Renate Stauss

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Renate Stauss

Assistant Professor, Program Coordinator for Fashion Studies

  • Department: Communication, Media and Culture
  • Graduate Program(s): Global Communications
  • Track(s): 
    Fashion
  • Office: 
    G-401
  • Office Hours: 
    By appointment

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Professor Stauss joined The American University of Paris in 2013. As a lecturer in Fashion Studies, Cultural & Critical Studies she has been working at a number of universities in London and Berlin since 2003, at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, Goldsmiths College, Esmod, and the Berlin University of the Arts. She was part of the faculty at the Royal College of Art in London in the Department of Critical Studies for ten years. Following her studies in Fashion Communication (BA) and Communication, Culture and Society (MA) Stauss completed her PhD on Dress as Therapy: Working with Dress on the Self in Therapeutic Settings (University of the Arts London).

The focus of her teaching and scholarship lies on the sociology and politics of fashion and dress, including the following subjects: relationships between dress and identity, fashion under socialism, the emotional and sensory impact of dress, the role of dress in political protest, fashion for a sustainable world, and fashion education – how we learn and teach fashion. Renate has published in the area of fashion studies, fashion theory and pedagogy. Recent publications included book chapters in Fashion & Feeling: The Affective Politics of Dress (2023) and Mirror Mirror: Fashion & the Psyche (2022). She is the co-founder of The Multilogues on Fashion Education, and Fashion is a great teacher – The fashion education podcast and platform for connection, research and development, and educational consultancy.

Current research interests include:

  • fashion and politics
  • the role of dress in political protest
  • the perception and potential of fashion
  • the emergence of fashion theory
  • fashion education – how we learn and teach fashion

Research Areas and Areas of Expertise:

  • fashion theory
  • cultural history of fashion (1900–)
  • sociology of dress and fashion
  • fashion and politics
  • sustainability in fashion
  • dress as therapy
  • fashion education


Education/Degrees

  • PhD, London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London, UK
  • MA Communication, Culture & Society, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK
  • BA (Hons) Fashion Communication, Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, London, UK

News

  • I am currently organizing the The Digital Multilogue on Fashion Education 2024: On Grief, Exnovation and The Power of Mutual Learning Facilitated by The American University of Paris, France, online event, 10 October 2024 (with Prof Franziska Schreiber)
    • The Digital Multilogue on Fashion Education wants to create connections and actions within and across different fashion learning cultures and contexts. It was founded in 2019 as a participatory and outcome-oriented space and a series of conferences focused on the learning and teaching of fashion. It aims to explore and illustrate the diversity and complexity of the field and the practices of fashion education, and to foster a greater understanding of its pasts, presents and futures – methods, values and didactic, pedagogic and epistemological questions – creating a global exchange to inspire mutual learning, collaborative research and shared action.
  • The rich and inspiring contributions and proceedings of the last Digital Multilogues on Fashion Education are open access. Watch and listen to some of the most inspiring voices in and around fashion education: Tanveer Ahmed, Ben Barry, Zowie Broach, Sunny Dolat, Matthew Drinkwater, Kimberly Jenkins, The Malvestidas, Sarah Mower, Alistair O’Neill, Sandra Niessen, Yvonne Ntiamoah, Dilys Williams and many many more.
  • Fashion is a great teacher: The fashion education podcast. I recently launched a podcast on learning and teaching fashion (with Franziska Schreiber).

 

