Mode and Mode: Tactics for publishing fashion in the margins A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Laura Gardner Bachelor of Design (Fashion) (Honours) School of Fashion and Textiles College of Design and Social Context RMIT University september, 2019 declaration I certify that except where due acknowledgement has been made, the work is that of the author alone; the work has not been submitted previously, in whole or in part, to qualify for any other academic award; the content of the thesis is the result of work which has been carried out since the official commencement date of the approved research program; any editorial work, paid or unpaid, carried out by a third party is acknowledged; and, ethics procedures and guidelines have been followed. I acknowledge the support I have received for my research through the provision of an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship. Laura Gardner September 29, 2019 i acknowledgements This work and research took place on land of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nations. I acknowledge their Elders, both past and present as the original custodians of this land, and recognise the ongoing and unresolved legacies of the colonisation of Australia. I thank my supervisors Brad Haylock and Ricarda Bigolin (and Jessica Bugg, who started the research with me) for guiding me over the course of this long study. Their expertise, mentoring, criticism and advocacy of this work, and Mode and Mode, has been invaluable. I acknowledge and thank Robyn Healy for being an ongoing supporter of my research and work, and for lending her expertise as a reader in the final stages. I have been fortunate to undertake this research and practice in the School of Fashion and Textiles at RMIT, amongst an encouraging and critical community of practice research. This research project has been enriched by many colleagues, collaborators, pals and family, who have supported, mentored, and collaborated with me and Mode and Mode. This list includes Adam Cruickshank, Adele Varcoe, Agnieszka Chabros, Alice Lewis, Anja Aronowsky Cronberg, Annie Wu, Arabella Kilmartin, Blake Barns, Caroline Stevenson, Cassandra Wheat, Chantal McDonald, Daphne Mohajer va Pesaren, Femke de Vries, Fleur Watson, Hanka van der Voet, Hannah Chamley, Harriette Richards, Jael Rincon, Jane Morley, Jeanne Hendrey, Jenny Grigg, Johannes Reponen, Jordan Heng, Kate Rhodes, Kate Sala, Layla Cluer, Mary-Lou Berkolin, Matthew Linde, Megan Patty, Nella Themelios, Nicholas Gardner, Olivia Radonich, Ruby Hoette, Saša Štucin, Sean Ryan, Spencer Lai, Stephen Banham, Stuart Geddes, Tim Coster, William Massey, Winnie Ha Mitford and Ziga Testen. From these, I single out and also thank our Mode and Mode subjects and collaborators, their willingness, input and individual practices, have made the project what it is. I acknowledge the generous contributions from Shahan Assadourian, Ines Kaag, Desiree Heiss, Seth Shapiro, Michiel Keuper, Francisco van Benthum, Danny van den Dungen, Erwin Brinkers, Marieke Stolk, Mila Ganeva, Helen Hessel, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Kate Meakin and Jessie Kiely. Further thanks to the practitioners who lent their time and insight for a research interview in this study: Ann-Sofie Back, Beca Libscombe, Johannes Schweiger and Lucy McKenzie. And I thank Birgit Ansoms for allowing me access and explore the collection of the MoMu library, Antwerp in the research. I also thank Sarah Gory for carefully proofreading the dissertation. I thank Karina Soraya, collaborator and friend, who has been on Mode and Mode from the beginning. This research would unquestionably not be what it is without her involvement. To Citi (the cat), for her support in ways she will never know. I thank my parents; their constant support—in varying forms—is probably the reason why I started this PhD in the first place, and almost certainly helped me finish it. And to Rowan; for joking, reading, talking, cooking, assessing and supporting this work beyond the scope of these acknowledgements. ii contents Summary of study 1 0. Introduction 3 0.1 Context for study: Fashion and fashion media discourses 6 0.2 Research questions 8 0.3 Aims of the study 8 0.4 Thesis structure 9 0.5 Conclusion 10 1. Research approach 12 1.0 Introduction 12 1.1 Practice research 13 1.2 Researcher background 14 1.3 Case study research 15 1.4 Hybrid study: Mode and Mode as research into and through publishing 16 1.5 Contextual review 19 1.6 Production as research methods 20 1.7 Conclusion 21 2. Contextual review: An historical narrative of fashion publishing at the margins 22 2.0 Introduction 22 2.1 Fashion and fashion media in modernity 25 2.2 Early fashion writing and writing on fashion 29 2.3 The fashion designer publisher and publishing experiments in the early twentieth century 31 2.4 ‘Alternative’ fashion media and