91传媒

Fashion Cultures and Histories 鈥� Research Seminar Series, (IHTP-CNRS/AUP) |听S茅minaire de recherche - Cultures et Histoires de Mode (IHTP-CNRS/AUP)

Fashion & Migration/s: On the roles of textiles and clothes in the liminal spaces of refugee camps | Mode & Migration/s: Les r么les des textiles et v锚tements dans les espaces liminaux des camps de r茅fugi茅s

听

Speakers:听

鈥⑻�听MBE,RDI, FRSA, is Professor of Fashion and Science at London College of Fashion, member of the Centre for Sustainable Fashion (UK)

鈥⑻�Magali An Berthon, PhD Assistant Professor of Fashion Studies, The American University of Paris (France)

Respondent:听

鈥⑻�,听costume designer and stylist in the film and fashion industry (Iran)

Helen Storey: 鈥淶aatari Refugee Camp - crafting life鈥�

"It was a particular dress that took Helen Storey to the gates of Zaatari Refugee camp, in Jordan in 2016.
It was a moment that changed her career and life for good .
Helen shares the journey of making, learning, friendships, and love that followed over the subsequent 8 years.
In 2019, she was made the first UNHCR 鈥楧esigner in Residence鈥� a way of collaborating that has since spread to her work in refugee camps in Africa."

听MBE,RDI, FRSA, is Professor of Fashion and Science at London College of Fashion and member of the Centre for Sustainable Fashion. Her pioneering work over 30 years has brought the worlds of art and science together, producing hybrid projects and products that have broken new and award-winning ground. These include听Wonderland,听Catalytic Clothing,听Plastic is Precious, Dress of Glass and Flame, Dress For Our Time. Helen is a social artist and designer living and working in London. She graduated in Fashion from Kingston Polytechnic in 1981, then worked with Valentino and Lancetti in Rome. She returned to London and worked with Bellville Sassoon before launching her own label in 1983 with Caroline Coates. Storey鈥檚 late 鈥�80s and early 鈥�90s collections were noted for their questioning of 91传媒 notions of glamour, expense and women鈥檚 image, including the launch of her recycling range, 2nd Life in 1992. In 1991, Storey won Most Innovative Designer of The Year and was nominated for British Designer of The Year by The British Fashion Council. She was awarded Honorary Professorships at Heriot Watt University and King鈥檚 College London in 2001 and 2003 respectively and became a Visiting Professor of Material Chemistry at Sheffield University in 2008,听she was awarded an MBE for 鈥楽ervices to Arts鈥� in 2009.听In 2012 she was awarded Honorary Doctor of Science at University of Sheffield and Honorary Professor of Craft and Design at University of Dundee. In 2014, she was awarded Honorary Professor at University of Bournemouth and appointed an RDI (Royal Designer to Industry) by The Royal Society of Arts. In 2016, she was appointed the first 鈥楧esigner in Residence鈥� at the College of Human Ecology, Cornell University USA and in 2018 鈥� 2023 appointed the first UNHCR 鈥楧esigner in Residence鈥� at Za鈥檃tari Refugee Camp, Jordan. In 2022, her work extends to 4 countries in Africa in partnership with UNHCR.

Magali An Berthon, 鈥楾he Cambodian refugee crisis (1970-80s): Weaving, purchasing and wearing textiles in forced displacement鈥�

Until the civil war broke out in Cambodia in the early 1970s, weaving silk and cotton was mainly practiced by women and families in rural areas on the side of farming and destined for domestic consumption. From 1975 to 1979, the Khmer Rouge established a dictatorship that claimed at least 1.5 million from forced work, purges and combat, and famine. Textile production was hampered by the forced migration of populations, including weavers and farmers, and, in the case of silk, the active destruction of mulberry tree fields, whose leaves could feed native bombyx mori silkworms. The war also resulted in a massive refugee crisis until the late 1980s. In separate waves, about 350,000 Cambodians fled to reach neighboring countries of Thailand and Vietnam. Hundreds of thousands were retained in long-term settlements at the Thai border. In these large refugee camps, religious, artistic, and craft practices resumed under challenging dynamics. On-site, silk textiles and other rare products became commodities. Weavers mostly had access to synthetic and cotton fibers to produce krama scarves and sampot hip wraps, which they kept for personal use, bartered with other refugees, and sold to foreign camp visitors. Relying on scarce archival, visual, and material sources, this paper examines the local economy of weaving in the liminal space of the refugee camps, in which Cambodian populations stayed for uncertain yet extended periods.

Magali An Berthon听has joined the American University of Paris an Assistant Professor in Fashion Studies in 2024. With additional experience in textile design, curation, anddocumentary filmmaking, she earned a PhD in History of Design from the Royal College of Art of London in 2021 with a thesis on silk in post-conflict Cambodia. From 2022 to 2024, she was a Marie Sk艂odowska-Curie postdoctoral research fellow attached to the Centre for Textile Research at the University of Copenhagen, exploring the surviving textile and dress practices and heritage during and after the Khmer Rouge regime.