September 27, 2017

This October, Westphal will partner with Intellect Books to host Fashion And Media, an annual and intensive three-day symposium focused on how fashion is portrayed throughout varying forms of media. The symposium is dedicated to representing a wide variety of disciplines while pushing the envelope of scholarship to gain new understandings about the visual expression of fashion, apparel, garments, clothing and textiles. Utilizing an inclusive definition of the term fashion, Fashion And Media proposals were welcomed from the divergent fields of the fine arts, digital media, television, film, merchandising, fashion design, business, architecture, anthropology, cultural studies, history, interior design, graphic design, psychology, sociology, and women’s studies to thoroughly examine interconnections and intersections between fashion and media. Seminars and panels include Celebrity, Body Image, Pinterest & Tinder; New Methods and Teaching Approaches to Fashion & Media; Understanding Transgender Identity; Fashion Photography, Sexuality, Identity and Tattoos; Singapore, The Body, Dress Codes & Image Making; Nails, #BlackLivesMatter, Footwear & African Fantasy, to list just a few. Presentations from leading industry professionals and scholars will examine the representations and expressions of fashion, apparel, garments, clothing, and textiles exploring how clothing is portrayed, and dissecting the infiltration of technology and social media from a buyer vs. consumer perspective.

Joseph Hancock II, Program Director of the Retail & Merchandising graduate program, first brought Fashion And Fiction, an iteration of the reoccurring Fashion And… symposium series, to Drexel in 2010, and this is his second conference for 2017.  Hancock writes, “This conference is crucial to showcase scholars who analyze this multi-media phenomenon of fashion as we continue our journey into the 21^st century. Our understanding of fashion has moved beyond the definition of just designing clothes. It is encompassed in so many ways through media and the omni-channel retailing and merchandising environment – where almost anyone can become a style innovator.”

Fashion And Media provides an opportunity for academics, researchers, graduate, and undergraduate students to exchange research discoveries, innovative teaching strategies, and creative designs addressing the interrelationships between fashion and media, while placing an emphasis on perspectives and approaches from the humanities, social sciences, and the arts interconnections between fashion and media.

Fashion And Media Conference: October 12-14, 2017

Single day registration: $50.00