Each semester speakers from the fashion industry, and beyond, discuss creativity and entrepreneurship in the Faces and Places in Fashion lecture series. This year the emphasis is on gender and how it relates to design creativity from both cultural and functional perspectives.
Faces & Places in Fashion is a credit course offered through the School of Art and Design. The guest lectures are open to the public.
“It’s an opportunity to hear from thought leaders about how current issues–in this case gender–intersect with fashion,” says Professor Joshua Williams, who leads the series.
“For instance, Zara, the clothing and accessories retailer, has launched an ‘ungendered’ clothing line in hopes of attracting millennial consumers. There’s a perception that it’s PR-driven. It’s something to discuss. As with sustainable fashion, we’re becoming more perceptive to when it’s PR-driven (‘green washing’), versus when it comes from a real concern for the environment and human rights.”
Professor Williams looks to “delve deeper into the PR and nuts and bolts of creating clothes that are “gender queer.”
“How does creating a men’s suit change when you’re creating it for a woman? How do you communicate to this market in a way that isn’t sensationalized, but authentic?” he asks.
“We are so excited to have some key pioneers of gender-diverse fashion design coming to talk,” he says. These trailblazers include Daniel Friedman of Bindle & Keep (October 2); Kelly Moffat of Kirrin Finch (October 30); and Joshua Katcher of Brave Gentlemen (November 13).
Faces and Places in Fashion will also be hosting the esteemed Harlem couturier Daniel Day (November 20). Day, also known as Dapper Dan of Harlem, was the go-to designer of 80s hip hop. Some of his fascinating background was captured in a recent front page New York Times Style section article subtitled: “Twenty-five years after luxury labels sued his Harlem boutique out of existence, Gucci looks to him for inspiration.”
For a complete schedule of speaker dates go to: Faces & Places in Fashion. For more information about this credit-course go to: CL-112.
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