From The Museum at FIT:
Fashion and Physique is the nineteenth fashion symposium to be organized by The Museum at FIT. Lectures and panels include topics such as the emergence of the plus-size fashion industry in the early twentieth century, the impact of popular culture on how we assess the female body, and fashion accessibility for the disabled in the technological age. With this symposium and the exhibition The Body: Fashion and Physique, MFIT hopes to foster a dialogue about how the fashion industry has contributed to the marginalization of certain body types, and to shed new light on the work of designers, models, and activists who challenge what constitutes the “ideal” fashion body.
Speakers include Project Runway co-host Tim Gunn; designers Prabal Gurung, Christian Siriano, and Becca McCharen; author of The Fashioned Body Dr. Joanne Entwistle; co-founder of JAG Models Gary Dakin; founder of The Model Alliance Sara Ziff; and Aimee Mullins, who has transcended her own physical challenges to gain worldwide recognition as an Olympian, a model, and an actor.
Admission to the symposium is FREE. Please note that seating will be on a first come, first served basis, with RSVP.
Symposium Schedule:
Friday, February 23, 2018
10 am-1 pm
Dr. Joyce F. Brown, president of FIT, Welcoming remarks
Dr. Valerie Steele, Introduction
Emma McClendon, “The Body: Fashion and Physique”
Tim Gunn in conversation with Dr. Valerie Steele
Kim Jenkins in conversation with Becca McCharen and Christian Siriano
Sara Ziff in conversation with Lauren Chan, Gary Dakin, and Iskra Lawrence on modeling and body diversity
Dr. Joanne Entwhistle, “Fashion Models and Modeling: New Models of Diversity”
1-2pm Lunch break
2-5pm
Prabal Gurung in conversation with Dr. Valerie Steele
Aimee Mullins in conversation with Lucy Jones and Grace Jun on inclusive design
Lauren Downing Peters, “Dressing Smart, Looking Slender: Stoutwear and the Discourse of Fitting In, 1915-1931”
Reina Lewis, “Modest Body Politics: Faith, Fashion, and Ethnicity”
Julia Twigg, “Dress, Embodiment, and the Performance of Age”
Ben Barry, “Fabulous Masculinities: Refashioning the Male Body”
Speakers are subject to change without notice.