FASHION DESIGN RESEARCH AND PRACTICE IN LATIN AMERICA is a series of events that aim to explore diverse Latin American Fashion Design systems while promoting the formation of a network of scholars, researchers, practitioners and entrepreneurs interested in the advanced study of this emerging field throughout the region.

The first roundtable as part of this series aims to initiate a conversation on the practice and research of fashion design in Latin America. The roundtable will encompass Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America, and approach different case studies exploring issues of practice, mediation and consumption of fashion as they relate to social, political and economic realities in this diverse and multicultural region.

The five case studies from Peru, Mexico and Cuba will introduce different approaches in the study of fashion systems in these areas.

Date: Friday May 10, 2013

Time: 6:30 – 9:00 pm

Place: The New School, 66 West 12th Street New York, NY 10011, Room A407

More about the Roundtable participants:

Susana Aguirre is a writer and researcher, with interests that lie in the personal dress histories, practices, and industry structures in Peru and Latin America. She is first year graduate student in the MA Fashion Studies ’14 at Parsons the New School for Design and holds a BA in Latin American Studies and Human Rights from The University of Chicago. She is a contributing writer for the online news site Peru this Week and founder of the fashion blog PtWFashion. Her writing has appeared in the Canadian design journal The Genteel and collaborated in the book “Just Fashion: Critical Cases on Social Justice in Fashion” with fellow Parsons colleagues.

Carmen Artigas Is Dean of Ethical Fashion at Centre for Social Innovation. She has worked in fashion for nearly 20 years, most recently in sustainable design, consulting, and sourcing. Working in India with artisan communities reviving endangered crafts and later developing a yoga line using certified organic cotton and natural dyes exposed her to the challenges of developing sustainable products. She currently teaches Ethical Fashion at the Fashion Institute of Technology and Parsons New School of Design in New York, and she dedicates her time to reevaluating the human and environmental cost of products, advocating for craftsmanship, and redefining “made-in” and “made-by”.

Maria Cabrera Arus has degrees in Psychology and Social Psychology from the University of Havana, and in Sociology from the New School for Social Research, where she is a PhD candidate. She is now doing research for her dissertation on  material culture in Cuban socialism. She has worked at the Oficina Nacional de Diseño Industrial in Cuba and marketing agencies in Puerto Rico. She has been an instructor at the University of Havana (Social Psychology) and is now an instructor at Parsons the New School for Design (Fashion Cultures, formerly Global Issues in Design and Visuality).

Lucia Cuba Is a Fashion Designer and Social Researcher. She Studied Fashion Design (CEAM), a BSc in Social Psychology, MSc in Educational Psychology and PhD in Public Health from Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH). Her work merges educational, research and practice fields. She has participated in projects for the development of arts and culture in Peru and Latin America, and in different activities that aim to advance the development of local emerging fashion systems: LUCCO, PROJECT GAMARRA, and Procesos Peruanos. After receiving a Fulbright Scholarship she graduated from the MFA “Fashion Design & Society” at Parsons in 2012, with “Articulo 6: Narratives of gender strength and politics”, an ongoing design and activism project based in the case of forced sterilizations that took place in Peru between 1996-2000 (articulo6.pe). In 2012 her work was presented at the NY Fashion Week and at the Iberoamerican Design Biennial (BID-DIMAD12-Spain). She is currently an Artist in Residence at the Textile Arts Center and a Visiting Associate Professor at Pratt Institute, in New York.

For more information about the event please contact: luciacuba@luciacuba.com