MAIN THEME
Against a backdrop of unprecedented change in the established fashion system, including disruptions caused by COVID-19, it is time to re-imagine established worlds of fashion and textiles and new possibilities for a new era in fashion. How might we approach inclusive design, social responsibility and new technologies to re-imagine a new future for fashion?

Already, we are seeing changes in the use of resources in the fashion industry and to locations of where fashion is made and consumed. This requires new uses for Big Data, the emergence of micro practices and the need to implement inclusive and sustainable practices across the supply chain.

We invite submissions that present creative and innovative research, practice and pedagogy, to show new ways of working, thinking, and practising, to reinterpret personal, social, economic and environmental value.

In these ways we can begin to answer the questions: What can be done to re-wire a fashion system that is no longer working? Can we imagine brave new worlds for fashion?
QUICK LINKS
SUB-THEMES
There are five sub-themes that contribute to the
re-imagining of fashion

Where is fashion?
When is fashion?
Mediating fashion
Doing fashion
What is fashion?

These are open and provocative to invite a radical exploration of the possibilities now
1      WHERE IS FASHION?
This theme recognises the importance of digital advances and the increasingly blurred boundaries between physical and digital fashion. Spanning these boundaries, submissions could have a focus on smart textiles and new technologies in textiles and fashion design, AR and VR and their commercial application, use and ethics of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence.  The theme also sees the landscapes, places and spaces of fashion as vital to its future, to include online and offline fashion retailing, locations of production and manufacturing, new and emerging consumer technologies, the shopping journey, and the commercial and social implications of these developments. We welcome work on the distinctions that are emerging in global, regional and local fashion.
2      WHEN IS FASHION?
Imagining and re-imagining have a temporal dimension, looking forward but also back. Fashion also operates in different spatial, geographic and cultural dimensions, given its global reach and operations across international supply and value chains. Debates about fast fashion or sustainable fashion, for example, have gained enormous significance in the past few years. The theme spans all aspects of time, space and place including histories of fashion and fashion culture, trends and forecasts, glocalization, changes in consumption and taste, design, manufacturing, supply chains and slow fashion and disposal inherent in the current system. It welcomes new contributions to sustainability problems of waste, longevity and durability of things, images, promotions, designs and techniques. The theme also includes topics such as time to market, to design, to make and to consume and dispose. Conceptual work that addresses the theme of time, space and place in fashion in any way is also welcome.
3      MediatiNG FASHION
The mediation of fashion concerns the increasingly complex ways in which products, brands, images, messages and stories are viewed, used and exchanged. Fashion has become more interconnected at different levels and across different disciplines and industries, particularly among young people. The theme embraces work on social media, images, branding, multi and omnichannel connections, experiences of fashion, co-creation and interactivity between actors and agency by producers and consumers, sharing and re-use of tangible and intangible fashion. the use of personal information, ethics and privacy amongst other emerging topics are also welcome.
4      DOING FASHION
This theme challenges us to explore different contexts in which the practices of fashion take place: in education but also an economic, social activity or self-realisation activity undertaken by individuals, enterprises and organisations.

Practitioners  =  people who are making, shaping and implementing fashion in education and enterprises, organisations, collectives and independently. Topics could include designers, managers, researchers, individuals, entrepreneurs and critics.

Praxis = all the various activities involved in the deliberate formation and implementation of fashion.  This could include curriculum design, regulations, learning, assessment, methodologies, entrepreneurial activities.

Practice = practices might be formal or informal, organisation specific or belong to a wider system. Topics could include formal and individual practices of making and repair, craft, well-being and health, sustainability, in addition to issues of the politics of practice, conformity and inclusiveness.
5      WHAT IS FASHION?
In this theme we invite new work that enables us to re-imagine fashion systems and objects, and to reflect and take more critical positions. Submissions can be in the form of manifestos, provocations, practice, conceptual and empirical research papers that provide critical, theoretical and philosophical insights into the state of fashion and its future possibilities at all levels of the fashion system. Do we need new business models? What are our thought worlds? In what ways are new theories of fashion emerging? What is the future for fashion as we know it? How can we move from imagination to action? Change - and illusions of change - could be said to be the very essence of fashion – but what do these things mean now - and will fashion’s habits of change, change?
1      WHERE IS FASHION?
This theme recognises the importance of digital advances and the increasingly blurred boundaries between physical and digital fashion. Spanning these boundaries, submissions could have a focus on smart textiles and new technologies in textiles and fashion design, AR and VR and their commercial application, use and ethics of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence.