Publications

  • (2023) ‘Looking Like a Woman, Feeling Like a Woman, Sensing the Self: Affective and Emotional Dimensions of Dress Therapy’ in: Parkins, Ilya & Filipello, Roberto (eds.) Fashion & Feeling: The Affective Politics of Dress. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 153–176. (book chapter)
  • (2022) ‘Dress as Therapy: Working with Dress in Psycho-medical Settings – Between Control, Cure, Care and Creative Play’ in: Ankele, M., De Wyngaert, E., Ferreira, L. M., Kölmel, M.-J., Lamot, Y. H., Stauss, R., Mirror Mirror: Fashion & the Psyche. Veurne, Belgium: Hannibal Books, pp. 133–151. (book chapter)
  • (2021) ‘The Doubters, or, To Love Fashion Is to Doubt Fashion: An Impossible Interview’ in: Vestoj: The Journal of Sartorial Matters. Issue No. 10: On Doubt, pp. 93–105. http://vestoj.com/issues/issue-ten-on-doubt/
  • (2021) ‘R.I.(a)P.: On Fashion, Branding and Irony – An Interview with Professor Wowo Kraus’ in: Fashion Practice: The Journal of Design, Creative Process & the Fashion Industry. Vol. 13, Issue 3, pp. 486–501. https://doi.org/10.1080/17569370.2021.1983117
  • (eds.) (2021) The Digital Multilogue on Fashion Education – The Proceedings. 25 September 2020, The American University of Paris, digital event, online publication. (with Franziska Schreiber) https://www.aup.edu/sites/default/files/download/Digital%20Multilogue%20on%20Fashion%20Education%202020_The%20Proceedings.pdf
  • (2020) ‘Mapping Fashion Education: Kontext, Dimensionen und Zukünfte’ in: Design & Bildung. Vol. 3, pp. 118–29. (with Franziska Schreiber)
  • (2020) ‘The Deceptive Mirror: The Dressed Body Beyond Reflection’ in: Fashion Theory. 29 May  (with Lucia Ruggerone)(doi.org/10.1080/1362704X.2020.1766228)
  • (2020) ‘Passing as Fashionable, Feminine and Sane: “Therapy of Fashion” and the Normalisation of Psychiatric Patients in 1960s US’ in: Fashion Theory. Vol. 24(4), pp. 601–637. (doi.org/10.1080/1362704X.2020.1746515)
  • (2019) ‘What Fashion is Not (Only)’ in: Vestoj: The Journal of Satorial Matters. Issue No. 9: On Capital, pp. 55–75. (vestoj.com/what-fashion-is-not-only)
  • (2017) Dress as Therapy: Working with Dress on the Self in Therapeutic Settings. PhD Thesis, London: University of the Arts London.
  • (2015) ‘Fashion Cultures Revisited: Book review' in: Costume. Vol. 49(1), London: Maney Publishing.
  • (2014) ‘The wetsuit is not fashion: A Conversation with Heidi Julavits’ in: Heti & Julavits & Shapton (eds.) Women in Clothes. London: Penguin, pp. 405–406.
  • (2010) ‘Interview with Jöelle Chariau’ in: Chariau, Jöelle (ed.) Drawing Fashion: A Century of Fashion Illustration. Munich/London: Prestel, pp. 20–23.
  • (2009) ‘Mode’ in: Peretz, Pauline (ed.) New York: Histoire, Promenades, Anthologie & Dictionnaire. Paris: Robert Laffont, pp. 1164–1165.
  • (2008) ‘Symposium Review: The Death of Taste: Unpicking the Fashion Cycle’ in: Fashion Theory Vol.12(2), June, pp. 261–266. (with Ane Lynge)
  • (2008) 'Die zivile Uniform als symbolische Kommunikation: Book Review' in: Costume. Number 42 London: Maney Publishing, pp. 195–196.
  • (2008) 'She Shines' in: Fat. Issue A, pp. 98–103.
  • (2006) 'Erwin Wurm's 59 Positions' in: Fashion in Film Festival. (catalogue), London: FFF, p. 40.

 

Podcasts

 

Conferences & Lectures

Conference Organisation

 

Conferences, talks, lectures (recent, selected)

  • (2023) ‘Decentering Fashion Education – Fashion in 3D: Decolonizing, Deconstructing, Decentering’ ZonaModa Interntaionl Conference, University of Bologna/Rimini, 20 October, invited chairing of conference session
  • (2022) ‘The Politics of Fashion Education: Developments, Discriminations and Dreams’ invited talk, Fashion Politics Series, Parsons Paris & London College of Fashion, online event, 21 January (with Franziska Schreiber)
  • (2021) ‘Don’t / Look in the Mirror! – The Gendering Politics of the Dressing Mirror’ conference paper, Fashion Tales 2021: Politics Through the Wardrobe, Modacult – Centro per lo studio della moda e della produzione culturale, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan / online event, 17–19 June 2021 (with Lucia Ruggerone)
  • (2021) ‘The End of Fashion Education? Towards New Beginnings’ invited lecture, Design Pedagogy Symposium, School of Form at SWPS University Poland in collaboration with the Center for Philosophical Technologies at Arizona State University, US, online event, 20 May 2021 (with Franziska Schreiber)
  • (2021) ‘Dress Therapy – Between Control, Cure, Care and Creative Play’ invited lecture, Central Saint Martins, London, online event, 17 February.
  • (2021) ‘Dress as Therapy: Working with Dress in Psycho-medical Settings – Between Control, Cure, Care and Creative Play’ conference paper, Curative Things: Medicine / Fashion / Art, facilitated by Leeds Arts University, online event, 12 February.
  • (2021) ‘Everything Is Constructed: Of Fashion, Ambiguity and Interstices’ invited talk, Hochschule Hannover, University of Applied Sciences and Art, Germany, online event, 26 January.
  • (2020) ‘Fashion Education: Dimensions, Contexts and Futures’ invited lecture, Annual Conference of the Network Fashion Textile, Germany, online event, 26 September (with Franziska Schreiber).
  • (2019) ‘Lost in Reflection: Clothes, Mirrors and the Self’ paper delivered at: The Annual Conference of the Association for Art History, Brighton, UK, 6 April (with Lucia Ruggerone).
  • (2018) ‘Self-fashioning: Using Foucault’s “Technologies of the Self” to Analyse Fashion’ invited lecture, New York University, London, 15. November.
  • (2018) ‘Passing as Fashionable, Feminine and Sane: “Therapy of Fashion” and the Normalisation of Psychiatric Patients in 1960s US’ Passing: Fashion in American Cities, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, 5 May.
  • (2017) ‘In the Land of Mirrors: Vêtothérapie in France. On Forced Forms of Self-reflection and Image-based Notions of a Fashionable Self’ Revisiting the Gaze: Feminism, Fashion & the Female Body. Chelsea College of Arts, UAL, London, UK, 28 –29 June.

