As of 15 June, the registration process is now open for the II Colloquium of Researchers in Textile and Fashion which is to be held on 21 and 22 November 2019 at the Design Museum of Barcelona. The colloquium has been organised by the Textile and Fashion Studies Group, which is part of the Història del Disseny Foundation, with the collaboration of the Terrassa Museu Tèxtil, the Barcelona Museu del Disseny, Can Marfà, Gènere de Punt-Museu de Mataró and Museu de la Punta d’Arenys de Mar.
The Textile and Fashion Studies group aims to be a space for exchange, thought out to promote research and knowledge outreach in the fields of textiles and fashion through creating joint projects. It also aims to work towards the upkeep of textile heritage and also raise awareness of public and private archives and collections.
The first colloquium took place back in 2017 at the Textile Museum, with a large number of interesting talks that allowed researchers to connect and, in many cases, to work together. At this second meeting, they want to raise awareness of unknown authors, placing value on their work for the first time and pushing textile and fashion studies forward with a new set of creators and professionals that have taken a back seat and whose contributions to their respective disciplines are not well-known.
Out of the 78 talk proposals that were received, 60 ended up being presented, which drew attention to new research in a wide range of topics such as historical clothing, haute couture, historical textiles, collectors, the textile industry, theatre and cinema costume, prêt-à-porter clothing, lace, printing, embroidery and textile art. The sessions were held simultaneously in two groups, one focussing more on fashion and the other on the different aspects of textiles.
The inaugural talk was given by Valerie Steele, a prestigious fashion historian from the New York Fashion Institute of Technology.
