Discover how fashion affects both ordinary lives, social movements

Annual Fashion Culture Network lecture is free and fascinating

News Staff - 31 January 2018

Fans of fashion and anyone fascinated by the under-appreciated influence it has on people's lives won't want to miss a free, on-campus presentation Feb. 6.

This year, the annual Fashion Culture Network public lecture is a double-sided event that presents two research projects on fashion led by fashion historian Anne Bissonnette from the Department of Human Ecology.

The first half elaborates on the popular 2017 exhibition Misfits: Bodies, Dress and Sustainability. Co-curators Josée Chartrand, Meg Furler and Patricia Siferd explain why size standards in North American women's clothing are absurdly unreliable, and show the significant social impact those discrepancies have on women and also on the environment.

For the second half of the lecture, Bissonnette presents groundbreaking research about the French Revolution that she unearthed for her ongoing project A Revolutionary Decade: Fashion and Material Culture in the 1790s. The study, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), examines fashion plates and surviving garments to explore how fashion changed throughout the 1790s and whether the political and ideological upheaval changed the way people dressed, or vice versa.

There is no fee for the lecture and drop-in attendees are welcome. However, if you'd like to save your seat early, please RSVP.

The Fashion Culture Network lecture, Fashion Research in Human Ecology, takes place from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 6, in Room 2-20 of the Fine Arts Building. (map)