June 13th, 2024

Textiles and Masculinities

The intricate and evolving relationships between masculinities and textiles have been underrepresented in design histories so far. This is in contrast to the cultural and social significance textiles hold in sustaining, challenging, and expressing masculinities. The “Textiles & Masculinities” Online Conference will present and discuss international research on historical and contemporary textiles in global contexts. Organized by Dr. Fiona Anderson (Glasgow School of Art) it will take place on June 15, 2024. Each session consists of 15 minute presentations, followed by 20 minutes discussion.

Programme
Saturday June 15, 2024 (all times in UTC+ 1/BST)

10:30 Introduction: Fiona Anderson

10:35 Session 1: Maintaining, Performing or Contesting Masculinities (Chair: Fiona Anderson)

Wool, Masculinity and Fletcher Jones’s Trousers in Post-war Australia - Lorinda Cramer (Deakin University).

Illuminating the Hi Vis Vest: Gender, Class and Social Invisibility - Jesse Adams Stein, Bettina Frankham, Elizabeth Humphrys (University of Technology, Sydney).

Getting Laid: Carpets, Double Entendres and New Masculinities - Jo Turney (Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton).

11:45 Break 15 minutes

12:00 Session 2: Textiles, Masculine Ideals and Colonialism (Chair: Elli Michaela Young)

Fearful Feminine Silks: Jesuit Masculinities, Japanese Courtiers and Textiles in the Sixteenth Century - Linda Zampol D’Ortia (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and Australian Catholic University).

Unspooling Oceanic Labour: Fashioning Maritime Masculinity in the Photography Studio - Marina Dawn Wells (New Bedford Whaling Museum).

Mackintosh, Burberry, Solaro: Dressing the British Explorer in the Long Nineteenth Century - Sarah Pickman (Independent Historian).

The White Duck Suit and Hegemonic Masculinity in the Colonial Tropics c1870–1939 - Melissa Bellanta (Australian Catholic University).

13:20 Lunch

14:10 Session 3: Textiles, Colonialism and Decolonialism (Chair: Fiona Anderson)

Roger Casement’s Closet - Joseph McBrinn (Belfast School of Art, Ulster University).

Pardesi the Turban Untied: An Artistic Response to a Graceful Garment and Its Chequered History - Ishan Khosla (The Typecraft Initiative, UPES Dehradun)

The Weave in Our Stance: Intertwined Histories of Textile Waste and Diaspora Voices - Savithri Bartlett (Royal College of Art), Harris Elliott (Artist, Cultural Curator and Creative Leader), Elise Hodson (Royal College of Art).

15:15 Break, 15 minutes

15:30 Session 4: Textiles and Masculinities: Design, Craft and Production (Chair: Elli Michaela Young)

Weaving to Heal: Questions of Masculinity and Craft Therapy for US WW1 Troops and Veterans - Jennifer Way (University of North Texas).

Silk, Nationalism and Modern Masculinity in the Nanjing Decade (1927–1937) - Brielle Pizzala (Bard Graduate Center, New York).

Weaving Identities: the Reshaping of Masculinity Among Migrant Textile Weavers in Kuthampully - Saumya Pande (design educator and textile revivalist) and Gadha Gopal (textile researcher and fashion designer).

16:40 Break, 15 minutes

16:55 Session 5 Queer Identities and Textiles (Chair: John Potvin)

Queering Textiles and Masculinity: on a Latvian Drag King’s Re-appropriation of Folk Costume - Elena Mari Wise (Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam).

Lesbians in Levis: Denim as a Queer Female Signifier in ’90s and ’00s TV - Glenys Johnson (Freelance Fashion Historian and Author).

Canvas: Filippo de Pisis’s Workwear and Artworks - Alessandra Vaccari (Università luav di Venezia).

18:10 Closing Remarks

18:15 Close

Register for free via the TicketSource!

Download programme (PDF) including full paper abstracts and speaker biographies:

ZOOM: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82257894940#success

References