Structuring Fashion: Foundation Garments through History

An International Conference organised by Johannes Pietsch (Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich) and Jenny Tiramani (The School of Historical Dress, London).

This conference will focus on undergarments that have shaped fashionable silhouettes. It will cover a broad timespan from the Middle Ages up to the 21st century. Conducted in English, the event will be held in Munich to celebrate a very special exhibition and the launch of an exciting new book.

The Bayerisches Nationalmuseum preserves the world-famous pair of silk bodies worn by Countess Palatine Dorothea Sabina around 1598. This extremely rare garment will now be presented to the public exclusively from September to December 2018, which coincides perfectly with the publication of this pair of bodies in the new volume of the Janet Arnold series Patterns of Fashion 5: The cut and construction of bodies, stays, hoops and rumps c.1595-1795, presenting over 40 garments in great detail.

Internationally renowned experts like Valerie Steele (FIT New York), Alexandra Palmer (ROM Toronto), Peter McNeil (UTS Sydney), Amalia Descalzo (ISEM Madrid) and Denis Bruna (MAD Paris) will be among the speakers of the conference.

Registration:
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3385294


PROGRAM

Thursday, 13 September 2018

09:30-13:15

Jenny Tiramani:
Patterns of Fashion and Un-Fashion

Beatrix Nutz:
'Petites mameletes, … Dures comme pumete' – Shaping the Medieval Ideal of Beauty

Amalia Descalzo Lorenzo:
Spanish Artificial Undergarments in the Habsburg Period

Johannes Pietsch:
Establishing Identity: stays and bodices in Germany 1600-1800

Lunch Break


14:15-17:00

Denis Bruna:
Early 18th-Century Panniers in Contemporary Sources

Sébastien Passot:
From Garsault to the Encyclopedia: the mechanical construction of hoops and stays in 18th-century French literature

Peter McNeil:
'Conspicuous Waist': from Macaroni Men to the 'Despots of Fashion', 1760-1830

Thessy Schoenholzer Nichols:
Bodice for an Active Life: it does not have to be 'hard to hold'. Case histories of female upper dresses, from late middle ages to the 18th century, in Italy


17:15-18:45
Guided Tours

20:00-23:00
Evening Event


Friday, 14 September 2018

09:00-10:45

Adelheid Rasche:
Crinolonomania and More: caricatures on hoop petticoats

Pernilla Rasmussen:
Robe the Cour at the Swedish Court

Luca Costigliolo:
The Evolution of the Drafting Method of Patterns for Bodies, Stays and Corsets

Lunch Break

Guided Tours


15:15-17:45

Kerstin Hopfensitz:
From Heubach to the World – a centre of German corset production

Alexandra Palmer:
The Origin of the Species: Christian Dior's New Look Woman

Valerie Steele:
The Corset in Modern Fashion