Guest Salons is an active meeting point for free conversations around and beyond fashion, once a month at International Library of Fashion Research. Our third salon is hosted on the occasion of Designer’s Saturday on Friday 8th of September, from 13:00 to 14:00.


Renowned jewelry designer Sigurd Bronger is in conversation with creative director Morteza Vaseghi on occasion of their eponymous exhibition at Oslo’s International Library of Fashion Research. The conversation will be moderated by Elise By Olsen and will revolve around design practices at large.

Free coffee and notebooks!

Guest Salons #3: URO

The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design & International Library of Fashion Research invite you to an exclusive talk with the prominent Norwegian fashion designer Per Spook (b. 1939) about his time and practice in Paris. 

The National Museum (Auditorium), Brynjulf Bulls plass 3, Oslo 

The point of departure is Spook's new book 

). Hélène Martini was a Polish-French exotic dancer who became a profiled night club owner in Paris. Spook dressed her, and she became a muse of his works. 

Per Spook arrived from Norway to Paris in 1959 at the age of twenty. After doing his apprenticeship at the fashion houses Dior and Yves Saint Laurent, he became lead designer at Louis Féraud in 1962. In 1977 he established a fashion house under his own name. Up until 1994 he presented two haute couture collections a year, and for three of them he won French fashion's most prestigious award.


Introduction by Elise By Olsen (Founding Director, International Library of Fshion Research)


Conversation between Per Spook, Hanne Eide (Curator of Dress & Contemporary Fashion, the National Museum) and Else Skålvoll Thorenfeldt (Head of Communcations, International Library of Fashion Research) 


Book signing in the museum store and guided tour of International Library of Fashion Research

Book launch with Per Spook

Guest Salons is an active meeting point for free conversations around and beyond fashion, once a month at International Library of Fashion Research. Our inaugural salon ‘Putting the Whore Back in Hoarding' is hosted by curator and collector Geir Haraldseth on Tuesday 20th of June at 18.00-20.00.

Where does the line go between collecting, hoarding and archiving? Am I delusional for keeping press releases, check lists and knick-knacks? What to do we do with all the trash we collect?

Suggested reading 

https://www.artforum.com/print/202304/claire-bishop-on-the-superabundance-of-research-based-art-90274

Guest Salons #1: Putting the Whore Back in Hoarding

Welcome to the Fashion Research Symposium 2022 at the National Museum in Oslo! The symposium is a collaboration between the National Museum and International Library of Fashion Research (ILFR), and is a two-day event for fashion research, knowledge-sharing and critical discourse. The symposium’s theme is “Decentralizing Fashion”.

We may know much about fashion in Paris or Milan, but what is going on in Helsinki? How can fashion flourish in Oslo and Kåfjord?

Fashion is a global industry, and its supply chains are made up of complex networks of people who carry out their specialized labor in scattered corners of the globe. Its financial power, however, is centralized; major fashion cities dominate the industry, often at the expense of those directly involved in the processes of production.

This year’s symposium gathers leading researchers and practitioners to consider fashion practices in smaller creative ecosystems around the world. Including Kaat Debo (Director of MoMu, Antwerp), Ida Falck Øien (Associate Professor, Oslo Academy of the Arts), Véronique Pouillard (Professor in Modern International History, University of Oslo), Jeppe Ugelvig (curator, critic and theorist, Editor-in-Chief of Viscose Journal), and many more.

The 2022 Fashion Research Symposium builds on the research project “Norwegian Fashion: Cultural Production and Aesthetic Mediational Practices” by Synne Skjulstad, associate professor at Høyskolen Kristiania.

Fashion Research Symposium 2022 'Decentralizing Fashion'

“Paper Afore Press” is the International Library of Fashion Research’s second exhibition in collaboration with the National Museum’s textile department & conservators. A selection of printed objects and ephemera from our permanent collection will be investigated through various lab and research techniques such as x-rays, scans and microscopes, where different paper fibers, textures and delicacies will unfold. What’s the role of paper today? How has printing, binding, folding evolved over time, as we go from paper to electrons? And what is worth cutting down trees for?

