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Quick links, suggested searches, history of dress and textiles.
In 1965, The Courtauld introduced the first academic course to be taught in History of Dress, and we therefore recently celebrated our 50 th anniversary . Stella Mary Newton, who led the department, brought a rich background of couture, theatre design and art history experience to the subject, and set the foundations for its subsequent development. In 1977, Aileen Ribeiro took over and developed a strong MA course, which used visual analysis as a starting point to understanding dress history in all its manifestations – through examination of image, object and text. In combination with the History of Dress collections, which comprise rare books, fashion journals dating back to the 18 th century, and the Harris Collection of Textiles, The Courtauld has a unique place within dress and fashion studies, and is committed to encouraging further innovation in this area.
Since 2009, Rebecca Arnold , Oak Foundation Senior Lecturer in the History of Dress and Textiles has led History of Dress studies at the Institute, and has integrated the subject into teaching at all levels. This is focused on the MA Documenting Fashion: Modernity, Film & Image in America & Europe, 1920-60 . The course links to Arnold’s own research on the ways photography, cinema and non-fiction film connected with fashion and its evolution and representation during this period of rapid change and experimentation. This approach is extended in undergraduate courses, including Fashion & Photography: Viewing and Reviewing Global Images of Dress , which examine the ways that dress and fashion can be understood as an international industry and as an idea through a wide range of visual, material and documentary sources. This focus includes exploration of the significance of intermediality, perception, and emotional and sensory experience of dress, to create a rounded view of fashion’s meanings from designer to wearer.
The Courtauld’s faculty includes a number of academics whose research and teaching intersects with dress history, and this diversity of interests enriches our approaches to the subject. Doctoral students therefore benefit from a strong community of scholars exploring dress and textiles in relation to various art historical concerns. Robin Schuldenfrei , Katja and Nicolai Tangen Lecturer in 20th-century Modernism and Rebecca Arnold teach some seminars together, since their shared interest in fashion and modernism sparks fascinating connections. Schuldenfrei’s focus on the history and theory of European and American modern architecture and design provides wider contextualization of developments in dress of the period.
We also have a number of scholars working on earlier periods of dress and textile history, whose research and teaching expands on these discussions. Katie Scott , Professor in the History of Art, specialising in early modern French art and architecture, has a particular interest in textile design, decoration and ornament, and the relationship between works of art and their physical and social context. Caroline Arscott , Professor of 19th-century British Art, has worked on the Aesthetic movement, including examination of textile manufacture and design and her research has explored topics such as art and sexuality; body building and Victorian tattooing in relation to William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones. This interest in aspects of 19 th century dress is extended by Katie Faulkner , Study Support Programme Co-ordinator and Visiting Lecturer, who works on the intersections between sculpture, dress and neo-classicism in the nineteenth century, and by Satish Padiyar , Senior Lecturer in 19th-century European Art, whose recent projects have rethought European neoclassical painting and sculpture with queer, feminist, psychoanalytic and Marxist theory and examined European Neoclassicisms through questions about the male body and notions of self.
In addition, The Courtauld is committed to examining global dress histories. This exploration includes the work of Deborah Swallow , who is a specialist of Indian textile and craft production, design and consumption, and Sussan Babaie , whose research interests include the early modern Safavid period with topics on urbanism and empire studies, on sexuality and social habits of ‘seeing’, and on notions of exoticism and transcultural visuality.
History of Dress Lecturers
Rebecca arnold, senior lecturer in history of dress & textiles.
Emanuele Lugli
Nancy J. Troy
Linden Hill
Fashion Studies: CUNY
The emergence of fashion studies at cuny.
Extending disciplinary boundaries, courses at CUNY offer students the chance to explore Fashion Studies in a broader framework that includes culture, history, politics, and gender.
Unique in the US, the Graduate Center offers two programs in Fashion Studies, a PhD Concentration available to students enrolled in any GC PhD Program and a Master’s degree in Liberal Studies with a track in Fashion Studies.
The Graduate Center boasts an internationally renowned faculty in all areas and disciplines. The GC is also the site of a number of prestigious centers of research, such as the Center for the Humanities , The Center for the Study of Women and Society , The Gotham Center , The Center for Place, Culture and Politics , The Center of Gay and Lesbian Studies , the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, as well as the New Media Lab .
With the historical Garment district and the Museum of the Fashion Institute of Technology a stone’s throw away, the GC is located at the interface between the academy and industry. This strategic geographical location at the heart of New York City, one of the world’s fashion capitals, make the GC the ideal place and environment to study fashion in action.
QUESTIONS ABOUT THE MALS TRACK IN FASHION STUDIES MAY BE DIRECTED TO: [email protected]
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institut FRANÇAIS de la MODE
« Fashion Theories and Practice » PhD Studies Program.
« Fashion Theories and Practice » PhD Studies Program
Practical information, faculty members, how to apply.
All programs
IFM and Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University have jointly devised a doctoral program entirely dedicated to fashion and luxury. This unique program entitled « Fashion Theories and Practice » offers a truly multidisciplinary approach (management, history, art history, law, design, aesthetics, geography, political sciences) applied to the fashion and luxury sector.
