Fashion and Movement
Programme Fashion and Movement

Fashion moves: clothes fulfil their purpose only in movement while fashion, as a fleeting phenomenon, is itself dynamic. How does the human body make clothing move, how does such movement act reflexively on the body, and which meanings are generated in that way? For example, how did women begin to wear ski trousers? Were women able to do sports in the 1920s without wearing a corset? In some clothing, creases and drapery bear either permanent or temporary witness to movement. Just as creases can enhance body movement. Both the desire to constrain and liberate the body’s freedom of movement has spurred and provoked fashions. Clothes, as objects set in motion, confer upon fashion the character of performance.  Fashion as such becomes enactment, on the one hand in the street and on the other as a costume on stage. Just as fashion shows, dressing and undressing, can be a performance. Conversely, costumes appearing in moving images, such as in feature films, are themselves capable of generating fashions. 

The 2011 international conference on fashion and movement at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) explores the manifold interplay between movement, the human body, and clothing. Speakers will discuss a wide range of related themes and issues: the meanings of dress and movement in dance, theatre, and film; historical perspectives of clothing and movement; the technologies, techniques, and rituals involved in fashion and movement; and fashion and movement on the catwalk. 


Conference languages: German and English