Fashion and Geography: Can There Be Fashion Out of the City?

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In Brodeuses, the two embroiderers work in the French countryside, far away from the Paris catwalks where their designs are shown. This distance is the point of departure for a conversation on fashion and geography. This conversation challenged the widely accepted definition of fashion as an urban phenomenon. The discourse on fashion has long been centered around fashion capitals, especially Paris, London, New York, and Milan. In recent years, more cities, previously considered peripheral to the fashion system, have come to the fore, such as Tokyo, Seoul, and Copenhagen. But does contemporary fashion still need an urban environment to flourish? This conversation debated the possibilities and hindrances of non-urban fashion and reviewed existing experimentations.

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The participants in this conversation were Tone Bjerkaas and Rune Nilssen. Tone Bjerkaas is a Tromsø-based artist and fashion designer. She holds a BFA from Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and an MA from Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO). Rune Nilssen has worked with multiple aspects of the fashion industry since he completed his BA in Fashion Promotion & Illustration at The University for the Creative Arts (Epsom, England) in 2004. The conversation was moderated by Johanna Zanon. 

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The conversation was part of the film series Fransk mote på film, curated by Johanna Zanon for Verdensteatret-Cinemateket i Tromsø, which was supported by Culture[s] de Mode and Institut Français de Norvège.

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November 28, 2020.

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Read more on the film series. 

See the press article in iTromsø.