OPEN CALL: Nordic Fashion, Printed Culture and Heritage Making

Sunday, May 26, 2024 – 10:00Monday, July 1, 2024 – 21:59

The Nordic region abounds with exciting and prominent local designers, publishers, photographers, architects, critics, curators and cultural agitators, who operate within the field of fashion. The Nordic fashion system, similar to that of the worldwide, is in constant change, but stands alone in reacting to the steady decline of industry and local clothing and textile production by fostering alternative cultural infrastructures and creative ecosystems. This ever-changing landscape, supported by the integration of digital tools, constantly blurs the boundaries of Nordic fashion practice and stimulates a more decentralized and capillary presence beyond the Nordic metropoles, whilst having an international audience, ambition and appeal.

This summer, International Library of Fashion Research institutes a pilot researcher-in-residence program, with an aim to expand the knowledge around contemporary Nordic fashion cultures. As a stimulating meeting point and resource for fashion research in the Nordics, the researcher-in-residence program will be an important initiative to collect, archive and preserve printed matter from this region, including (but not limited to) magazines, photo books, catalogs, illustrations and other physical ephemera and documents, based on a multitude of Nordic fashion practitioners, collectors and institutions, to ultimately integrate this material as a significant specialization of our permanent collection – and cherish it for the future.

Do you want to expand your research through your Nordic connection? Through a group of strategic partners and advisors the selected researcher-in-residence will systematically map out the history, representation and contemporary ramifications of Nordic fashion cultures through practical research and dialogues with practitioners. The collected material will then be registered and digitized as an open, free and dedicated part of ILFR’s digital and physical database, then displayed through specific curatorial, educational and mediational activities. The results aim to be published in a research anthology.

The researcher-in-residence pilot program will begin on August 1st 2024 and end on December 1st 2024. A stipend of 50,000 Norwegian kroner is allocated to the selected researcher. It’s fully possible to combine the program with other professional endeavors or studies. Occasional visits to International Library of Fashion Research’s collection and study space in Oslo will be arranged, and it’s not mandatory to be physically present in Oslo during the entire course of the program. “Nordic Fashion, Printed Culture and Heritage Making” is supported by the Nordic Culture Fund.

The advisory board consists of Ane Lynge-Jorlen (curator & director of ALPHA), Elin Kathrine Saunes (CEO of Norwegian Fashion Hub), Elnaz Gargari (fashion designer), Hanne Eide (curator of contemporary fashion, National Museum of Norway), Ida Falck Øien (associate professor, KHiO & fashion designer), Louise Wallenberg (professor in fashion studies, Stockholm University), Maria Ben Saad (lecturer in fashion communication, Beckmans College), Namkyu Chun (University Lecturer in Design Communication, Aalto University), Ramona Salo (fashion designer), Sigurður Atli Sigurðsson (visual artist & organizer of Reykjavík Art Book Fair).


Please submit your application by filling out >THIS< form.