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Year two: Gatekeepers - managing knowledge and fostering innovation

The conferences and meetings for year two focused on the role of ‘gatekeepers’ or ‘fashion intermediaries’—the retail buyers, trend and colour forecasters, IP attorneys, entrepreneurs, fashion promoters and brand managers—who work behind the scenes to make the fashion system work.

This approach moves beyond the great designer focus that dominates much of the literature on European fashion. It also makes the point that the supply chain, from fibres to retailers, is important to a deeper understanding of the fashion system. Thus, in year two, the project moved from the nation to the firm and the individual with reference to particular occupations that are little-studied in fashion history.

Over the course of year two, the team advanced this research theme  of Gatekeepers: Managing Knowledge and Fostering Innovation in a number of ways. We explored the ‘gatekeepers’ theme at three large public conferences/workshops, four smaller public events/workshops, three internal collaborative research project meetings and five face-to-face meetings with our academic advisors.

Since the start of our project, we have analysed relationships among ‘enterprise’ and ‘culture’ in the European fashion system, broadly defined to include its global reach, by advancing work on or publishing four single-authored books, 18 journal articles and 37 book chapters; coordinating three special issues for two major journals; advancing work on four co-edited anthologies; and finalising plans for the Oral History Programme. In 2015 alone, the team made 22 presentations at EOC events and other venues.

Our networking activities have led to meaningful relationships with new industry partners, from British textile mills to an Amsterdam fashion incubator to Japanese denim manufacturers. Our relationships with industry have informed our research and have expanded our collaborators’ understanding of history and management theory. We are pleased that our project is having an impact outside of the academy.