Report from Milan Fashion Tales 2012

Dolci is the word I would use to describe my trip to Milan Fashion Tales 2012. It was three days of intense focus on fashion theory and I took it all in like a sponge. Funnily enough, many people said to me "You look familiar" and when I'd admit that I was the author of "Fashion is my Muse!", they would often laugh and said they had visited before. It seems that my slog (scholarly weblog) is a fashion academic's guilty pleasure.....

The Duomo in Milan, Photo by Ingrid Mida 2012

The conference was kicked off by fashion scholar Valerie Steele who gave a talk entitled "Is Fashion Art?". She had given a similar paper last summer but revised this talk to incorporate the quote from Muccia Prada used in the Costume Institute's exhibit on Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Prada said: “Dress designing is creative, but it is not an art…. But to be honest, whether fashion is art or whether even art is art doesn’t really interest me. Maybe nothing is art. Who cares!”

Window of Alan Journo in Milan, Photo by Ingrid Mida 2012

Other highlights of the conference included featured papers by Sophie Woodward on "The Intersecting Narratives in Clothing", Peter McNeil on "Post colonial fashion: Easton Pearson", and Chris Breward on "Music, Image and Style: David Bowie". During the parallel sessions, my favourite papers included: Jeffrey Horsley from London on "Presenting the Body in the Fashion Museum" and Alexandra Cabral from Lisbon on "Art and Fashion". No doubt there were other fabulous papers in other parallel sessions, butI focussed on my interest in fashion and art.

Blumarine Window Milan, Photo by Ingrid Mida 2012

I'm pleased to say that my paper "The Metaphysics of Blogging" was received well to a standing room only crowd. I quoted Agnes Rocamora from the University of the Arts in London and she just happened to be the next speaker on my panel and spoke on "Instant Fashion, Time and Acceleration in the Fashion Blogosphere". Marco Pedroni presented "Fashion Blogs, A New Way of Telling Fashion" and it was suggested that these three papers be published together since they reflect the past, present and future of the blog.

Window of Valentino in Milan, Photo by Ingrid Mida 2012

Milan turned out to be a beautiful city that combines fashion, art and history in its own unique way, and although I seemed to get lost at least once every day, there was always something beautiful around the next corner. The  theme of the city as it relates to fashion came up throughout the conference and there were speakers from countries all over the world including such faraway places as Brazil, South Korea, New Zealand, and Saudia Arabia. The conference organizers are already planning ahead to Milan Fashion Tales 2014.

I "heart" Milan. Photo by Ingrid Mida 2012