Conversations on Decoloniality & Fashion 2023

Research Collective for Decoloniality & Fashion

A bi-monthly online platform to experiment with decolonial and  decentral ways of knowledge creation and sharing regarding body fashioning.

Conversations on Decoloniality & Fashion

The Conversations on Decoloniality and Fashion is an online series initiated in 2021 as an experimental platform beyond institutional, disciplinary and geographical boundaries to disrupt stubbornly persistent Eurocentric underpinnings of dominant fashion.

The Conversations on Decoloniality &amp; Fashion is an online series initiated by the <a href="https://rcdfashion.wordpress.com/conversations/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Research Collective for Decoloniality and Fashion</a> in February 2021. This virtual platform beyond institutional, disciplinary and geographical boundaries aims to experiment with decolonial and decentral ways of knowledge-creation and sharing regarding fashion – through the relational and conversational, the communal and coalitional, and through a radical act of listening across multiple differences. Transcending academe, its main aim is to disrupt stubbornly persistent Eurocentric underpinnings of dominant fashion and encourage critical analysis and dialogue into an erased and denied diversity.The way fashion as a noun—contemporary fashion—has come to refer to a temporality of contemporaneity, a system of inequality and an industry of capitalism particular to modernity, is intrinsic to its discriminating, exploitive and destructive nature. While fashion as a verb, the act of fashioning the body, is of all times and places. The claim to modernity endorses a superiority of fashion over ‘not-fashion;’ universality as the only ‘real’ fashion; and contemporaneity as the separation of the present from the past, enforcing categories of racial, cultural and temporal discrimination (Jansen 2020). The Conversations are inspired by Rolando Vazquez’s and Walter Mignolo’s Decolonial Summer School and Cricket Keating’s (2005) coalitional consciousness building, which is a feminist method of self and collective education toward coalition as a way to engender solidarity across multiple lines of difference. Each Conversation comprises a 90-minute session split into three 30-minute parts: a 30-minute conversation between the conveners and guest(s), a 30-minute breakout session of five people to enable more intimate exchange, understanding and (un)learning with each other, and a final 30-minute conversation with the whole group. The first 30 minutes are recorded and made available on the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCelkgjSbsJwzKek4ishLsJg" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">RCDF YouTube</a> channel. Al previous selected materials and recordings can be found on the <a href="https://rcdfashion.wordpress.com/conversations/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">RCDF website</a> as part of an open-access online archive on decoloniality and fashion.New in 2023Unlike previous years, the Conversations will now be organised bi-monthly and hosted by different conveners, speaking from different positionalities, geographies and time zones, selecting different topics, guests and materials (readings, videos, podcasts, music, etc.). The day and time, as well as the main language, will vary and be selected by the conveners according to local preferences.Everyone is welcome to join the Conversations, regardless of background, position or level of English language proficiency. Participation is based on a voluntary donation (<a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=K3X9W7PJJXFF8" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">PayPal</a> or by bank transfer IBAN: NL39INGB0674877012/ BIC: INGBNL2A). This will allow us to cover the modest fees of conveners, guests and organisers for a total of 3.000 euros for the year. Registration on Eventbrite is required to receive updates on dates, times and selected materials of the sessions. NOTE: If you already registered last year, there is no need to register again, just simply renew your donation. If you no longer wish to participate, simply unsubscribe from the mailing on the bottom of the page.PROGRAMME 2023* April 2023: On ‘Fashion Impacts,’ convened by Daniela Goeller.Fashion thinking is finding a valuable place in academia as a tool to think. Ongoing debates around climate change and the environmental and social issues arising from colonialism and globalization have focused necessary attention on how we dress. So, fashion as a conceptual and theoretical construct has become a valuable tool to further trouble these debates. In this conversation, fashion catalyses playful and inventive ways to look at the world differently. We take on 3 provocations: fashion (n) impact (v), fashioning impact (n) and impact(s) of fashion.* May 2023: On ‘Environmental Damage by the Colonial Project,’ convened by the Pakistan Collective for Decolonial PracticeMany factors have contributed to the change in how Pakistan produces cotton among other crops. The effects on the clothing industry at large, and especially the local, indigenous hand-produced fabrics are grave yet ignored. Pakistan will not be growing any cotton in the province of Sindh this year. This results from short- sighted British policies that aimed to produce abundant amounts of cotton for export, but did not evaluate the effects of these policies in the long term. The conversation will cover the story of Pakistan’s rivers, water distribution systems, the seeds being used, and their effects.* July 2023: On ‘Crafting Encounters in Contested Spaces, Through Fashion Activism,’ convened by Francesco Mazzarella from the Centre for Sustainable Fashion &amp; Erica de Greef from AFRI.What does it mean to work in the ‘sacrifice zone’, and with vulnerable communities, through the lens of fashion activism? When working across very different contexts, how do we prevent the perpetuation of the extractive violence(s) of the fashion system that appropriates cultures and the neoliberal/capitalist institutions that commodify crafts, and address our privileges that hold power? Can we lean into the complexities of these relations, and what if we trouble our positionalities in the skewed hierarchies at play that these projects are founded on? * October 2023: On ‘The Violent Death of Woke and Other Endearing Terms,’ convened by Nada Koreish from the Fashion Liberation Collective North AfricaA conversation about the terminology and sentiments surrounding ideas of wokeness, decolonisation, appropriation and pillaging. The concept of staying woke started in a message sent out by lead belly a country singer, to the Scottsboro boys in the 1920’s. It was a message to stay alert to police injustice, while now ‘woke’ is a token phrase, whored out by the media and establishments to create false notions of empathy and connectivity to a culture, a generation of people who these same establishments have been pillaging from for millennia. The coloniser and colonised mindset is in every terminology, like loaded weapons, we deploy them with little thought to none. So stay woke.* November 2023: On ‘Weaving Presences: Fashion and Restorative Practices,’ convened by Mi Medrado from CoMoDeThe conversation will focus on how to take decolonial aesthesis as a methodology towards fashion and restorative practices. It will engage with vocabulary, verbal fluency, and story components to develop decolonial narrative skills. The activity will join the National Brazilian Black Consciousness month activities in November 2023.* December 2023: On ‘What’s in a Name?,’ convened by Doris de Pont from the New Zealand Fashion MuseumKākahu is the umbrella term for garments in the Māori language but just like dress in other cultures, there are many words that specifically describe items of clothing in terms of the materials and make of them, and their use. Korowai, a very specific labour-intensive finely woven and decorated cloak, is often used today as a generic name for any cloak, to the consternation of the skilled weavers who still deploy the traditional arts. Our conversation will address this blunting of terminology and canvas some strategies for expanding the language used for kākahu so that traditional names honour traditional practices while new words enrich the Māori vocabulary to capture modern materials, practices, and uses.

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Conversations on Decoloniality & Fashion 2023

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Conversations on Decoloniality & Fashion 2023

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