fashion practices (1960–2000) 35 2.5 Contemporary fashion media and para-clothing practices 42 2.6 Digital fashion media and time 45 2.7 Publishing practice and discourse in art and design 47 2.8 Emerging conclusions 53 3. Mode and Mode: Experimental publishing at the margins of fashion 54 3.0 Introduction 54 3.1 A marginal publication about marginal publishing 55 3.2 Independent distribution 58 3.3 Our community of practice 59 3.4 Experimental publishing: Learning about fashion publishing through fashion publishing 62 3.5 Mode and Mode as a serial, experimental archive 66 3.6 Emerging conclusions 72 4. Mode and Mode one ‘front, back and side’ with Shahan Assadourian of Archivings 74 iii 4.0 Introduction 74 4.1 Alternative archival practice 76 4.2 Archivings as remaking fashion time through an experimental archive 79 4.3 Mode and Mode as materialising an experimental archive, in an experimental publication 81 4.4 Emerging conclusions 83 5. Mode and Mode two ‘a publication in a publication’ with Bless (Ines Kaag and Desiree Heiss) 84 5.0 Introduction 84 5.1 The ‘lookbook collaboration project’ as short-circuiting commercial networks of fashion 85 5.2 Materialising Bless’s alternative distribution methodology in Mode and Mode 93 5.3 Emerging conclusions 94 6. Mode and Mode three ‘Seth Shapiro’ with Seth Shapiro 96 6.0 Introduction 96 6.1 Lookbook protocols 97 6.2 Experimental culture of New York in the 1990s 100 6.3 American Manufacturing and subjectively experimental publishing 102 6.4 Mode and Mode three: Mirroring a marginal publication in a marginal publication 106 6.5 Emerging conclusions 107 7. Mode and Mode four ‘fashion without fashion’ with Michiel Keuper of Keupr/van Bentm 109 7.0 Introduction 109 7.1 The conventions of fashion week 110 7.2 Printed matter as clothing: Keupr/van Bentm’s Friction/Parade 1999 112 7.3 De-materialisation of fashion 118 7.4 Mode and Mode four: Ephemera recirculation 122 7.5 Emerging conclusions 126 8. Mode and Mode five ‘Helen Hessel’ with Mila Ganeva 127 8.0 Introduction 127 8.1 Publishing as recirculation of history and addressing imbalances 128 8.2 Helen Hessel, a fashion journalist in the margins of history 129 8.3 Mode and Mode five as recirculation of ephemeral media 134 8.4 Emerging conclusions 136 9. Mode and Mode six ‘Art for All’ with Hans Ulrich Obrist of point d’ironie 138 9.0 Introduction 138 9.1 point d’ironie, a democratic artists’ publication 139 9.2 point d’ironie as both publication and publicity 142 9.3 Mode and Mode six as intersecting an experimental fashion publication and point d’ironie 144 9.4 Emerging conclusions 147 10. Conclusion 148 10.1 Contribution to fashion scholarship 149 10.2 Six tactics for publishing fashion in the margins 150 10.3 Directions for further research and future practice 153 10.4 Final remarks 155 iv Reference list 156 Appendices 172 Appendix 1. Images of Mode and Mode, issues 1—6 172 Appendix 2. Practitioner survey questions 178 Appendix 3. Timeline of practice: Mode and Mode 181 Appendix 4: Letter of approval from RMIT Human Research Ethics Committee 182 v summary of study This study posits the productive difference of marginal fashion publishing in fashion framed through the research questions: What does it mean to publish fashion? and: What are the values and effects of marginal publishing? This is addressed through a hybrid practice-led approach that positions the publication project Mode and Mode as central in the research enquiry. Scholars have identified a lack of research on fashion media, especially considering its vital role in the production and consumption of fashion. As Agnès Rocamora notes, ‘little is known about its discourse: about the objects it creates and represents, cities such as Paris included; about the values it conveys and is informed by; and about the way it operates qua discourse.’ (Rocamora, 2009, p.3) To address these gaps, this study explores practices marginal to dominant entities in the fashion industry, additionally informed by how, in the fields of art, architecture and design, alternative and avant-garde publishing projects interrogate ‘the page as a productive space for experimentation’ (Senior, 2013, p.10). The potential of experimental and small-scale practices is substantiated by Teal Triggs who, in the context of the discipline of graphic design, argues that ‘self-produced design publications provide valuable insights into the theoretical and visual concerns that enrich our understanding of the history of the profession, graphic artefacts and their cultural contexts.’ (Triggs, 2009, p.338) In order to contribute to fashion studies, fashion practice and research on marginal publishing projects (a status relational to commercial and traditional practices in the fashion industry), a hybrid practice- led thesis approach positions the serial publishing project Mode and Mode as integral in the research.