Future Symposia

Innovation: The Art, Craft, History, Technology, and Diaspora of Costume

Costume Society of America and Western Region are pleased to announce that the 51st Annual Meeting and Symposium will be held in Los Angeles, California, from June 1 through 5, 2025. This symposium will explore the diasporic history of fashion, costume, dress, and appearance practices through the lenses of culture, production, materiality, technological inventiveness, and performance (in all forms). The 2025 symposium will be held in the center of one of the most technologically advanced and diverse cities in the US, Los Angeles, the home of Hollywood, Disneyland, major museums, a vibrant fashion scene, and a center for theatre, dance, and live performance. The research will highlight modern and historical innovations in the craft and art of dress, with an emphasis on diversity and the convergence of multiculturalism, both ancient and new. The intent of the symposium is to provide a platform to discuss theoretical and practical research, designs, innovations, and influences in the culturally varied topic of dress and appearance. 

Possible areas of investigation include, but are not limited to:

• How technology (historical and contemporary) aids the hands-on tradition of making Costume and Dress for performance. 
• How Costume Design translates information, techniques, goods, and business globally.
• How Costume and Fashion generate new manufacturing techniques, chemicals, and machinery.
• Subculture influence (such as Goth, Mod, Punk, Queer, etc.) on dress in a historical and/or marketing context.
• Traditional/National Dress as a cross-cultural and/or global ambassador (i.e., fusion, media, governmental recognition, K-Pop, Bollywood, etc.). 
• The relationship between fashion, performance, and social media.
• Advancements in conservation techniques, innovation, and/or technology.
• Advancements in Museum practices in all areas.
• Theoretical frameworks and design for first-person and/or costumed historical interpretation. 
• Theoretical frameworks and design for identity performance, dress, and their signifiers (i.e., cosplay, drag, and sub-rosa dress) 
• Advancements, usages, and the art of wearable technologies.
• How innovation and/or technology helps us to hold on to the past while forging into the future.

The call for submissions will be published in late spring of 2024.