Unpicking the fashion business: launch event

The Enterprise of Culture officially launched the project to the public at Unpicking the Fashion Business on 5 December 2013.

This public conference attracted more than 100 participants including academics students, curators, archivists, fashion designers, industry professionals and wider public audiences. Featuring talks from a panel of European researchers alongside fashion professionals, curators and archivists from the V&A, the Centre for Business History (Stockholm) and the M&S Company Archive, this event offered an insight into the business history of fashion — and an exciting glimpse of what we’ll be wearing in the future.

Project Leader, Regina Lee Blaszczyk, introduced the Enterprise of Culture, while several team members —Dr Véronique Pouillard Maliks from the University of Oslo, Sonnet Stanfill from the V&A London, Dr Ben Wubs and Dr Thierry Maillet from Erasmus University Rotterdam — discussed their historical research. Topics included intellectual property in the French and US fashion industries; the Italian fashion business; and fashion-textile trade fairs such as Première Vision and Interstoff.

The audience was introduced to the role of business archives in fashion history by Ingrid Giertz-Mårtenson of the Centre for Business History in Stockholm and by Katharine Carter of the Marks and Spencer Company Archive, the latter of which is housed on the University of Leeds campus.

The afternoon conference was followed by a visit to the Marks and Spencer Company Archive, where delegates networked and toured the permanent exhibition on the history of M&S. Members of the core Enterprise of Culture team served as judges for Sustainable Fashion: Next Generation Student Challenge, a competition for design and business students at the University.

The day concluded at the Leeds University Business School with The Colour Revolution, the Project Leader’s inaugural professorial lecture, and an award to the best design for the Sustainable Fashion competition. The evening event attracted a wide audience. As part of the evening, the University’s Museum of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine displayed artefacts relating to the discipline of colour chemistry at Leeds, while ULITA — An Archive of International Textiles opened its exhibition space to delegates.

This event was organised by the Enterprise of Culture, in conjunction with the M&S Company Archive.