Reflections on Decolonising Fashion in the Face of Climate Change

by Erica de Greef Conversations to Redress a Fashion Disaster was the first critical, discursive event convened by the Research … More

Keynote: Fashion, Sustainability and Decoloniality

By Dr Erica de Greef Credit Twyg online by editor Jackie May This week at the Future of Fashion symposium … More

Decolonizing Fashion: Refashioning Objects in the Ethnographic Museum

A two-day interdisciplinary think-tank/critical and creative thinking workshop On November 14 and 15, 2019, the RCDF held a stimulating workshop/think … More

Sandra Niessen in Residency at the Jan van Eyck Academy, part 8

By Sandra Niessen Dear Participants in the Conversations to Redress a Fashion Disaster, Thank you for joining us in Maastricht … More

Sandra Niessen in Residency at the Jan van Eyck Academy, part 7 (wrapping up)

By Sandra Niessen The Climate Intensive for 2019 at the Van Eyck Academy is over. We are winding down, assessing … More

Sandra Niessen in Residency at the Jan van Eyck Academy, part 6

By Sandra Niessen FINDING (DE)COLONIALITY We are in the midst of the countdown. 4 November will soon be upon us. … More

Sandra Niessen in Residency at the Jan van Eyck Academy, part 5

By Sandra Niessen When I started my residency at the Van Eyck, I devoted time to exploring the three-way junction … More

Conversations to Redress a Fashion Disaster – Resources 2

The excitement of exchange amongst participants on the 4th of November has already begun. In response to the list of … More

Conversations to Redress a Fashion Disaster – Resources 1

On November 4, in Conversations to Redress a Fashion Disaster at the Jan Van Eyck Academy in Maastricht, we explore … More

Sandra Niessen in Residency at the Jan van Eyck Academy, part 4

By Sandra Niessen The RCDF programme on 4 November at the Van Eyck in Maastricht will include, among a variety … More

Conversations to Redress a Fashion Disaster, 4 November 2019

Decolonial Critiques to Fashion’s Climate Urgency Response 4 November 2019 Jan van Eyck Academy Maastricht Conversations to Redress a Fashion … More

Sandra Niessen in Residency at the Jan van Eyck Academy, part 3

By Sandra Niessen It has been a steep learning curve of a new type here at the Jan van Eyck. … More

Dressed to Resist, Made to Persist: Indigenous Puruhá Fashion in Ecuador

By Anais Parada On October 8th, 2019 I was living in Quito, Ecuador while writing my dissertation. I had initially … More

Sandra Niessen in Residency at the Jan van Eyck Academy, part 2

Sandra Niessen, 4 October 2019 Here at the Van Eyck Academy in Maastricht, all roads are pointing to 4 November … More

Sandra Niessen in Residency at the Jan van Eyck Academy, part 1

Sandra Niessen, 26 September 2019 For three days, starting 4-6 November 2019, the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht will … More

Decolonizing Fashion at the Costume Society of America 2019 Annual Symposium

By Arti Sandhu University of Cincinnati Mid-April 2019, the RCDF organized two research presentation panels for the Costume Society of … More

International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS) Roundtable Endangered Textile Design: Will We Make Room For It To Survive? Leiden, July 18, 2019

For the participants: What indigenous weavers need to be able to perpetuate their unique, cultural designs in their communities has … More

Giving a Damn and Hyperopia: Decolonizing for Sustainability

By Sandra Niessen The more effectively a fashion producer functions the more destructive it is. That is the nature of … More

DECOLONIZING FASHION: Defying the ‘White Man’s Gaze’

Walter Crane, Imperial Federation: Map Showing the Extent of the British Empire in 1886. Colour lithograph. Published by Maclure & … More

Report of the Seminar (Re)Thinking Fashion Globalization

By Toby Slade RCDF Steering Committee Member On 15-16 February 2019 the RCDF co-organized the seminar ReThinking Fashion Globalization in … More

“The dream that keeps haunting me” by Ina-Maria Shikongo

I am Ina-Maria Shikongo born by Pondo ya Nangobe and Anelly Thomas in the refugee camps of Angola in 1979, … More

Seminar (Re)Thinking Fashion Globalization, Tokyo 15-16 February 2019

(RE)THINKING FASHION GLOBALIZATION Seminar co-organized by The Transboundary Fashion Seminar & the Research Collective for Decolonizing Fashion Bunka Gakuen University … More