Featuring Alia Mascia (XEROXED), Dr. Daphne Mohajer va Pesaran, Ilaria trame, Lydia Kamitsis, Marco Pecorari, Molly Maltman, Our Rags Magazine and Vassilis Zidianakis (ATOPOS). With a special sound installation by Frédéric Sanchez.

Paper Afore Press

Guest Salons is an active meeting point for free conversations around and beyond fashion, once a month at International Library of Fashion Research. Our fourth salon 'Fashion Stylists — History, Meaning & Practice' is hosted by the Danish writer, researcher and director of ALPHA Ane Lynge-Jorlén on upcoming Tuesday 24th of October at 18.00-20.00.

When did styling first emerge? Who were the pioneers of early fashion styling for fashion media? What are the workings and practice of styling?

Suggested reading https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/fashion-stylists-9781350115064/ 

Guest Salons #4: Fashion Stylists — History, Meaning & Practice

‘For Immediate Release: The Art of the Press Release’ showcases a selection of press releases and promo-texts from fourteen iconic fashion practitioners over time. Focusing on seminal collaborations between brands and writers in the elusive field of copy-writing, this exhibition tracks the shifting nature of fashion promotion in relation to its mediators at large. From performative and conceptual show notes to dictionary-type lexicons, the exhibition presents the press release as the primary form of fashion communication and promotion, an engine of persuasion, hype, and brand loyalty, that has evolved as vividly as fashion itself.

With materials from Alessandro Michele, Angelo Figus, Comme des Garçons, Dries Van Noten, Keupr van/Bentm, Maison Martin Margiela, Mowalola, Prada, Shelley Fox, Sunnei, Virgil Abloh, Vivienne Westwood, Walter Van Beirendonck and WilliWear.

Curated by Elise By Olsen & Jeppe Ugelvig. With support from MoMu Antwerp & Nordisk Kulturfond

For Immediate Release: The Art of the Press Release

On the occasion of the inaugural exhibition for the International Library of Fashion Research in collaboration with the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design (in Oslo, Norway), Printed Matter’s Chelsea location is hosting an in-store film screening featuring the work of Lengua. The artist, whose work parallels fashion and art and deconstructs perspectives of gender via fashion, was commissioned to create an interactive fashion film that genuinely involves and reflects the international underground queer scene.

Through the lense of a flickering sun, the short film titled «Bliss, Abyss» narrates three characters on an apocalyptic or disastrous quest towards another world; bodies (with grotesque costumes and sun-burnt skin) in relationship with other bodies. An extension of Lengua’s personal work within fashion and photography, this film is a highly candid, poetic and visually compelling artistic interpretation of the project’s themes-at-large; such as queer identities, alternative gender expression and Queer Futurism.

At Printed Matter (the first satellite exhibition of the film); the display will also feature a series of books and reference materials further expanding on the themes of the project. Additionally an extended catalog will be published, giving context to the themes, the commission and the project, with contributors selected by the artist themselves in dialogue with the curators. The catalogue expands and explores themes behind the commission such as the antropocene, queer historiography, synergies between the respective local and international underground scenes and alternative gender expression.

Special thanks to The Norwegian Consulate General in New York for generously supporting this project.

Queering Fashion at Printed Matter

In occasion of Queer Culture Year 2022, a series of events marking that it’s 50 years since homosexuality was decriminalized in Norway, the new cultural institution International Library of Fashion Research is opening a temporary ‘Queering Room’ at Polestar Space in Oslo. ‘Queering Room’ offers an alternative take on themes such as fashion & queerness, queer identites and alternative gender expression. Through a selection of research material, including books, independent magazines and other printed ephemera integrating the Library’s permanent collection, ‘Queering Room’ becomes a welcoming potential source for queer conversation in fashion.

