Erasmus Rotterdam

In September 2013, Dr Thierry Maillet was hired as a Postdoctoral Fellow, and the Rotterdam team commenced historical research on two major fashion textile fairs, Première Vision and Interstoff. Founded in 1972 by silk merchants in Lyon, France, Première Vision eventually moved to Paris and became the leading international trade show for the textile industry. Managed by Messe Frankfurt, the Interstoff trade fair operated in Germany from 1959 to 1999. Globalization had an impact on both fairs, which have expanded beyond their European origins to reach worldwide markets.

To advance their Enteprise of Culture book on fashion textile fairs, Wubs and Maillet conducted research in the archives of Première Vision in Lyon and Interstoff at Messe Frankfurt; interviewed managing directors at both organizations; and contacted the organizers of additional fairs, such as Milano Feria, IGEDO in Düsseldorf, and Bread & Butter Berlin. Additional archival research was conducted at the Institut für Stadtgeschicte in Frankfurt am Main and l’Union des Industries Textiles in Paris, and visits were made to fairs in Paris (Première Vision and Denim) and Frankfurt (TechTextile).

The Rotterdam team disseminated its research on fashion-textile fairs to the European Business History Association in Uppsala, Sweden, and at the launch event at Leeds. The Uppsala paper is under revision for submission to the Journal of Macromarketing. Postdoctoral Fellow Maillet also collaborated with Project Leader Blaszczyk to present his doctoral research on Paris style bureaus at the V&A workshop on ‘Technocracy, Expertise, and the Future’. Networking has taken place with archivists, researchers, and curators in Milan and Rotterdam. Maillet is expanding the EOC’s reach through a seminar that he organizes on ‘Histoire de mode’ for the Institut d’histoire du temps présent at the Centre national de la recherché scientific (IHTP-CNRS) in Paris: http://histoiredemode.hypothesis.org/

Preliminary planning for the project event on fashion prediction, to take place in Rotterdam in the fall of 2014, was undertaken.