Fashion design as a place for critical reflection
"As a teacher of theoretical fashion subjects at a design college, I find myself at the intersection of theory and practice. I feel that the reflective and critical aspect of fashion design is strangely underrepresented in academic fashion studies, where the designer has a central role but rarely a voice, but also in the fashion industry, where the designer's role has historically been defined in terms of economic and consumerist aspects," says Maria Ben Saad, who is behind the anthology and is a senior lecturer in fashion theory at the University of Copenhagen. Beckman College of Design and responsible for the Division of Artistic and Contextual Studies.
Essays, conversations, and visual commentary
Critical Fashion: Reflections in Theory and Practice anthology consists of personal essays, commentary and conversations. Most of the participants have a connection to Beckmans as alumni, lecturers or guest teachers, while many also work at design colleges and institutions abroad.
"With the project, I have wanted to discuss fashion design as a place for critical reflection, and what it can mean for both theory and practice. Not least, the study revolves around the concept of critical fashion practice,which in recent years has spread internationally within academia. But I have also wanted to show, through examples primarily from former Beckmans students, how critical thinking can manifest itself in practice," says Maria Ben Saad.
In parallel with different approaches to the subject in text, visual applications based on nonconforming gender expressions are therefore also presented in mainly students' degree projects.
Digital publication
To include as many people as possible, the project will be made available online and in English with publications twice a week from 23 October 2020 on www.criticalfashionproject.org.
The project's publication was developed by Peter Ström and Mattias Jakobsson at the graphic design studio Konst &teknik. Peter Ström is also a senior lecturer in visual communication with a focus on digital media at Beckmans.
Contributor and publication date
Maria Ben Saad 201023 (introduction)
Adam Geczy and Vicki Karamina's 201027
Ada Swärd 201030
Ann-Sofie Back and Göran Sundberg 201103
Matilda Ivarsson 201106
Andreas Nobel 201110
Alexander Krantz 201113
Mathilda Tham 201117
Emil Balesic 201120
Peter Jakobsson 201124
Alecsander Rothschild 201127
Marco Pecorari 201201
Josef Forselius 201204
Caroline Evans and Susanna Strömquist 201208
Artistic research at Beckmans
2017 began Beckman College of Design an investment in artistic research. Four different research projects have now been carried out, which are linked to our fields of study product design, fashion and visual communication. The projects will be presented in different formats in 2020 at the same time as new research projects are initiated.
