word file format only.
• Provide 5-7 keywords that closely reflect the content of the abstract.
• Relation to the conference theme / subthemes should be clearly indicated
• All submissions will be reviewed by the Scientific Committee and will be notified upon acceptance.
• Please include all contact information (Name of the author, affiliation, email address, phone number).
• In case of multiple authors, please indicate the corresponding authors.

Please send your contribution responsiblefashionseriesantwerp@uantwerpen.be not later than February 28th 2021.

Selected proposals will be notified by 30th April 2021

BACKGROUND

The Responsible Fashion Series originated as part of the Fashion Colloquia collection of events founded by four institutions:

1. London College of Fashion
2. Parsons school of Fashion and Design in New York
3. IFM, Paris
4. Domus from Milan.

This new series reflects the need for fashion to take on a new mature and responsible approach for supporting the future of fashion.

AIM

Attracting a rich variety of contributions from a broad selection of people – from academia, media and practice – and utilize contributions for uploading to a newly established international repository for fashion.

CONTENT

At each Responsible Fashion event there is a mixture of specific themes of
particular relevance to the specific location, and series themes, which allow different sets of contributions to be added and explored. This will also be the case in this edition in Antwerp. Most events are also streamed ‘live’ to pre-registered users. We aim for a completely hybrid colloquium and will also upload all the content from each session. In case of a full lockdown the colloquia will still be able to continue completely digital.

Previous Fashion Colloquia addressed a variety of topics, including:

• Heritage (Jaipur, January 2020),
• Disruption Fashion (Rome, September 2019),
• New Luxury (Arnhem, May 2018),
• local production (Ho Chi Min, July 2016);
• Sustainable development in social, economic, environmental, cultural and geographic dimensions (Sao Paulo, April 2016);
• The future of the fashion weeks (Milan, September 2015).

HOSTS

University of Antwerp

The University of Antwerp is characterized by its high standards in education, internationally competitive research and entrepreneurial approach. The University of Antwerp has more than 20,800 students, which makes it the third largest university in Flanders. The international character of the University of Antwerp is revealed by its percentage of international students: 20% of students come from abroad. We have students from 130 different nationalities, mainly from within the European Union. Each summer the University hosts a multitude of Summer Schools with students coming from even more countries. One of the Summer Schools is focused especially on Fashion Management and is complementary to the Master in Cultural Management which is a full-time master program within the faculty of Business and Economics.

Antwerp Management School (AMS)

The Antwerp Management School (AMS), has an autonomous, faculty like status within the University. The Management school offers a unique International Program on Fashion Management. This program prepares students for the future challenges in the fashion industry: developed vs. emerging markets; global vs. local; relevant topics like sustainability and ethics, technology and digitalization,
entrepreneurship and innovation.

Antwerp

Antwerp is a vibrant city of culture and fashion. Not in the least due to the
presence of the Department of Fashion at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts.

Antwerp also has its own fashion centre. The ‘Modenatie’ – a style utopia spanning the renewed MoMu Fashion Museum, Flanders District of Creativity and Fashion Academy with big designer stores as well as boutiques. Antwerp-based designer names like Ann Demeulemeester, Dries Van Noten and Walter Van Beirendonck are renowned well beyond national boundaries. Thanks to them and a new generation of designers like Christian Wijnants, Haider Ackermann, Raf Simons, Rushemy Botter, Glenn Martens Antwerp has become an international magnet for lovers of fashion and culture.

MoMu – Fashion Museum Antwerp

In 2002, MoMu presented its first exhibition in the historical ModeNatie building on the Nationalestraat. Since then, MoMu has presented two temporary exhibitions every year. Smaller exhibitions and installations are also presented within the gallery on the ground floor. MoMu houses the largest collection of contemporary Belgian fashion in the world and stands out with its immersive fashion exhibitions.

As of 2021, MoMu will have additional exhibition space for its permanent
collection display.