By Olivia Belande, It is no secret that Seneca College is home to some incredibly phenomenal alumni, many of whom have gone on to create fantastic things, make amazing discoveries, and become tremendous people who we are honoured to have called one of our own. Today, we would like to introduce to our readers the…
Tag: Seneca Fashion
Vicarious Consumption during a Gilded Age
By Dale Peers (professor emeritus, Seneca School of Fashion), With the recent premiere of “The Gilded Age” Julian Fellowes gives us another peek into an earlier age. As he did with Downton Abbey, we have a glimpse of an era that seems so very different to our own. In this production we time travel to…
Rebecca Belmore, Art as a Call to Action
by Rose de Paulsen, Rebecca Belmore is Anishinaabe and member of the Obishikokaang who creates political and personal art installations with sculptures, garments, photographs, videos, and multiple other mediums. Before she found remarkable success with her art, she grew up in Northwestern Ontario connecting with the land during her childhood. Her profound connection with nature…
Marie Marguerite Rose: A Story of Early-Colonial French Chic and Emancipation…
By dr. Mark Joseph O’Connell, This is Charlene Chasse she has worked as a historical re-enactor with Parks Canada for the past nineteen years. She states of herself:…”I knit, I sew, I cook and I do hot yoga.” She also brings to life the fascinating historical figure of one Marie Marguerite Rose… Fig. 1, “Charlene…
Hanfu, an Embodied Exploration of Fashion History and Culture
By dr. Mark Joseph O’Connell, Fashion scholar Hilary Davidson States in “The Embodied Turn: Making and Remaking Dress as an Academic Practice” (2019) that “remaking the clothed past can yield unique and useful research insights” (329). These “unique and useful” methods are in fact necessary in order to generate a more comprehensive knowledge of the…
Aadhe – Catta Lyst
By Anna Ludmirsky, Amanjoat Gill, is a queer, non-binary South-Asian individual, who also goes by the name Catta Lyst. They are a well-versed person with many talents in various arts. Specifically, they design unisex streetwear for their brand Aadhe, a sustainable, socially aware brand that brings the spotlight to BIPOC people through inclusivity and also brings diversity…
Fashion Upcycling a Canadian Perspective
Seneca Fashion Arts faculty member, Professor Jennifer Dares has published a chapter “Fashion Upcycling a Canadian Perspective” in Circular Economy : Assessment and Case Studies (2021). Abstract Upcycling is a design practice that uses pre- and post-consumer textile waste derived from apparel manufacturers or disassembled garments to create new fashion, providing a sustainable design solution to divert textile waste…
Welly Couture – A Look into 80’s Couture
By Anna Ludmirsky, Born in Indonesia, Kurniawan Welly is a designer who created incredibly stylish high fashion garments most notably in the 80’s. These full gowns incorporate beautiful detail in every crevice of the piece from the bustier to the petticoat. Though Welly’s garments seem very outlandish and over-the-top nowadays, during that period of time, his target market of the…
Sifting Through the Missing Pieces: A Look at Those Who Were Enslaved to Create Clothing
By Olivia Belande, As long as textiles continue to be manufactured and produced for the mass market, there must be a hand behind these productions who works tirelessly and woefully to nurture raw fibre to garment. In contemporary North America, we are fortunate enough to have no close connection to the workers in impoverished countries who make our clothing. But what if feigning…
Claire Haddad: A Canadian Fashion Icon (1924-2016)
By Dale Peers, It is with sadness that I write this remembrance and offer condolences to the family of Canadian fashion legend, Claire Haddad. Claire passed away on Tuesday May 17th, 2016, just two months to the day of what would have been her 92nd birthday. Claire was a “force majeur” in the Canadian Fashion…