‘Queering Room’ extends on the Library’s inaugural exhibition project ‘Queering Fashion’ in collaboration with the National Museum, which will open later this summer, and travel to Printed Matter in New York. The exhibition’s central piece; a hybrid between a fashion and art film, created by key figures from the international underground queer scene, will be exclusively previewed at Polestar Space on June 17th, marking the opening of ‘Queering Room’.

Queering Room at Polestar Space Oslo

International Library of Fashion Research is officially opening, and we're celebrating with a two-day opening programme with talks and activities.

Official opening

‘Game Over! Fashion & Play’, the International Library of Fashion Research’s third exhibition project, showcases a selection of fun, playful and entertaining publications, invitations, lookbooks and other ephemeral materials that take the form of a game or toy. By showcasing these whimsical and amusing objects, the exhibition aims to raise issues in relation to the world of children and its tricky connection to the fashion system, to gendered and stereotyped identities, and to virtual and alternative realities, by posing the question: to what extent is fashion a game?

GAME OVER! Fashion & Play

Welcome to the 2023 edition of Fashion Research Symposium, 21st of September! The symposium is a yearly event for research, knowledge-sharing and critical discourse about fashion. The theme for 2023 is “Designing Beyond Human”. The Fashion Research Symposium is a collaboration between the National Museum of Norway and International Library of Fashion Research.

This year’s edition extends on the exhibition “Oltre Terra. Why Wool Matters” at the National Museum, and leading Norwegian and international researchers and practitioners are gathered to delve into the complex relationship between human and animal in the field of design at large. How can the informed choices designers make in their daily practice make room for a more-than-human coexistence, for a new ethology?

Fashion Research Symposium is free for all, with limited capacity. Please register via 

10.00 Film screening – Tactile Afferents

Born out of a close collaboration between Formafantasma and artist Joanna Piotrowska, the film Tactile Afferents is conceived as a filmic journey through touch and gestures, proximity and feel, primary modes of communication between beings – humans and sheep – that cannot relate verbally with each other. This film aims to take the viewer where human words have no power, to a space where persuasion passes through the hands, where power is administered thermally, transmitted through the temperature of the palms. Co-produced by Fondazione In Between Art Film and Nasjonalmuseet.

Since founding the research based design studio Formafantasma in 2009, Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin have championed the need for value – laden advocacy merged with holistic design thinking. Their aim is to facilitate a deeper understanding of both our natural and built environments and to propose transformative interventions through design and its material, technical, social, and discursive possibilities. The exhibition Oltre Terra. Why Wool Matters, currently on display at Nasjonalmuseet is an ongoing investigation conducted by Formafantasma focused on the history, ecology, and global dynamics of the extraction and production of wool.


10.20 Welcome note by Hanne Eide & Elise By Olsen

Fashion Research Symposium 2023 is a yearly event for research, knowledge-sharing and critical discourse about fashion. The theme for 2023 is “Designing Beyond Human”. The Fashion Research Symposium is a collaboration between the National Museum of Norway and International Library of Fashion Research.


10.30 The Lendbreen Tunic – talk by Marianne Vedeler

The snow-patches and glaciers of the world are melting rapidly. While climate change haunts us, hundreds of archaeological finds emerge from the ice each year. Before the ice started to melt, the alpine areas in which snow-patches are found, were in general little affected by humans. Still, hunting and trapping activities have been carried out there since prehistoric times. The tunic from Lendbreen in Lom was preserved in the ice for 1700 years. The fabric and cut, as well as several traces of repair, can tell us a lot about textile production and of relations between humans and animals in the Iron Age.


10.50 New Materialism – talk by Siv Støldal

The new modernity is based on creating more meaningful products, clothing and materials, with an ambition for real connection with our emotions. Strong bonds will lead to careful usage, reparation over replacement, and inspire lower consumption through carefully curated personal collections of belongings. Fashion designer Siv Støldal presents various works based on wool that shed light on issues related to resource utilization, consumer culture and sustainability within design and fashion, and takes as a starting point the newly launched chair C2S, her ongoing collaboration with designer Stine Aas. C2S is an armchair made with three handmade thick wool felts swirling around an industrial steel frame. The textile is made from naturally pigmented wild sheep wool, Old Norse spæl and wool with vegetation ( grass, heather and juniper bushes) that gets picked up and tangled into the wool while the sheeps are grazing in the coast landscapes, utilizing the lowest grades of wool ( C2S) that are less attractive for yarn production and therefore have low commercial value.


