Call for Papers:
Fashion, Capital, Time
Panel at the Universities Art Association of Canada Conference 2017

A temporal paradox—of volatility and stability—underpins the concept and history of fashion. As Gilles Lipovetsky argues in The Empire of Fashion, fashion’s emergence in 15th-century Europe was linked to the new value placed on “novelty” over tradition. The “instability of personal appearance” constituted an investment in “accelerated temporality.” Yet, as the 19th century would reveal, “fashion’s mutability could only…come into being against a background of order”—a fashion system. Hence, by 1902, economist Werner Sombart would observe: “Fashion is the favourite child of capitalism: fashion arose from its inner essence and expresses its character as do few other phenomena of our contemporary social life.” The temporal “epiphenomena” of fluctuation and standardization, Sombart noted, bound fashion and capital together. Now, in an era of “fast fashion,” the acceleration of production has hit fevered pitch, while designers and labels (mal)adapt to the logic of automation.

This panel aims to explore the economies and temporalities of fashion as concept and material culture.

We seek papers that consider, i.e.: the fashion of art; global networks of production and trade; the temporality of social media; discussions of capital, time, or automation in art, design, or fashion history.

Send submissions to session chairs:
T'ai Smith
tai.smithubc.ca

Blake Finucane
blakefinucanegmail.com