LCFMA21: MA Fashion Cultures and Histories

Showing remarkable resilience and creativity, this cohort of graduates have adapted to showcasing their projects within a digital space, incorporating into their work hopeful messages for the future. The new School of Media and Communication platform developed in collaboration with Twomuch Studio reflects an innovative approach to design, allowing the viewer to feel immersed and connected to each project. View the platform. We have collated a preview of some of the projects from this year's MA Fashion Cultures and Histories LCFMA21 cohort.

Mediating Vintage: the Meaning of “Humana Vintage” by Ieva Emilija Barzdžiūtė

The aim of this thesis is to understand how the meaning of “Humana Vintage” is created in the context of Humana Vintage second-hand stores located in Lithuania. While vintage fashion is often understood as meaningful due to the ‘inherent’ qualities of the garments, this thesis takes a different approach to study vintage as contextually specific phenomenon that is co-produced by different actors. Using Actor-Network Theory and its concept of ‘mediation’ as a foundation for this research, this thesis suggests that the meanings of “Humana Vintage” emerge through mediations as performed through a network of different actors – both human and non-human.

To Style A Life for Oneself: Fashioning Identities within the Lovers’ Rock Reggae Scene by Omolara Obanishola

‘To Style A Life for Oneself’ explores the largely undocumented relationship between style-fashion- dress (Tulloch: 2010) and Lovers rock; a British born reggae genre created by the first generation of British born Black people.

Attention is given to the socio-political context of Britain between 1976-1986 and how key events influenced the dressed identities of young Black Britons; enabling them to express new and distinct cultural identities, through dress whilst negotiating their lived experience in both the private and public sphere. The research takes an inter-generational perspective with a focus on the female experience.

Capturing Fashion: The narratives within twenty-first century fashion documentary films by Imogen Banks Cahill

This is an investigation into the phenomena that is the twenty-first century, feature-length, fashion documentary film. Each chapter uncovers a new trait of fashion documentary film, questioning what the role of these documentaries is in regard to the fashion industry. Some of the documentaries I have researched formed entirely new narratives for their audiences; new ways of consuming, considering and understanding their subjects. They not only used the fashion and film archives but actually created new archives within themselves. Others submitted to the fashion industry and perpetuated its existing mythologies and structures; from the genius designer to the material and symbolic production of fashion.

Imagining China: An Analysis of the Symbolic Production of China through the Medium of Fashion by Samantha Kemmy

By defining the symbolic production of China and its discursive formation in fashion as a key site for analysis, I ask how do we come to know China through fashion? Analysing the work of European and Chinese designers, I push the notion of discourse towards designers’ practices to understand the knowledge they produce. In addition, I consider how fashion acts as a system of representation and in doing so, articulate the liminal position China occupies through multiple representations within the field of fashion. Ultimately, I draw out how China is imagined by those looking in and out of a nation.