11.30 Connecting Wool – panel with Lydia Hann & Amanda Vesthardt, chaired by Kirsti Bræin

Join Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO) alumni Lydia Hann and Amanda Vesthardt in conversation with professor Kirsti Bræin as they delve into their shared appreciation of Norway's native sheep’s wool and how that material connection inspired 'Hyrdens Bro (Connecting Wool)'. 'Hyrdens Bro' is a monument to the recently concluded Connecting Wool collaboration between design students from KHiO and Tama University in Tokyo led in part by Bræin. Norwegian wool presents as many gifts as it does challenges and together Hann, Vesthardt and Bræin hope to imbue others with their love for this uniquely beautiful but underutilized material, grease, dirt and all.


11.50 The Norwegian Sheep - a Small Animal with a Huge Impact – talk by Anna Blix

Did you know that everyone had sheep in Norway before the industrial revolution, not because of the meat, but because they needed the wool? In this presentation, Anna will shed light on the 5-6000 year long history of sheep in Norway, and what implications modern agricultural politics have on this sturdy animal and the wool we get from it.


12.10 Safeguarding Sheep to Shop to Soil and Sustainable Solutions – talk by Ingun Klepp & Tone Skårdal Tobiasson

In the ongoing debate concerning a sustainable future for textiles, the holistic approach often falls by the wayside. Returning to more local, small-scale and resilient value-chains where every single gift from our domestic animals is valued, is a proposed path into the future. We propose a need to look our sheep in the eyes and thank them for what they supply us with: wool, warmth, food, landscape, soil health, biodiversity and human health. We have in recent years seen an increase in the beautiful use of local resources among start-ups, local industry and designers, mapping a path away from a destructive, globalized and highly industrialized fashion and food industry on the ground, though with little or no political support. In our talk we will celebrate a true green future without wool being pulled over our eyes.

12.30 Form-Defining Systems of Reverse Crafting – talk by Karin Peterson

Textile-form as dress is often synonymous with the form-defining system of cut and assemble. As such, cut and assemble both defines and restrains the discipline. In her talk, Karin will argue that the field of dress requires collaborative efforts to actively break the positioning imposed by social, institutional and organizational structures, in order to seek an economic and social system that does not choose short-term profit over long-term sustainability. This reasoning will be argued through practical examples using other imaginaries for processes of textile-form, where the crafting of form and surface as interdependent actions guide the search for other realities of textile-form, as dress and beyond.


12.50 Overlapping Footprints: Tracing Interwoven Histories Across Species – talk by Feifei Zhou

Every event in human history has been a more-than-human event. Humans and animals, for instance, could not get to where we are now without each other's efforts. But animals are rarely acknowledged properly for their essential role in human history. To be able to comprehend the Anthropocene - the current geological epoch we are in, we have to bring nonhumans to the center of the stage. The lecture discussed the concept of "feral": neither domesticated or wild, feral ecologies are beings that escaped human control, encouraged and spread by human-built infrastructures.

14.15  From the Grotesque to the Posthuman in Contemporary Fashion – talk by Francesca Granata

At the turn of the twenty-first century, experimental fashion presented grotesque bodies-out-of-bounds, which moved a critique to norms of beauty and propriety. This shift was influenced by feminism’s desire to open up and question gender and bodily norms and particularly the normative bodies of fashion, as well as by the AIDS epidemic. In the twenty-first century, fashion designers have continued this exploration, further breaking down boundaries between humans and non-humans, subjects, and objects. As the centrality of the human comes into question, in the wake of the current climate crisis, posthumanism has increasingly come to bear on experimental fashion.


