Fashion + Street Culture Conference at Yale

The Urban Catwalk: Fashion and Street Culture, April 23 2011 | Yale University |  New
Haven, Connecticut

300 word abstracts and bios due by: October 15th, 2010

Please email all questions and abstracts to madison moore, madison.moore AT yale.edu

What is street style, and what is the relationship between style, "the street," and
popular culture? How have the Internet, digital cameras and other technologies impacted
how we understand the way we dress? How old is street style, and why do so many people
care about the way other people dress? In what ways does street style engage with
broader issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality?

The Urban Catwalk: Fashion and Street Culture, a one-day symposium at Yale University,
aims to investigate and openly discuss the relationships between street style and
identity. We are interested in papers that approach street style from a contemporary
lens, but also encourage papers with more of an historical perspective.

Every character in a work of fiction tells a story, and more often than not, the clothes
they wear are as crucial to their personalities and interests as to their internal
development in the plot. Whether high end or mass market, fashion is a daily performance
of identities and subjectivities. Street fashion tells a personal narrative about one's
dreams, fantasies, fears and struggles. From Marie Antoinette to Lady Gaga, and from
Napoleon Bonaparte to Prince, fashion is used as an instrument of rebellion and
commentary on social norms.

Over the course of a single day, The Urban Catwalk will partner 20 minute academic
presentations from a range of disciplines. We are committed to a conference that blends
the intellectual with an ear to the ground. In this way, we will hold a panel discussion
with editors from a number of major fashion publications about how they understand the
intellectual work street style does. We close the conference with a special street style
fashion show at Artspace Gallery in Downtown New Haven, where real-people models will
showcase their street style.

We solicit rigorous, 20-minute presentations treating various aspects of street fashion.

Topics may include:

- Street style and Contemporary art
- Dandies
- The flaneur
- Style blogs and the Internet
- Urban versus suburban style
- Hipsters and neo-bohemia
- Goth, punk, and skate culture
- Street style and hip hop culture
- Fashion magazines and the street
- Male androgyny; men in high heels
- Street style in media
- How to figure out a style persona; rules and boundaries
- Lady Gaga, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Andre J., and other pop icons
- Japanese street fashion
- Street style in literature
- LGBTQ identity and street style
- Models
- Street style in the 19th century
- Fashion designers
- Ready-to-wear
- Urban Outfitters, American Apparel, and trend spotters
- Vogueing, ball culture
- Sex and the City and street style