SoftMatters

is a colloquium co-organized by Ecole Duperré and Ecole des Arts Décoratifs in the context of the Colloques de Cerisy from the 31st of August till the 4th of September 2021.

Exhibited, covered by the media, praised to the skies or criticized, fashion defines a consequent part of material history and is an incontestable agent of intelligibility of the contemporary world. Just like its complex and mobile industry, fashion constitutes a discipline in becoming, a field of research that has progressively appropriated the analysis grids and the critical tools of neighbouring sciences while nurturing itself with its own paradoxes and ambiguities.

Between permanence and novelty, materiality and immateriality, this symposium aims at testifying of the richness of this field of creation and research by outlining a state of the art of the thought on, by and for fashion. It is articulated around four central themes: a first time dedicated to style formation, between clichés, norms and transgressions; a second time addresses the question of the industry and the bad, where fashion unfolds a diverse creative and productive system, redoubtable, but also ambitious and prospective; a third time offers to explore the current creative processes in the light of a much needed ecological and resilient perspective; finally this symposium ends on the question of the transmission of know-how and on the forms of fashion conservation, in its artistic and patrimonial dimensions.

Researchers, philosophers, designers, performers, collectors and artistic directors are thereby invited to question together these territories.

Full programme and further details here

Steering committee: Mathieu Buard, Denis Darpy, Céline Mallet, Aurélie Mosse

Support:

• École Duperré Paris — HESAM Université
• École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs [ENSAD]
• Université Paris Dauphine // MINES ParisTech — Université PSL (Paris, Sciences & Lettres) | PSL