Dress Devolution 2: The Beach & Beyond

Dress Devolution 2 Conference in the Fashion and Textiles Institute at Falmouth University is the second annual conference exploring colloquial dress and textile practices. With keynote speeches from Dr Shaun Cole and Dr Kathryn Ferry, workshops and papers from academics from around the globe, the event brings together scholars, practitioners and businesses to explore the variety of cloth, clothes and costume that appear in regional contexts. 

This year’s conference theme is the beach: as a liminal space it has long been a site of leisured dress practices. Wardrobes that evolved for holidays, for recuperation, for retirement and for rest occupy a specific place in our sartorial lives. Textiles have long been influenced by the beach and the sea, whether for work or for leisure. On-screen representations of beach, leisure and holiday activity produce unique costuming opportunities and challenges. 

For those who live in the beach’s proximity, visit briefly, or merely view from afar, textiles and clothing here bear their own particular significance. For this, our second Dress Devolution conference, we welcome papers that explore the beach and the sea in the context of dress, costume and textiles, past and present. From beach pyjamas to the fisherman’s Gansey; from sport to industry to art, we look forward to inspiring research around coastal spaces.

The conference is supported by the Fashion and Textiles Institute at Falmouth University and will take place at the University’s Penryn Campus in Cornwall, UK.