 

Workshops (recent, selected)

  • (2024) ‘Fashion teaching in the coming semester: topics, projects and methods – a collegial enrichment’ professional development workshop for fashion educators, 17 September, Berlin Center for Higher Education, Germany (with Franziska Schreiber)
  • (2024) ‘Values in Learning and Teaching Fashion’ invited professional development workshop, 25 June, Fashion Department, Saint Martins College, University of the Arts London, UK (with Franziska Schreiber)
  • (2024) ‘Fashion teaching in the coming semester: topics, projects and methods – a collegial enrichment’ professional development workshop for fashion educators, 13 March, Berlin Center for Higher Education, Germany (with Franziska Schreiber)
  • (2023) ‘Fashion teaching in the coming semester: topics, projects and methods – a collegial enrichment’ professional development workshop for fashion educators, 26 September, Berlin Center for Higher Education, Germany (with Franziska Schreiber)
  • (2023) ‘Fashion teaching in the coming semester: topics, projects and methods – a collegial enrichment’ professional development workshop for fashion educators, 28 March, Berlin Center for Higher Education, Germany (with Franziska Schreiber)
  • (2022) ‘The Intersectional Politics of Fashion Education: nightmares & dreams – a workshop of constructive, collective destruction’ invited workshop at Face Summit, Central Saint Martins, 14 October (with Marteena Mendelssohn & Franziska Schreiber)
  • (2022) ‘Fashion Education Retreat’, professional development retreat for fashion educators, 14-15 September, Gutshof Sauen, Berlin Center for Higher Education, Germany, (with Franziska Schreiber)
  • (2022) ‘Vestimentary Protest: Dress as Visualized Resistance and Agency’ invited workshop, International Week, FH Bielefeld, University of Applied Sciences, Germany, online event, 2 May.
  • (2022) ‘Vestimentärer Protest: Kleidung als visualisierter Widerstand und Handlungsmacht invited workshop, Berlin University of the Arts, Germany, Film Costume Design, online event, 24 January.
  • (2021) ‘Vestimentary Protest: Dress as Visualized Resistance and Agency’ invited workshop, International Week, FH Bielefeld, University of Applied Sciences, Germany, online event, 4 May.
  • (2020/1) ‘I love it! Werte/n in der Designlehre’ (‘Values and Evaluation in Design Education’) concept, professional development workshop, Berlin Center for Higher Education, Germany, online event, 25 November 2020 & 22 January 2021 (with Franziska Schreiber)
  • (2019) ‘Fashion Education Retreat’, two-day professional development workshop for fashion educators, 30 September–1 October, Gutshof Sauen, Berlin Center for Higher Education, Germany, (with Franziska Schreiber)
  • (2019) ‘Fashion Education: Learning and Teaching Fashion in Theory and Practice’ professional development workshop for fashion educators, 1 April, Berlin Center for Higher Education, Germany (with Franziska Schreiber)

 

Panels, Public Commentary, Media Coverage & Juries (recent, selected)

