ZMJ Call For Papers: Fashion and History. How Fashion Has Written History

2023-04-24

Fashion studies are frequently accompanied by historical studies. The focus on fashion, customs and clothing has paid attention to neglected historical aspects and show how a society has actually evolved. Suffice it to give an example, that of gender history. Perhaps no other sector has been so interested in the history of women, showing how infinite forms of social control have passed through clothes through the disciplining of the body (in the sense indicated by Foucault) with devices such as corsets and crinolines; how battles of emancipation based on the ‘legitimacy’ of a certain garment have been played out; how pre-established roles related to the shape and functionality of the clothes have been drawn; above all, how the diversity in the cultural construction of the female and male bodies has been literally traced. In an equally interesting way, many studies have shown how men's clothing is both the result and the agent of a different form of sociality and physical presence in the world, compared to the female one, and that it also varies significantly over time.

Similar discourses can be made regarding the role of visual history, pioneeringly used in the field of Fashion studies and the many intersections between fashion and politics, which vary from the meaning of military uniforms to that of party dress symbolisms up to the new forms of representation of power in the mass media. Fashion and power are also visibly exposed in the narrative of colonialism and post-colonialism, with the clothes of the colonizers versus the local clothes of the colonized, in a subsequent complex discourse of appropriation and hybridization, and much more.

Zonemoda Journal invites you to submit a paper for a monographic issue dedicated to fashion in its various historical expressions, without distinction of geographical areas, with a main focus on the Early modern-Modern periods. The studies submitted can be theoretical reflections on a specific topic or historical case-studies.

We therefore welcome submissions that explore, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Fashion and Visual History
  • Fashion and Gender/Non-binary Embodiment in a historical perspective
  • Fashion and Politics
  • Fashion and Colonialism /Post-colonial movements
  • Fashion and Globalization
  • Fashion and Diversity /Inclusivity in History

Submissions

Abstracts of no more than 1000 words + 5 bibliographical references (word*.docx format), written either in Italian or English, must be sent to: zmj@unibo.it

Abstract acceptance does not guarantee publication of the article, which will be submitted to a double-blind peer-review process.

Key deadlines:  

  • abstract submission: June 1, 2023.
  • notification of acceptance/rejection: June 15, 2023 (notice of acceptance might include comments and requests of explanations).  
  • full-length paper (6000/7000 words) submission: August 30, 2023. 
  • comments of the reviewers will be conveyed together with the editor's decision (approval with no changes, approval with major/minor changes and/or rejection): September 25, 2023. 
  • authors shall send the reviewed article to the editorial staff by October 15, 2023. 

ZMJ 13.2 2023 is scheduled to be published by December 2023.