Alessio DE'NAVASQUES

Fashion Archives

2024/2025 / CFU 6 / 42hours

Lecturer: Alessio de'Navasques

Contact: alessio.denavasques@uniroma1.it

Classroom vcu7oc5

Course Structure

Archives will be used as a lens for exploring the contemporary fashion world as a tangible and intangible cultural heritage. Beginning with cultural policies found nationally and internationally, historical definitions and concepts of archives, including technical and theoretical tools essential for the management and organization of archival heritage, will be investigated. Deploying notions of trace, gesture, object and memory, archives will be understood through concepts of time, history, and narrative. The fashion archive will be understood as a strategic tool both in communication as well as building value for fashion brands while analyzing processes of cultural phenomena related to it. The course aims to examine - through the history and analysis of Italian and international fashion archives - the different forms and techniques of fashion heritage preservation among public and private sectors. The goal is to understand how the archive is a vibrant and dynamic vector of other possible narratives that can be deployed following postproduction perspective, both for fashion brands and institutions. A workshop is planned within the course as a means to define a research and cataloguing project in a fashion archive.

Participation and Requirements

The course is structured in two parts and is organized around traditional lectures and a workshop in a fashion archive. Lectures will cover the following topics: definition and concept of archives, fashion curating, the evolution of Italian and international fashion archives, archiving and preservation techniques and practices, differences and similarities between archives of museums and public institutions as well as private and corporate archives, archival criticism and digitization Articles, papers, research reports and other relevant materials will be provided during the course.

Attending Students:

For attending students, the final exam consists of a presentation/discussion of the final project (that will count for 50% of the final grade). The project will be developed as an analysis of a fashion archive, each student will have to make data sheets of a selection of items. During the presentation of the final project, the program and themes developed during the lessons will be discussed (which will count for the remaining 50%)

Non-attending students:

For non-attending students there will be an oral examination about the program based on an analysis of articles, papers and other materials provided for the course.

Attendance

Attendance is required (during lessons and visits) to take the exam in a lab format.

Grading and Evaluation

Midterm test (at the end of the theoretical section of the course) to assess theoretical knowledge: this is a written examination on the lessons and course materials (30%).

Individual student project work (50%) at the conclusion of the course will be an analysis of a fashion archive.

Ability to expose the project and knowledge gained during the exposition of one's research (20%). For those who do not take the midtem test, the theoretical part of the program will be discussed directly during the exam, starting with questions about the final project (50%).