14.35 Farming as Aesthetic Life Changer – panel with Else Thorenfeldt & Tom Downes, chaired by Adam Curtis

Positioning sustainable agriculture within the context of design, three regenerative farmers will discuss the role of nature in their practices. The idea of the farmer as a cultural producer will be explored as well as the topics of value creation and communication as connected to materialities.


14.55 Exploring the Nexus of Conceptual Design, Art, and Fashion – talk by Fredrik Tjærandsen

Informed by human sciences, nature and philosophy - Tjærandsen has produced works at the intersection of conceptual design, art and fashion. Tjærandsen is inspired by what the senses hold back and what we see and hear that cannot be entirely grasped by the intellect. Each of the senses harbors an inviolable mystery, reserved for itself and inaccessible to the others. Deeply invested in the potential of our body as an elemental form – a phenomenon with a profound capacity for meaning, as much as a multidimensional canvas for creative process and ideas – Tjærandsen works across numerous fields, be it in performance, set design, or art presents a crucial bridge between the optimistic, philosophical origins of performative design and immersive art, the present and where they have yet to delve.

15.15 From Paper Dresses Past to our Compromised Reality – talk by Vasillis Zidianakis & Steffi Stouri

Inspired by Issey Miyake’snine work-in-progress pieces made from paper for the 2008 exhibition XXIst Century Man, held at 21_21 Design Sight in Tokyo, we will focus on the traditional practices that informed Miyake’s practice as well as his vision and the fear that dominated the beginning of the new millennium. The work entitled Pleats dress, paper trial, research process 2007 was donated as a whole from Miyake Design Studio, and after Issey Miyake’ swish, to the RRRIPP!! Collection of ATOPOS cvc in Athens (GR), which consists entirely of paper garments. Although Miyake was influenced by traditional Japanese practices of paper-making and paper-garment-making, these designs completely abandon any formalist or utilitarian approach. Instead they allow the designer to explore a reciprocal relationship between material and form. These bold experiments are testaments that despite fashion’s traditional involvement in unsustainable practices, there have always been pioneers in fashion, experimenting with their fears of today and hopes for tomorrow.

15.55 Beyond Trends: A Renaissance in Artistic Fashion – talk by Louise Lyngh Bjerregaard

Paris-based Artistic Director Louise Lyngh Bjerregaard boldly challenges the status quo with unwavering commitment to meticulous individual research and dedication to artisanal savoir-faire and creates clothing that transcends the confines of fast and commercial fashion. Each piece tells a story of creativity, thoughtful exploration, and an unbreakable connection to artistry, serving as an ongoing source of inspiration for many. In a landscape where garments are often confined to the ephemeral cycles of seasons and fleeting trends, Louise Lyngh Bjerregaard invites us to reimagine our relationship with contemporary clothing. She advocates for a more deliberate and meaningful approach, inspiring and challenging the industry to recognize the intrinsic value of garments that make a statement beyond the breakneck pace of fashion, while maintaining a presence in retailers and runway shows.

16.15 The Chemist Tailor – talk by Manel Torres

A viral fashion moment was born during Paris Fashion Week in September 2022, when Fabrican founder and CEO, Dr. Manel Torres, sprayed a dress on supermodel Bella Hadid as the finale of a runway show. The viral moment captured the imagination of designers, product innovators, and consumers, seeking sustainable “mass customizable” products and flexible, efficient production processes that reduce environmental impact. Fabrican’s Sprayable fabric technology uses fibers recycled from discarded clothes and other fabrics.  The sprayable fabric can be washed, reused, and finally, when the garment has come to the end of its use, re-dissolved to create new articles.  Fabrican is committed to developing manufacturing for a circular economy, from sourcing of raw materials and utilizing energy-efficient technologies. Dr. Torres founded Fabrican in 2003, after developing the technology at the Royal College of Art and Imperial College, London. Fabrican continues to explore ever-wider applications of the technology, including in apparel, automotive, and healthcare.