CALL FOR NEW MEMBERS RCDF EDITORIAL TEAM

The RCDF’s editorial team is looking to fill the following positions: Editor-in-Chief Responsible for coordinating all different tasks and members … More

‘A Decolonial Approach to the Singapore Fashion System,’ by Baey Shi Chen

Image Caption: Menswear that stages a conversation between Eastern and Western fashion while challenging gender norms. Label: Jon Max Goh. … More

‘African Fashion and fashionability on Instagram’ by Enrica Picarelli

The context: Africa in the mainstream Last May British-Ghanaian designer Ozwald Boateng hailed the era of “Africanism” from the pages … More

‘The Japanese Body: A Contested Terrain in the Meiji Restoration Era’ by Emilia Boulton

The relationship between society, dress and the body has always been complicated throughout history. For Japan, this became prevalent during … More

‘Decolonising Mentalities’ by Luz Neira García

In Brazil, as well as other Latin-American countries, fashion decolonising is not (yet) a broadly debated subject. Both the fashion … More

Call For Submissions

In order to stimulate and encourage a broad and inclusive discussion on decolonizing fashion, the Research Collective for Decolonizing Fashion … More

‘Building a suite of pedagogy that seeks to decolonize fashion’ by Kimberly M. Jenkins

As an emerging fashion studies scholar of color, I have sought to advance the field through integrating research and teaching … More

‘About Decolonising Dress/Fashion Objects in South African Museums’ by Erica de Greef

In this blog post, which is based on my recently-completed PhD thesis, I look at the histories and current conditions … More

‘Decolonizing Stories in Academia’, by Sarah Cheang

One of my lecturers, a young white woman, once related an experience she had had in an English stately home. … More

What does decolonizing mean to me? by Leslie Rabine

Among many things, not projecting onto people who are really doing this work of decolonizing — in this case Senegalese … More

A manifesto to contest ‘there was no fashion before’ by Angela Jansen

Due to a dominant Eurocentric fashion discourse, the idea prevails in many so-called non-western countries that fashion is a recent … More

‘Démodérne Manifest: Relational fashion cognoscenti’ en face of codified dominant narratives’ by Manuel De Sousa

Decolonisation can be understood as a breaking process that ends any kind of domination. As a result, big powers no … More

‘Softly de-colonizing my Eastern-European self? Everything happens on the surface of my clothes’, by Edith Lazar

The social and the political are tied to clothing like threads of fabrics, so interlaced that they can’t be separated, … More

‘Decolonization of Indian Women’s Fashion’, by Vaibbhavi Pruthviraj Ranavaade

India’s unique textiles and spices have been attracting European traders for many decades, eventually resulting in the British Raj in … More

‘De-colonizing Fashion in Ghana: Changing a Stereotypical Image of “the Dark Continent” and Radiating Power in the Global Fashion System’, By Eva Marie Wüst Vestergaard

I have been an aficionada of West African fashion ever since I travelled to Togo and fell in love with … More

On Decolonization, Beauty, and Black Hair Aesthetics, by Kristin Denise Rowe

Earlier this month, brilliant scholar, producer, and publisher Dr. Yaba Blay (@professionalblackgirl) posted the tweet above by esthetician@LABeautyologiston her Instagram … More

The Gucci University, by Matthew Linde

A procession of transhumans, walking in trancelike step through a suite of operating theaters – Sarah Mower, Gucci Fall 2018 … More

Announcement

The current theme of our blog ‘What does decolonizing mean to you?’ is running for three months and due to … More

Decolonizing Fashion: What it means to me, by Sandra Niessen

Recently I attended the State of Fashion exhibition in Arnhem (June – July 2018). It was a magnificent exhibition, well worth … More

CFBS: What does ‘decolonizing’ mean to you?

Call for Blog Submissions From September till November 2018, we invite blog submissions from any discipline that discuss the decolonization … More

CFP: (Re)Thinking Fashion Globalization

Seminar co-organized with The Transboundary Fashion Seminar 15-16 February 2019 Bunka Gakuen University Tokyo Deadline: 15 September 2018 There are few histories as entangled … More

CFP: Panel ‘Decolonizing Fashion’ at the Costume Society of America 2019 Symposium

April 15-20, 2019 Seattle Westin Hotel, Seattle, Washington, USA Deadline: 30th August 2018 The Research Collective for Decolonizing Fashion (formerly the Non-Western … More

Our Story

The Research Collective for Decolonising Fashion (RCDF) was established to end the stubbornly persistent euro – and ethnocentric underpinnings of … More