The Fifth Fashion Forward Symposium
FASHION AND
COLLECTIVE MEMORY:
Exploring Fashion’s Role in
Human Psyche, History & Culture
Time:
April 25th, 2021
11:00 AM to 12:00 PM EST
Platform:
Zoom (RSVP by email)
info@fashionforward.io
Suggested Donation:
$15
Fashion Forward presents the next installment of its symposium series featuring experts studying fashion’s role in the human psyche, history, and culture.
Our Speakers
CULTURAL ANALYST
Sem Devillart is a cultural analyst and futurist focused on visual and online culture. For the last fifteen years she has collaborated with top organizations on innovative methods to turn cultural signals into high-value intelligence, media content, products and business models. Sem was the chief architect at startup Sparks and Honey, a responsive, data driven creative agency at Omnicom in New York City. Currently she is a member of the Harmony Labs team who look to understand how the inner mechanics of media influences work. Sem is a founding faculty member of the Masters Branding Program at the School of Visual Arts in New York where she teaches methods in trend forecasting. Sem studied design, art history and comparative religion in Tuebingen and Milan and grew up on three continents between seven languages- an early training in pattern recognition.
CULTURAL HISTORIAN, WRITER & LECTURER
Dr Benjamin Wild is a cultural historian and currently Senior Lecturer in Contextual Studies (Fashion) at Manchester Fashion Institute, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. He maintains links with a number of art and cultural institutions, including the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Royal Academy, where he has run courses and delivered lectures. Themes within Benjamin's work include identity, marginality and cultural appropriation. His current book projects include Wearing Culture: Controversy, Negotiation and the Pursuit of Fashion, and Appropriation for Bloomsbury's new Fashion in Action series.
PSYCHOLOGIST, EDUCATOR & BRAND CONSULTANT
Tom’s spent decades helping people understand their own, and other people’s, minds. After receiving a PhD in psychology, he spent 25 years in clinical practice, then pivoted into organizational psychology. Since the mid-90s, he’s worked as a brand consultant, frequently in the fashion industry. He is currently at the forefront of the increasingly relevant field of human/robot interaction.
At the School of Visual Arts Masters in Branding program, Tom teaches “The Meaning of Branded Objects,” a course exploring the psychological mechanisms that transform everyday objects/experiences into important components of every modern person’s identity.