Front and (Off-)Centre: Fashion and Southeast Asia | Day One

Southeast Asia has by and large been on the margins of fashion history. This conference places it front and centre, and highlights the diversity and sophistication of fashion practices relating to the region, which includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Vietnam. In doing so, it contributes to ongoing efforts to decentralise fashion studies.

Here are three questions that inform the conference: How do fashion practitioners who have ties to Southeast Asia engage with the self, their local and regional communities, as well as the global fashion system? What are the ideas and values that underpin the work they do? And what are the common threads and unique characteristics that define fashion from the region, if any?

Over two days, through academic papers and industry presentations, we will weave in and out of archives, businesses, exhibitions, magazines, wardrobes and more. The multi-faceted collage will document beginnings, continuations and interventions from various participants in the Southeast Asian fashion community, and showcase the inherent creativity in this part of the world. It is by no means exhaustive, and will be the first of many gatherings to think and talk about connections and interactions between fashion and Southeast Asia.

“Front and (Off-)Centre: Fashion and Southeast Asia” takes place at The Courtauld Research Forum on Zoom, and is free for all to attend with registration. It is organised in collaboration with Fashion & Market (FAM), a multimedia platform that presents specialist content on Southeast Asian fashion, featuring its community’s interdisciplinary practices.

Organised by Dr Rebecca Arnold (The Courtauld) and Dr Nadya Wang (LASALLE College of the Arts)

Programme | Day 1 | 5 May 2023

Welcome Presentation 'Front and (Off-)Centre: Fashion and Southeast Asia' Dr Nadya Wang

Session 1: Fashion Curation. Chaired by Fiona McKay

'Fashion on Display: Collaborative Fashion Curating and Experimental Exhibition-Making in Singapore' Weiqi Yap

'A Collective Memory of Fashion' Daniela Monasterios-Tan

Session 2: Fashion Time Travels. Chaired by Weiqi Yap

'Same But Different' Peter Lee

'Dressing Up, Down, in All Directions' Kiko del Rosario

Session 3: Fashion Brands. Chaired by Rohaizatul Azhar

'Kebaya: The Intersection of Past and Future' Toton Januar

'KILOMET109' Thao Vu

Session 4: Hybridity in Fashion. Chaired by Daniela Monasterios-Tan

'T-Shirts: Signs, Surfaces, and Materialising Hybridity' Sang Thai

'An Artisanal Future – Indigo as Livelihood' Dr Chomwan Weeraworawit

Closing Remarks for Day 1