16.35-17.00 Towards Future Archival Research – panel discussion chaired by Ilaria Trame

As we approach the end of the Symposium, we feel it is important to propose the archive – its histories, the past, the heritage and the references – as a starting point for future perspectives and approaches. The archival objects from the past need to result in a sympathetic guide towards establishing a ‘new normal’ in what we identify as design and beyond. Using the International Library of Fashion Research collection as a starting point, four speakers from the Symposium are asked to browse the shelves and select a document, book, publication that resonates with their research approaches in the field of this year’s Symposium. These objects will become a bibliography that needs to be continuously expanded even though the Symposium comes to an end.

Fashion Research Symposium 2023 'Designing Beyond Human'

For its new issue "The PROVENCE Proust Questionnaire" PROVENCE has teamed up with International Library of Fashion Research for a photographic report by Oslo-based photographer Einar Mølmann Fuglem, who staged the library’s collection of fashion ephemera.


To celebrate this collaboration and the Oslo-launch of the new issue, PROVENCE is donating a complete set of all issues realised since the magazine's creation in 2009 to the ILFR which will be on view at the launch. Founder of ILFR @elisebyolsen and PROVENCE editor and artist @samuelhaitz will be in conversation about the history and intentions of PROVENCE, the relationship between art and fashion and of course their collaboration on the current issue.

Originally conceived in 2009 as an artist's publication with eight issues corresponding to the eight letters of the word PROVENCE, today, PROVENCE is an agile construct, publishing a biannual magazine as well as curating exhibitions and events, and producing artist's editions. At the center of all these activities are questions of authorship, modes and conditions of production, as well as the roles taken by both the collective and the individuals involved. Formats—such as those of a commercial high fashion or art magazine—are taken and adapted. Recurrent themes are, besides reflections on artistic practice itself, feminism, consumer culture, class, culture, hierarchy, subversion, commercialization, and self-optimization.

Oslo Launch "The Provence Proust Questionnaire"

Guest Salons is an active meeting point for free conversations around and beyond fashion, once a month at International Library of Fashion Research. Our second salon ‘Fashion Printed Matter & the Artist’s Book’ is hosted by artist Sveinn Fannar Jóhannsson (Multinational Enterprises) on Tuesday 4th of July at 18.00-20.00.

What are the parallels between fashion printed matter and artist’s books? Where do we draw the line between artistic or commercial publishing? And what is high vs. low quality in printed matter?

Suggested reading https://halfletterpress.com/sustaining-publishing/

Free coffee & notebooks. Welcome!

Guest Salons #2: Fashion Printed Matter and the Artist's Book

For the 5th edition of Printing Fashion on March 29-30, both days of the online event will be livestreamed from the International Library of Fashion Research in Oslo.

This year’s festival opens the discussion between key industry figures and the audience to reflect on the concept of “Resistance” present in the practices of criticism, the relationship between print and politics, the hidden figures of the magazine, printing and gender, and the resilient formats that confront the new challenges of the publishing industry.

We invite you to join the conversation with collaborators including Byronesque, Cora Corré (The Vivienne Foundation), Astrid Vorstermans (Valiz Publisher), Reading Room, Yousra Zein (Vogue France), Jeppe Ugelvig (Viscose), Alessandro Merlo (Coriandoli), Tayeau Fabrice (Feu Magazine), Simone Rossi (IUAV University of Venice), Saul Marcadent (IUAV University of Venice), Hanka van der Voet (Press & Fold), Elise By Olsen & Else Thorenfeldt (International Library of Fashion Research), Carla Fernández, Chiara Bardelli Nonino (independent curator & editor), The American Library in Paris, Milan Fashion Library, Marvin Mtoumo and more!

We would like to extend our gratitude to KD Press, our partner, and distributor of our eponymous magazine.

Printing Fashion 2023

Founded in 2020, Library will become the world’s most comprehensive repository of specialized fashion research and contemporary fashion publications. We will fill a much-needed gap in the preservation of and critical engagement with fashion’s printed culture at an institutional level, and build a free, globally accessible resource for fashion researchers, industry professionals, and amateur enthusiasts.

Program

The collection is animated by various educational, editorial or curatorial activities which essentially makes the Library come to life.

2023

2022