This seminar is open to all (12 participants max). Fully booked

This seminar will explore the concepts of ecopoetics and ecocriticism, and how they can dialogue with fashion design praxes in the face of environmental catastrophe and the Anthropocene. We'll study Kate Rigby's analysis and text "Reclaiming Romanticism": Towards an Ecopoetics of Decolonisation" (2020) to examine how insubordinate designers are upcycling and disrupting the industry.

We will examine links between fashion praxes and European romantic poetry such as that of Rousseau's, Wordsworth's, and Mickiewicz's, but as well Tarn's, Lorde's, Whitman's while looking at how fashion designers are expressing their creativity through upcycling, revaluing the past, archiving and appreciating "nature" rather than conforming to rules and hegemonic production trends and "seasons". We will explore the work of Vancouver-based artist Colette Stubbings, London-based designer Meihui Liu, Belgian designer Jordy Arthur Vaesen, and England-based performer Anna Kushnerova.

This conversation aims at creating a dialogue through “ecopoetic arts of resistance” (Rigby, 2020) allowing dialogue between designers and artists who are subverting conventions and instead pursuing an alternate path of radicalism and insubordination. A new generation is promoting hand-made slow fashion, showcasing unique pieces and upcycled garments, guided by a will to connect and contemplate Planet Earth.

Pierre-Antoine Vettorello is a textile/fashion designer and PhD candidate at Sint Lucas Antwerp (Aria) and University of Antwerp. He focuses on the sartorial ties between Paris and Saint-Louis, Senegal, at the end of the colonial era (1939–1966) in his research on fashion and decoloniality.

Image: Willow by Pierre-Antoine Vettorello (2019). Model: Rahim Lone.