Applying for a PhD is no light matter. On an intellectual level, it requires understanding and knowledge of what one wishes to demonstrate, and on a personal level, long term determination.
34 quai d'Austerlitz, 75013 Paris
Heir to both the Sorbonne and the Panthéon Law Faculty, Paris 1 University is one of the leading universities in the field of human and social sciences as well as law and economics.
Ranked 3rd best fashion school worldwide by The Business of Fashion, Institut Français de la Mode is a higher education institution whose research activities focus on the one hand on marketing and insights from social sciences in the areas of luxury, fashion and design, and on the other hand on the analysis of changes in the fields of production, consumption, distribution, international exchanges and lifestyle (fashion, textiles, design, luxury, perfume, cosmetics, food...).
The position of Paris as the world's fashion and haute couture capital has now found a unique academic extension with the creation of this doctoral studies program, offered jointly by two internationally renowned institutions, offering high-level education to all students wishing to prepare a thesis dedicated to fashion or luxury.
Each doctoral student, enrolled in one of the doctoral Schools at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (management, history, art history, law, design, aesthetics and art science) will follow specific and multidisciplinary training amounting to a total of 192 hours spread over the entire curriculum.
Comprising study days or weekly seminars held either at Institut Français de la Mode or at Paris 1, this course will cover the following topics:
Fashion sociology, philosophy and anthropology
This seminar will focus its attention on authors, classic and contemporary, for their contribution to the emergence of a specific academic field dedicated to fashion and luxury. The aim will be to examine influent classic texts, such as Adam Smith, Rousseau, Hume or Mandeville, and the corpus of social science texts, such as Durkheim, Tarde and Veblen, who made sense of fashion phenomena beyond clothing, through the prism of social differentiation or Bourdieu's « distinction ». To what extent is this scientific horizon problematically « impassable »?
Fashion management and economics
This seminar will take a broad approach to the theoretical and practical challenges facing fashion and luxury through social sciences and management sciences alike. It will deal with the challenges in the fashion and luxury industries' economic history (strategy, professional organization, business models); marketing (brand and supply management, customer experience in physical and on line sales points, customer relationships, distribution and internationalization models); consumption sociology; dimensions linked to the value chain, to the supply chain and to information systems; human resources; management control and finance.
Historiography and methodology of fashion history
The aim of this seminar is to present the historical scope of fashion, its research topics, its practical and theoretical horizons. The twelve sessions relate to two areas: the first will question the study of fashion and the creation of a narrative of its history via the sources available to the historian (images, texts and objects); the second will chart a fashion historiography via the different disciplinary milestones that have shaped the fashion studies landscape to this day. This seminar's various objectives are to offer up-to-date tools for analysis of the history of theoretical and practical thought on fashion and luxury, the sources from which this fashion history stems and an approach to fashion that cannot be at the expense of reflecting on the body, its appearances, its gestures and its personal care.
Legal approach and sustainable development
This seminar will be based on two separate components. The first will aim to outline intellectual property rights as a whole that might be of interest to activities related to fashion (trademark rights, patents, designs and models); the challenges in protecting them; their valuation. The second will concern the various legal, environmental and social aspects of sustainable development linked to the activities of the textiles and fashion industry's sector through corporate social responsibility policy and the tools necessary for its implementation.
Creation, arts, fashion aesthetics: innovative processes
This seminar will approach fashion from the perspective of contemporary creation, emerging arts and hybrid cultures, and will look into the following topics: Inventing stage costumes, Filming what is private: the pyjama in cinema, Street culture and street fashion, Analysis of fashion's queer practice, Fashion and digital, Fashions from elsewhere, What is in, what is out? Other study topics will also be offered such as: Staging and shows, What is an accessory?, Haute couture and rock/punk culture, Contemporary fashion and art.
Application Requirements
The following requirements apply to Paris 1 doctoral schools:
- writing a 3-page research proposal on a unique and innovative topic, including significance of the research, resolution hypotheses, a discussion of the overall approach, methodological choices, literature framework, authors or textual documents, observation and analytical terrain;
- producing a brief bibliography-webography;
- establishing an estimated 3-year research timeline;
- producing proof of a Master's degree (M2) or equivalent, with GPA, especially for the dissertation, and with at least Upper Second honours;
- if possible, sharing significant previous research work (Master's dissertation, academic article, etc)
The applicant is responsible for choosing his PhD supervisor within
Paris 1 doctoral schools. He may approach a qualified professor or
lecturer, who remains free to accept or refuse the applicant's request.
Once they have agreed on the research topic, its scope, feasibility and timeline, the PhD supervisor and the applicant mutually commit to bringing the thesis to its conclusion by signing an academic contract and a PhD charter. They engage in a human relationship, full of mutual understanding and scientific rigor.
Completing a PhD requires full intellectual and moral commitment which has an impact on the applicant's personal life and professional prospects for at least three years. Before applying, applicants are advised to thoroughly evaluate the feasibility of the project, the time will be able to commit to it, and the human and professional benefits they expect to gain from it.