The theme also sees the landscapes, places and spaces of fashion as vital to its future, to include online and offline fashion retailing, locations of production and manufacturing, new and emerging consumer technologies, the shopping journey, and the commercial and social implications of these developments. We welcome work on the distinctions that are emerging in global, regional and local fashion.
3      MediatiNG FASHION
The mediation of fashion concerns the increasingly complex ways in which products, brands, images, messages and stories are viewed, used and exchanged. Fashion has become more interconnected at different levels and across different disciplines and industries, particularly among young people.

The theme embraces work on social media, images, branding, multi and omnichannel connections, experiences of fashion, co-creation and interactivity between actors and agency by producers and consumers, sharing and re-use of tangible and intangible fashion. the use of personal information, ethics and privacy amongst other emerging topics are also welcome.
4      DOING FASHION
This theme challenges us to explore different contexts in which the practices of fashion take place: in education but also an economic, social activity or self-realisation activity undertaken by individuals, enterprises and organisations.

Practitioners  =  people who are making, shaping and implementing fashion in education and enterprises, organisations, collectives and independently. Topics could include designers, managers, researchers, individuals, entrepreneurs and critics.

Praxis = all the various activities involved in the deliberate formation and implementation of fashion.  This could include curriculum design, regulations, learning, assessment, methodologies, entrepreneurial activities.

Practice = practices might be formal or informal, organisation specific or belong to a wider system. Topics could include formal and individual practices of making and repair, craft, well-being and health, sustainability, in addition to issues of the politics of practice, conformity and inclusiveness.
2      WHEN IS FASHION?
Imagining and re-imagining have a temporal dimension, looking forward but also back. Fashion also operates in different spatial, geographic and cultural dimensions, given its global reach and operations across international supply and value chains. Debates about fast fashion or sustainable fashion, for example, have gained enormous significance in the past few years.

The theme spans all aspects of time, space and place including histories of fashion and fashion culture, trends and forecasts, glocalization, changes in consumption and taste, design, manufacturing, supply chains and slow fashion and disposal inherent in the current system. It welcomes new contributions to sustainability problems of waste, longevity and durability of things, images, promotions, designs and techniques. The theme also includes topics such as time to market, to design, to make and to consume and dispose. Conceptual work that addresses the theme of time, space and place in fashion in any way is also welcome.
5      WHAT IS FASHION?
In this theme we invite new work that enables us to re-imagine fashion systems and objects, and to reflect and take more critical positions. Submissions can be in the form of manifestos, provocations, practice, conceptual and empirical research papers that provide critical, theoretical and philosophical insights into the state of fashion and its future possibilities at all levels of the fashion system.

