Vivienne Westwood Interviewed For ICA Event

“The Death of Taste” event, organised by the Institute of Contemporary Arts, is a weekend of talks & films examining the work of making, styling and fashioning taste within the context of increasingly speeded-up fashion trends and the constant plundering of the recent past. Speakers range from fashion designers, trend predictors, stylists, fashion theorists, editors and retouchers who will discuss the ways in which they help create, develop and kill off tastes both old and new.

The event will take the following schedule: -

Fri 24 November, 12-1.30pm
Rewind
Contemporary British fashion designers are currently looking to mid-eighties London as a point of reference. This session, chaired by Alistair O’Neill, raises a dialogue across two generations about the formulation of London fashion past and present, including Rachel Auburn, Stevie Stewart, Kim Jones, Shelley Fox and Boudicca.

Fri 24 November, 2.30 – 3.30pm
Fashion CGI
Antony Price will explore the relationship between fashion photography and Computer Generated Imagery by looking at exclusive work created by leading postproduction retouchers, digital artists & photographers from the fashion and advertising industries such as The Shoemakers Elves, Antony Cross Field and Dan Moloney.

Fri 24 November, 3.30-5pm
Fashion in Film Festival
Curators Marketa Uhlirova and Christel Tsilibaris are programming a very special screening of films relating to the symposium’s theme. Expect surprise and delight in equal measure.

Fri 24 November, 6.45-7.30pm
Keynote Speech: The Death of Taste
Colin McDowell, senior fashion writer for The Sunday Times Style magazine and one of the most authoritative fashion commentators, will give his view of fashion’s contemporary malaise.

Fri 24 November, 7.30-8.30pm
Vivienne Westwood: Interviewed by Brenda Polan
This is not the first time that Westwood has been interviewed by Polan at the ICA – previously in 1984. This interview will reflect on the changes that have taken place across this span, to fashion as a whole and to Westwood as a fashion designer without parallel.

Sat 25 November, 1-2pm
Aesthetic Labour
This session, chaired by Jo Entwistle and Penny Martin (Editor in Chief, Showstudio), focuses attention on the labour of image making behind and in front of the camera, and examines some of the material realities of fashion modelling and styling.

Sat 25 November, 2-3pm
The Fashion City
In an era of global spectacle, fashion has become one important means by which cities attempt to assert a unique, stylised identity. This session, chaired by Alison Clarke and Lee Lapthorne (Director of On/Off), will investigate how London Fashion Week has supported British fashion design and promoted London as a global fashion capital.

Sat 25 November, 3.30-4.30pm
Plenary: The Future of Fashion
Roger Tredre (consultant to WGSN), Professor Caroline Evans and Susan Postlethwaite will reflect on the kinds of predictions raised by the fashion industry and those raised across this symposium.

Tickets: Friday All Day: £15/12 Conc/£10 Members
Saturday All Day: £10/£9 Concs/£8 Members

For more information contact ICA, The Mall, London, SW1.
Tickets & Information: 020 7930 3647
e-mail info@ica.org.uk
ica.org.uk