The third edition of the International Conference Fashion Tales has been rescheduled to the 17th till 19th of June 2021. Fashion Tales is a conference organised by ModaCult (The Centre for the study of Fashion and Cultural Production) and it has become a guide for the community of fashion scholars. The conference aims to elevate fashion studies in relation to wider societal issues on the intersection of various disciplines. The theme of the third edition is politics through the wardrobes, which aims to discuss the influence of fashion and politics and vice versa. To what extent does the politics of dress affect the way we define and conceptualise fashion? The profoundly political nature of fashion has been exposed by the recent impacts of digitalisation and the new agenda defined by activist movements, brands, manufacturing industries, and magazines in the fashion industry, who consider environmental and social challenges as the main issues to be addressed globally.

The Covid-19 pandemic has created unexpected consequences on both fashion and its politics: the close-downs of shops during the lockdown, as well as their subsequent downsizing. These consequences have had an impact on the living conditions of workers and employees of the fashion industry. The industry has contributed by donating funds and using factories to produce sanitary products, also new attitudes emerged, epitomised by Giorgio Armani inviting the fashion industry to slow down. But the crisis has also jeopardised the means of consumption, by determining a decrease in buying clothes and accessories, and by stimulating new aesthetic ideals, for example, the search for functional but elegant clothes for remote working.

At this very moment, when the fashion system is challenging its epistemological framework, the political potential of its creativity explodes and uncovers a large ability to design contemporary aesthetics and imaginaries. 

The conference will discuss controversial aspects that are constitutive elements of the very structure of fashion, such as culture vs commerce, sustainability vs capitalism, exclusion vs inclusion, political dressing, slowness and the pandemic, geo-politics of fashion, politics of authenticity, labour, gender, privacy and data security, fashion and costume, fashion and architecture, fashion and the city, fashion and the media. 

Submissions

The conference organisers welcome individual papers and panel proposals. 

Individual submission can be completed by clicking on this link.

Scholars who wish to propose a thematic panel are invited to deliver their proposal to fashiontales@unicatt.it by providing a title, a rationale (max 800 words) and a list of papers (up to four). For each paper included in the panel, please provide: the author(s)' name, affiliation and email, an abstract (max 500 words), and up to five keywords.

Deadline for submission: February 15, 2021.
Authors will be notified by March 31, 2021.
Proposals must be submitted in English and should not exceed 500 words in length (individual papers) or 800 words in length (panels proposal).
Please make sure to also attach a short bio (max 150 words). 

For the latest news on the conference and the update on the call of papers, you can visit their website.