On Wednesday December 9, Daniëlle Bruggeman participated in an online round table discussion on ‘sensory fashion’, as part of the Fashion Design and Visual Arts Hub at London College of Fashion. Daniëlle spoke with Sara Chong Kwan, Mila Burcikova (Centre for Sustainable Fashion), and with Otto von Busch (Parsons).

This discussion focused on emerging research and practice that prioritizes sensory engagement with clothing. The panelists discussed how to challenge the hegemony of the visual as well as the complexity of fashion as sensory material and how it is an embodied, social and symbolic practice relating to identity. The relationship between designers, makers and wearers was explored in the context of sustainability, design, emotional durability and sensorial nourishment along with what the private and public – tangible and intangible – experiences of dress are.

Collectively they searched for answers on how sensory design can be applied in everyday practices and communities beyond academia and what the future possibilities are. How do we move forward with this? How can we bring different disciplines and research approaches together? And how are we going to engage our students with this?

This discussion was part of the seminar sessions on 'Sensory Fashion: Critical Issues in Fashion Research', which explore sensorial approaches to researching the design, production, consumption and performance of fashion; and the embodied, social, cultural and political implications of this.