Do we need new business models? What are our thought worlds? In what ways are new theories of fashion emerging? What is the future for fashion as we know it? How can we move from imagination to action? Change - and illusions of change - could be said to be the very essence of fashion – but what do these things mean now - and will fashion’s habits of change, change?
IMPORTANT DATES
Abstract submission date
03.09.21
Review process begins
Conference registration opens
TBC
Authors notified of abstract acceptance and invitation to submit text-based papers, posters, workshops or practice-based research
30.09.21
Practice-based research review and notification of acceptance
31.10.21
Text based papers, posters and workshops submission date
11.12.21
Text based papers, posters and workshops review completed and final selection
03.01.22
Notification of acceptance
15.01.22
Deadline for at least ONE author to register for conference
01.03.22
Programme and timetable published
14.03.22
Conference
05.04.22 -
08.04.22
SUBMISSIONS
IFFTI INVITES
Submissions can take any of the following formats: full paper, working paper, digital poster, practice (drawing, photo, video or other digital medium or artefact) or workshop proposal. please click on VIEW SUBMISSION GUIDELINES below for details about how to submit your work
VIEW SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
DOWNLOAD TEXT-BASED
PAPER TEMPLATE
IFFTI INITIATIVES
IFFTI will make awards of $US2000 for the best submissions in three categories, senior faculty, early career researcher and doctoral student. A review panel will assess a short list nominated by reviewers on the basis of the originality, significance and rigour of the research.
Doctoral research students
  • Research students registered on a doctoral programme (leading to a PhD or Professional Doctorate or equivalent) up to the point of notification of their achievement’
  • The author or at least one of the authors in a multi-authored submission must present their work at the conference.
  • The lead author must come from an IFFTI institution.
  • The lead author’s Institution has paid its fees to IFFTI (current and past years).
  • The lead author has not received an award within the past two years.
  • Up to 2 awards may be made of US$2000 each and registration to the conference paid by IFFTI.
EARLY CAREER RESEARCHERS
  • Academics who achieved a doctoral qualification or were contracted to a higher education institution in a teaching/research role, within five years of the date of the initial call for conference submissions.*
  • The author or at least one of the authors in a multi-authored submission must present their work at the conference.
  • The lead author must come from an IFFTI institution.
  • The lead author’s Institution has paid its fees to IFFTI (current and past years).
  • The lead author has not received an award within the past two years.
  • Up to 5 awards may be made of US$2000 each and registration to the conference paid by IFFTI.
*See further notes in submission guide
SENIOR FACULTY
  • Academics at a higher education institution who have been contracted in a teaching/research role for more than five years or took their doctoral qualification for more than five years since the date of the initial call for conference submissions.*
  • Have an established research profile within a higher education institution.
  • The author or at least one of the authors in a multi-authored submission must present their work at the conference.
  • The lead author must come from an IFFTI institution.
  • The lead author’s Institution has paid its fees to IFFTI (current and past years).
  • The lead author has not received an award within the past two years.
  • Up to 2 awards may be made of US$2000 each and registration to the conference paid by IFFTI.
*See further notes in submission guide
Doctoral research students
  • Research students registered on a doctoral programme (leading
  • The author or at least one of the authors in a multi-authored submission must present their work at the conference.
  • The lead author must come from an IFFTI institution.
  • The lead author’s Institution has paid its fees to IFFTI (current and past years).
  • The lead author has not received an award within the past two years.
  • Up to 2 awards may be made of US$2000 each and registration to the conference paid by IFFTI.
EARLY CAREER RESEARCHERS
  • Academics who achieved a doctoral qualification or were contracted to a higher education institution in a teaching/research role, within five years of the date of the initial call for conference submissions.*
  • The author or at least one of the authors in a multi-authored submission must present their work at the conference.
  • The lead author must come from an IFFTI institution.
  • The lead author’s Institution has paid its fees to IFFTI (current and past years).
  • The lead author has not received an award within the past two years.
  • Up to 5 awards may be made of US$2000 each and registration to the conference paid by IFFTI.
*See further notes in submission guide
SENIOR FACULTY
  • Academics at a higher education institution who have been contracted in a teaching/research role for more than five years or took their doctoral qualification for more than five years since the date of the initial call for conference submissions.*
  • Have an established research profile within a higher education institution.
  • The author or at least one of the authors in a multi-authored submission must present their work at the conference.
  • The lead author must come from an IFFTI institution.
  • The lead author’s Institution has paid its fees to IFFTI (current and past years).
  • The lead author has not received an award within the past two years.
  • Up to 2 awards may be made of US$2000 each and registration to the conference paid by IFFTI.
*See further notes in submission guide
CONFERENCE COMMITTEE
Dr Amanda Briggs-Goode
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Head of department for Fashion Textiles and Knitwear Design, Nottingham Trent University, Art and Design School

Prior to becoming Head of Department for Fashion, Textiles and Knitwear Design in 2013, Amanda was Principal Lecturer in Textile Design and led on the Chartered Society of Designers accreditation. While in this role she published the key textbook Printed Textile Design with Laurence King Publishers. Amanda has also maintained research interests and for the past ten years has worked with the lace archive which is held within the school and she leads the lace heritage research group.

Dr Anthony Kent
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Professor of Fashion Marketing, Nottingham Trent University, Art and Design School

Anthony Kent is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Fellow of the Higher Education Institute. He is currently Chair of the Research sub-committee of the International Foundation of Fashion Technology Institutions IFFTI. He was formerly Chair of the Marketing Special Interest Group of the British Academy of Management and co-organiser of the Marketing, Design and Branding Colloquia 2011- 2017.

Dr Tim Cooper
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Associate Professor of Sustainable Design and Consumption

Professor Tim Cooper is responsible for leading research in the fields of sustainable design and sustainable consumption, he is Head of the Sustainable Consumption and Clothing Sustainability research groups and a member of the Product Design academic team. Tim is academic lead for the university’s Sustainable Futures strategic research theme and a member of the University Research Committee. He initiated the biennial PLATE (Product Lifetimes and the Environment) conferences and is editor of Longer Lasting Products (Routledge, 2010)

After graduating in economics from the University of Bath, Tim worked as a construction industry market analyst for a decade. He subsequently moved to a research post at the New Economics Foundation, where he produced a report, Beyond Recycling: the longer life option, which attracted national media coverage. He spent 15 years at Sheffield Hallam University, where he was awarded a PhD in 2001, and has been Professor of Sustainable Design and Consumption at Nottingham Trent University since 2010.

