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Design, Style and Image: Themes in Fashion History

  • Module code: HA4104
  • Year: 2018/9
  • Level: 4
  • Credits: 30
  • Pre-requisites: None
  • Co-requisites: None

Summary

This module presents thematic approaches to the study of fashion as an historical subject through image-based lectures, screenings and study visits. Students will be introduced to the historical development of fashion and dress from the 1750s to the present day. Each session is intended to address particular ideas and practices that have shaped and constructed our contemporary understanding of fashion as both a productive profession and as a meaningful social and cultural activity. The module engages with critical texts to allow students to examine the relationship between theory and practice in fashion and design and to develop an understanding of the emergence of fashion design as a cultural response to modernity. Key themes relating to clothing, including changing techniques and technologies of production, fashion and identity, fashion and consumer culture, the development of fashion imagery, archiving fashion, and the display and exhibition of fashion will be explored. An integral part of this module is the consideration of designed objects and images. Critical debates, which have shaped theoretical discussions of fashion, are introduced and the importance of context to the way in which fashion is valued is a central theme for discussion.

Aims

  • To provide a historical and critical framework for students' own work and practice;
  • To introduce a thematic history of the development of fashion and clothing;
  • To explore the relationship between theory and practice in fashion;
  • To consider the role of changing techniques and technologies in the production and consumption of fashion;
  • To engage the historical and critical position of the fashion designer and to engage students in the activities of research and writing.

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:

  • Identify key historical issues and debates that have informed the understanding of fashion within modernity;
  • Convey a contextualised understanding of their practice in the studio;
  • Describe some of the theoretical concepts through which fashion and the fashion industry has been constructed;
  • Convey an understanding of the relationship between design and technology;
  • Describe and analyse visual and material examples;
  • Convey their knowledge and understanding in writing.

Curriculum content

  • The historical development of fashion and dress from 1750 to the present day;
  • The role of fashion as a response to modernity;
  • The role of changing production technologies and techniques in the design, production and consumption of clothing;
  • The development of fashion imagery and culture;
  • Fashion and identity;
  • Fashion and consumer culture;
  • The display, exhibition and archiving of fashion;

Teaching and learning strategy

Image-based lectures, discussions, screenings and study visits are used to introduce and develop the content of the module. These are used to explore key ideas and examples, and provide the reference point for course reading, and the assessment tasks. An individual, research journal which is self-directed underpins student learning, and offers an opportunity for self-reflection and connection to studio-based learning. 

The module will make use of the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) Canvas for communication and dissemination of information between students and staff as well as making online learning materials available to all. Students should check this site on a daily basis for module information, timetables, sign-ups, updates and additional information and teaching materials.

All courses based in the Kingston School of Art offer students free access to the online video tutorial platform Lynda.com. This provides a wide range of subjects to choose from, many with downloadable exercise files, including software tutorials covering photography, graphics, web design, audio and music, CAD and Microsoft Office software, as well as courses on Business and Management skills. Some of these are embedded in the curriculum and offer additional self-paced learning, others may be taken at will by students wishing to broaden their employability skills in other areas.

Breakdown of Teaching and Learning Hours

Definitive UNISTATS Category Indicative Description Hours
Scheduled learning and teaching image-based lectures, discussions, screenings and study visits 44
Guided independent study 256
Total (number of credits x 10) 300

Assessment strategy

The first assessment allows students to display their developing academic skills in research, writing, and visual analysis in the context of introductory themes of the module. The assessment emphasises skills in assembling images, text and key concepts, and understanding relations between them. These skills are further developed in the second assessment, where a more integrated approach to images, text and concepts is developed in a longer piece of writing. Feedback received from the first assessment feeds forward into the second assessment, which allows for development in key academic skills.

1)    1000 word piece of writing (20%), formative and summative;

2)    Essay of 2000 words (80%), summative.

Mapping of Learning Outcomes to Assessment Strategy (Indicative)

Learning Outcome Assessment Strategy
1) Identify key historical issues debates that have informed the understanding of fashion within modernity; 1) 1000 word piece of writing 2) Essay (2000 words)
2) Convey a contextualised understanding of their own work and practice; 1) 1000 word piece of writing 2) Essay (2000 words)
3) Describe some of the theoretical concepts through which fashion and the fashion industry has been constructed; 1) 1000 word piece of writing 2) Essay (2000 words)
4) Convey an understanding of the relationship between design and technology; 1) 1000 word piece of writing 2) Essay (2000 words)
5) Describe and analyse visual and material examples; 1) 1000 word piece of writing 2) Essay (2000 words)
6) Convey their knowledge and understanding in writing. 1) 1000 word piece of writing 2) Essay (2000 words)

Elements of Assessment

Description of Assessment Definitive UNISTATS Categories Percentage
1000 word piece of writing Coursework 20%
Essay, 2000 words Coursework 80%
Total (to equal 100%) 100%

Achieving a pass

It IS NOT a requirement that any element of assessment is passed separately in order to achieve an overall pass for the module.

Bibliography core texts

Breward, C. (2003) Fashion, Oxford University Press

English, B. (2007) The Cultural History of Fashion, Berg

Entwistle, J (2000)The Fashioned Body, Polity Press

Griffiths, I & White, N (eds) (1999) The Fashion Business, Berg

Wilson, E. (2003) Adorned in Dreams: Fashion and Moderniy, I B Taurus

Bibliography recommended reading

Arnold, R (2001) Fashion's Desire and Anxiety, I B Taurus

Ash, J & Wilson E (1992) Chic Thrills: A Fashion Reader, Pandora

Barthes, R. (1992) The Fashion System, University of California Press

Bolton, A (2002) The Supermodern Wardrobe, Routledge

Breward, C. (1995) The Culture of Fashion, Oxford

Breward, C (1999) The Hidden Consumer: Masculinities, Fashion and City Life, MUP

Breward, C (2004) Fashioning London: Clothing and the Modern Metropolis, Berg

Burman, B (ed) (1999) The Culture of Sewing, Berg

Cole, S (2000) Don We Now Our Gay Apparel, Berg

Craik, J (1994) The Face of Fashion: Cultural Studies in Fashion, Routledge

Entwistle, J & Wilson, E (eds) (2001) Body Dressing, Berg

Evans, C (2003) Fashion at the Edge, Yale

Guy, A et al (2001)  Through the Wardrobe, Berg

Hebdige, D (1979) Subculture: The Meaning of Style, Methuen

Lehmann, U (2000)     Tigersprung: Fashion and Modernity, MIT

Lipovetsky, G (1994) The Empire of Fashion, Princeton

Martin, R (1997) Fashion and Surrealism, Thames and Hudson

Ribeiro, A (1995) The Art of Dress: Fashion in England and France 1750-1820, Yale

Rouse, E (1989) Understanding Fashion, Routledge

Steele, V (1998) Paris Fashion, Berg

Thornton, S & Gelder, K (eds) (2000) Subculture Reader, Routledge

Taylor, L. & Wilson, E. (1989) Through the Looking Glass

Watt, J. (1999) The Penguin Book of Twentieth-century Fashion Writing, Penguin

Wilcox, C (2001) Radical Fashion, V&A

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