Speakers
Transnational fashion: past perspectives
How fashion crosses continents and its impact on the clothes we wear
Dr Véronique Pouillard Maliks, Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History, University of Oslo
Véronique Pouillard Maliks is a specialist on the business-cultural history of fashion and of advertising in Paris, Brussels, and New York. She has published three books—La publicité en Belgique, 1850-1975. Des courtiers aux agences internationales (2005); C’est du belge. Dit is Belgisch. The History of Advertising in Belgium (2004); and Hirsch & Cie, Bruxelles, 1869-1962 (2000)—and has contributed articles on fashion, public relations, and marketing to several peer-reviewed journals, including Business History Review, Revue du Nord, and Cahiers d’Histoire du Temps Présent.
Sonnet Stanfill, Curator of 20th century and contemporary fashion, V&A, London
Sonnet Stanfill is curator of 20th century and contemporary fashion at the V&A, London, where she has worked since 1999. Her exhibition projects at the V&A include Ossie Clark (2003), New York Fashion Now (2007) and co-curation of Ballgowns: British Glamour Since 1950 (2012),for which she also co-edited the accompanying publication. Her exhibition on Italian fashion, along with a corresponding publication, opens at the museum in 2014. Sonnet has published and lectured widely on varied aspects of fashion design. Before joining the V&A, Sonnet received her MA in the history of dress from London’s Courtauld Institute after working as a fashion buyer in New York.
Trendsetting
Fashion-textile trade fairs and their role in the fashion industry
Fashion prediction companies are well identified in the trendsetting process. On the other hand, textile fairs have been given less prominence while they have played a major role as gatekeepers for the fashion industry. These talks look at the importance of textile fairs in setting trends in fashion.
Dr Ben Wubs, School of History, Culture and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam
Dr Ben Wubs is an historian of international markets and business, whose work focuses on the economies of Western and Central Europe. His history of Unilever, one the largest branding companies in the world, International Business and National War Interests: Unilever between Reich and Empire (2008), has been well received and is considered to be one of the standard works on multinationals. In addition, Ben has done research on several other large international firms such as Sara Lee, Royal Dutch Shell, Philips, IBM, Beiersdorf, AkzoNobel, and BASF. In 2009, for a Dutch project funded by the Dutch government, he explored international activities of small and medium-sized companies and published a book on Dutch foreign investments. He is currently writing a monograph on Dutch direct investments in Germany from 1920 to 1960.
Dr Thierry Maillet, School of History, Culture and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam
Dr Thierry Maillet recently started a three-year post-doctoral position at the School of History, Culture and Communication at Erasmus University Rotterdam under the guidance of Dr Ben Wubs. They will work together on ‘The Enterprise of Culture’ to explore fashion-textile fairs and fashion prediction companies in Europe after 1945. Thierry took his PhD at L’École des hautes etudes en sciences sociales (EHESS), Paris, with a dissertation entitled Histoire de la médiation entre textile et mode en France: des échantillonneurs aux bureaux de style (1825-1975), on the subject of the role and functions of fashion prediction companies in France between 1825 and 1975. Thierry has co-responsibility for a Research Seminar on the History of Fashion in Paris at the Centre National de la recherche Scientifique (Institut d’histoire du temps présent).
Business Archives
The use of archival work and its practical applications for fashion research
Ingrid Giertz-Mårtenson, Centre for Business History, Stockholm
Ingrid Giertz-Mårtenson, an ethnologist and art historian, has a long experience of the international and Swedish fashion industry, having worked in French haute couture houses as well as in European fashion organizations and as Director of the Swedish Fashion Council. She is the initiator of the establishment of the Centre for Fashion Studies at Stockholm University and Senior Advisor at the Centre for Business History in Stockholm. In her present capacity as CEO of Swedish Vision she is a counsellor to various cultural and business institutions, and has promoted and curated exhibitions on Swedish dress and fashion including Ten Views of Sweden, at the National Museum in Stockholm in 2004. Ingrid lectures on various areas of fashion, both in Sweden and abroad. Her research includes fashion trends and their influence on the global fashion system, the development of international fashion vis-à-vis national fashion trends and the documentation of H&M. Ingrid's talk will focus on the H&M documentation project and the work of the Centre for Business History in Stockholm.
Katharine Carter, Company Archivist, M&S Company Archive, Leeds
Katharine Carter is the Company Archivist at the M&S Company Archive. Based in Leeds, on the campus of the University of Leeds, the Archive is a vital business asset which acts to collect, preserve and utilise material relating to all aspects of the history and development of the company Marks and Spencer. The M&S Company Archive contains a range of materials from the last 129 years including written records, staff publications, photographs and films, garments and household products, design and advertising material.
Q&A session
Professor Barbara Townley, Institute for Capitalising on Creativity (ICC), University of St. Andrews, Scotland
Professor Barbara Townley directs the Institute for Capitalising on Creativity (ICC) at St. Andrews, and has published widely in the area of the creative industries. Her most recent book on this topic is Managing Creativity: Exploring the Paradox (2010). Her work has appeared in the Oxford Handbook of the Creative Industries, British Journal of Management, Administrative Science Quarterly, and Academy of Management Review. She is a co-investigator on two AHRC grants of relevance to the research: CREATe, a consortium lead by Glasgow University, which is examining intellectual property issues in relation to the creative industries and, Design in Action, led by Dundee University, which is examining the role of design in developing new products and services.
Inaugural lecture introduction
Professor Frank Finlay, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, University of Leeds
The Colour Revolution
Tracing the relationship of colour and commerce, from haute couture to interior design, describing the often unrecognized role of colourists in consumer culture
Professor Regina Lee Blaszczyk, School of History, University of Leeds
Regina Lee Blaszczyk is the Project Leader for ‘The Enterprise of Culture’. She joined the School of History, University of Leeds, as Leadership Chair in the History of Business and Society in 2013. She is an associate editor at the Journal of Design History and has published seven books and numerous articles on the history of design, innovation, and consumer culture. Her most recent book, The Color Revolution (2012), examines the little-known history of the creative profession known as colour forecasting. Recently awarded the Sally Hacker Prize by the American Society for the History of Technology, The Color Revolution focuses on US developments, but it has laid the groundwork for similar explorations in the European context. Professor Blaszczyk’s inaugural lecture will focus on the themes in her book.