Dr Noël Palomo-Lovinski
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Professor of Fashion Design and Merchandising, Kent State University, Fashion School

Noël Palomo-Lovinski is interested in design responsibility, sustainable design practices design pedagogy. Noël’s research examines how to inculcate sustainable practice into the fashion industry, the role of the designer in this changing industry, and how to repurpose curricula to better prepare students for challenges of the 21st century. She has displayed her reflective practice art/design work in international and national exhibitions. This work examines community and feminism as influenced by online confessions. 

Dr. Marco Bohr
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Associate Professor in Visual Communication, Nottingham Trent University, Art and Design School

Marco Bohr joined NTU in April 2020 as the Associate Professor in Visual Communication based in the School of Art & Design. His role is to support, facilitate and promote research activities within the Visual Communication Department. Marco’s research is concerned with the role that images play in the shaping of a variety of discourses related to politics, gender, identity, sexuality, censorship, ethics, and disasters.

Amy Twigger Holroyd
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Associate Professor of Fashion and Sustainability in the Fashion, Textiles and Knitwear Department, Nottingham Trent University, Art and Design School

Amy Twigger Holroyd has explored the emerging field of fashion and sustainability since 2004. She developed her PhD research into Folk Fashion: Understanding Homemade Clothes, a monograph published in 2017, and Units of Possibility, an exhibition encouraging knitters to rework the items in their wardrobes. Current initiatives include two research networks, Crafting the Commons (Commoners | A Craftspace national touring exhibition) and Stitching Together (Stitching Together – fostering critical dialogue around participatory textile making methods in research and practice), and Fashion Fictions (Fashion Fictions), a project that brings people together to imagine and explore alternative fashion worlds. Amy is a board member of the Union of Concerned Researchers in Fashion (Union of Concerned Researchers in Fashion – Concerned Researchers).

Dr Vanessa Brown
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Senior Lecturer of Design, Culture and Context in the Fashion, Textiles and Knitwear Department, Nottingham Trent University, Art and Design School

Vanessa Brown is part of the Design, Culture, and Context team in the department of Fashion, Knit and Textiles and Course Leader of MA Culture, Style and Fashion. She is an active researcher in the field of visual and material culture with an emphasis on cool and fashionability. Alongside working full time, she studied for a PhD, which was awarded in 2010, and later became a book Cool Shades – the History and Meaning of Sunglasses which was published by Bloomsbury in 2015. In 2016, she, along with her team, wrote the MA in Culture, Style & Fashion which takes an innovative approach to the study of style cultures and its application for a variety of audiences and careers.

Dr Anne Frances Peirson-Smith
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Fashion Marketing, Nottingham Trent University, Art and Design School

Anne Frances Peirson-Smith is a passionate, senior academic and researcher in fashion marketing, the creative industries, popular culture, public relations, and branding. An associate editor of The Journal of Fashion, Style, and Popular Culture (Intellect Publishers) and The Journal of Global Fashion Marketing. I am also on the advisory board of The Journal of Global Business, The Journal of Global Fashion Marketing and The East Asian Journal of Popular Culture (Intellect Publishers).

Dr Yuri Siregar
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Course Leader, MA Fashion Marketing & MA Fashion Communications, Nottingham Trent University, Art and Design School

Yuri Siregar is a Lecturer in FMMC, the School of Art & Design. He teaches fashion marketing & communications, consumer behaviour & experience and advanced research methods. Yuri has presented at international conferences, such as the British Academy of Management, International Foundation of Fashion Technology Institutes, Academy of Marketing Science, Colloquium on European Research in Retailing, Global Fashion Management, and Oxford Retail Futures. His work has been published in academic journals, proceedings, and books. 

Lisa Farouk Shawgi
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PhD researcher and lecturer in Fashion, Textiles, Disability and Well-being, Nottingham Trent University, Art and Design

Lisa Shawgi is an Irish/Egyptian/Sudanese researcher, educator, and practitioner in the field of fashion, textiles, disability, and well-being. With over ten years industry experience, she founded and directed her independent contemporary, knitwear label in Ireland Lisa Shawgi. Later, she undertook a Masters in fashion knitwear design at NTU and remained as a PhD candidate. Her current research investigates supporting women living with Raynaud’s syndrome through knitwear developments. 

Rose Marroncelli
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PhD Researcher, Nottingham Trent University, Art and Design School

Rose Marroncelli graduated from Nottingham Trent University with a BA (Hons) in Fashion Management (2016), and MA in Culture, Style and Fashion (2018). She is currently a PhD researcher investigating clothing use and sustainability, and Associate Lecturer in the Fashion Department at NTU.