Admissions Process
Concerning your request for information or registration for a thesis, as part of the "doctoral programme", you must contact a doctoral school directly, depending on the discipline of your choice, specifying that you wish to carry out your thesis within the framework of the Institut Français de la Mode- University Paris 1 - Panthéon-Sorbonne agreement. The acceptance of your application is dependent on the decision of the doctoral school in which you are applying. Be sure to respect the deadlines, which will not be subject to any derogation. In addition, the entire administrative part will depend on the University of Paris 1 - Panthéon-Sorbonne, and, as a general rule, research seminars are held at the Institut français de la mode under the supervision of researcher-teachers attached to the University of Paris 1 or Institut Français de la Mode.
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Doctor of philosophy (apparel design, material culture & textile studies, merchandising, textile science), doctor of philosophy (apparel design, material culture & textile studies, merchandising, textile science) doctor of philosophy (ph.d.), accredited by the national association of schools of art and design.
All prospective doctoral students in the department will apply for a PhD in Human Sciences. Areas of specialization distinguish each student’s academic focus and should be clearly indicated on the application. A specialization should be selected from the following areas:
- Apparel Design
- Material Culture and Textile Studies
- Merchandising
- Textile Science
Doctor of Philosophy in Human Sciences with a Specialization in Merchandising
The objective of a Doctor of Philosophy of Human Sciences with a specialization in Merchandising is to prepare future practitioners who can critically apply knowledge of merchandising practices to the soft-goods industry. Learning innovative merchandising techniques, including the extensive use of technology, will provide students with applicable knowledge of the field. Students will also learn and apply theory and research methods to address industry challenges. In addition, interdisciplinary knowledge, from fields such as marketing and educational psychology, will enhance students’ perspectives toward research.
Doctor of Philosophy in Human Sciences with a Specialization in Apparel Design
The Doctor of Philosophy program in Human Sciences with a specialization in Apparel Design is designed to educate apparel design scholars who can comprehensively apply theory, knowledge and academic research to their specialties. An in-depth look is taken at fundamental apparel design disciplines as well as relevant interdisciplinary knowledge and technologies, in which students should play a leading role in the future. Related fields will vary depending on the specific focus of the student but may include and are not be limited to anthropology, art, business, education, history, psychology, technology, theater, and women and gender studies.
The required number of hours for any TMFD specialization is 90 hours of 800 or 900 level courses, including 20 dissertation hours. Distribution of courses include:
Doctor of Philosophy in Human Sciences with a Specialization in Material Culture and Textile Studies
The goal of the Ph.D. in Textiles, Merchandising & Fashion Design with a specialization in Material Culture and Textile Studies is to educate professionals and academics who can comprehensively apply theory, research, and knowledge in their respective and chosen career fields. Students will gain an in-depth understanding of the various applications and methodologies that incorporate and/or focus on object based research as a primary means of studying the cultural, social, economic, political, and personal experiences of people, both past and present. Related fields such as (but not limited to) history, art history, anthropology, sociology and women’s and gender studies are included in the specialization to enhance students’ abilities to understand and apply concepts and theories from outside their particular area of expertise and contribute to the development of original research and advancement of knowledge in the interdisciplinary field of material culture.
A basic outline of the degree is provided below, with more details available in the PhD Handbook:
Doctor of Philosophy in Human Sciences with a Specialization in Textile Science
The goal of the Ph.D. in Science of Textiles, Merchandising, and Fashion Design with a specialization in Textile Science is to educate textile scientists who can comprehensively apply theory, academic research and application of knowledge to their specialties. An in-depth look is taken at fundamental textile material science disciplines, as well as relevant interdisciplinary knowledge and technologies, in which students play a leading role in the future. Related fields like chemistry and statistics are focused to enhance students’ abilities to solve complex problems within or outside their area of expertise, and contribute to the development of textiles with original research.
Ph.D. Handbook
- Policy development
- Analysis and Outreach
Application to this program
Requirements for Applicants
- Completion of online application through Admit; Applicants will indicate the intended program (PhD applicants will select Human Sciences, MA & MS applicants will select Textiles, Merchandising & Fashion Design). All applicants will select a specialization
- Grade point average of 3.0 or higher on a 4.0 scale
- Minimum TOEFL scores (International Students only) 550 on paper test, 213 on computer based test or 79 on the internet based test (Institution code – 6877)
- Digital Portfolio for textile design and apparel design areas of interest
- Personal Statement: Letter of application describing educational and career goals.
Any of the following would be an appropriate writing sample:
- manuscript or published article resulting from earlier research such as master's thesis
- paper given at a professional meeting
- substantial paper such as a review of literature
- grant proposal
- critique of a research article
- professional materials developed for use in one's workplace
- course paper
- Three Letters of Recommendation
- MA & MS applicants will have successfully completed an undergraduate degree and PhD applicants will have successfully completed an MA or MS degree if approved for a graduate program in Textiles, Merchandising & Fashion Design
Degree Requirements
Ph.D. students will take an individualized program of study focusing on textile and/or apparel fields. A minimum of 90 credit hours is required