  • (2024) invited external member of the reader appointment committee, Centre for Sustainable Fashion, London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London, 18 March
  • (2023) invited external member of the professorial appointment committee, Centre for Sustainable Fashion, London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London, 9 October
  • (2022) ‘Global Perspective: How might we create fashion that includes repair mechanisms for the planet, people, culture and the economy?’ – Think Tank’ invited participant, 202030 The Berlin Fashion Summit, Germany, online event, 1 March.
  • IJFS (2022) ‘Introducing International Fashion Scholars 101’ International Journal of Fashion Studies, cross-platform campaign (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter), 18 January (public profile)
  • Drake, Kitty (2022) ‘“I’m never pleased with myself. I always think I could do better, that I’m lazy, that I don’t make enough effort” – Karl Lagerfeld’ in Stack Magazine, online resource, January, https://www.stackmagazines.com/fashion-style/im-never-pleased-with-myself-i-always-think-i-could-do-better-that-im-lazy-that-i-dont-make-enough-effort-karl-lagerfeld/ (review of article)
  • Nike (2022) Nike Cultural & Societal Trends – Expert interview, with Sally Lohan, 24 January. (Interview)
  • Stauss, Renate (2022) ‘Mode-Schöpfung’ in: Junge Kirche. 01/2022, pp. 30–31. (Interview article)
  • Cosmo / WDR (2021) ‘Sweatpants’, WDR, Radio Cosmo, 4 January. (radio interview)
  • Echtzeit / DLF Kultur (2021) ‘Sturm und Zwang: Wir können nicht anders’, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, 16. Juni 2021, 16-17 Uhr, https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/sturm-und-zwang-wir-koennen-nicht-anders-100.html (radio interview).
  • Hergt, Kerstin (2021) ‘Die Unerhörten’ in: Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten. 3 July. https://www.pressreader.com/germany/dresdner-neueste-nachrichten/20210703/283167201547323 (Interview article)
  • Idris, Remée (2021) ‘New Modes of Learning’ in: The Lissome, online resource, January, https://www.thelissome.com/shop/rewilding-inner-nature (interview)
  • Noël, Aya (2021) “My Tutor Doesn’t Even Know What a Dankmeme is!” On Age and Experience in Fashion Education’ in: Granary 1, online resource, 29 July, https://1granary.com/opinion/on-age-and-experience-in-fashion-education/ (15.8.2021) (Interview)
  • (2021) ‘Re-Defining Fashion Culture: From Fast Desires to True Pleasures and Beauty’ panelist, 202030 The Berlin Fashion Summit, Germany, online event, 22 January, https://www.202030summit.com/
  • (2021) ‘Fashion Culture – Think Tank’ invited participant, 202030 The Berlin Fashion Summit, Germany, online event, 7 January.
  • (2020) Jury member of the competition ‘Bielefelder Modepreis’ (fashion prize) FH Bielefeld, University of Applied Sciences, Germany, 25 January.
  • Stauss, Renate (2020) ‘Fashion in Times of Covid-19: Chanel, Clinical, Creative: Three Face Masks Show the Complexities of Fashion’ AUP Learning Laboratory, Episode 9, 12 May, https://www.aup.edu/digital-campus/explore-discover/aup-at-home/learning-laboratory-renate-stauss // https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiJyyLluJDA (12.5.2020)
  • (2019) Jury member of the competition ‘Transparenz in der Modebranche’ (Transparency in Fashion) Loveco, Berlin, Germany, 26 August.
  • (2018) ‘Mode & Diversität: Mehr als nur ein Marketingtrend?’ (Fashion & Diversity: More than a Marketing trend?) member of panel discussion, Ethical Fashion, Prepeek Powered by Fashion Changers, Kraftwerk, Berlin, Germany, 3 July.

Affiliations

  • Member of The International Council of Museums, UK
  • Member of Network Fashion Textile, Germany
  • Member of Culture(s) de Mode, France
  • Member of The Union of Concerned Researchers in Fashion

Research Areas

  • fashion theory
  • cultural history of fashion (1900–)
  • sociology of dress and fashion
  • fashion and politics
  • sustainability in fashion
  • dress as therapy 
  • fashion education

Awards, Fellowships and Grants

Grants (recent)

  • 2024: John H. Lewis Jr. Faculty Development Fund (Symposium on Fashion Communication for Socio-Ecological Transformation’ (team bid)
  • 2020-2024: Faculty Development Grant, The American University of Paris
  • 2023: Berlin University of the Arts, grant for conference organization (The Digital Multilogue 2023)
  • 2023: Network Fashion & Textiles, grant for conference organization (The Digital Multilogue 2023)
  • 2023: AUP, grant for conference organization (The Digital Multilogue 2023)
  • 2022: Senate Berlin, grant for conference organization (The Digital Multilogue 2022)
  • 2022: Network Fashion & Textiles, grant for conference organization (The Digital Multilogue 2022)
  • 2022: Teaching & Learning Centre, AUP, grant for conference organization (The Digital Multilogue 2022)
  • 2022: Culture(s) de Mode, grant for conference organization (The Digital Multilogue 2022)
  • 2021: Senate Berlin, grant for conference organization (The Digital Multilogue 2021)
  • 2021: Network Fashion & Textiles, grant for conference organization (The Digital Multilogue 2021)
  • 2021: Fashion Seeds, grant for conference organization (The Digital Multilogue 2021)
  • 2021: Teaching & Learning Centre, AUP, grant for conference organization (The Digital Multilogue 2021)
  • 2021: Culture(s) de Mode, grant for conference organization (The Digital Multilogue 2021)
  • 2021-2023: Einstein Foundation, grant for Einstein Circle ‘Fashioning Education’ (team bid)
  • 2020: The Mellon Grant, AUP, grant for conference organization (The Digital Multilogue 2020)
  • 2020: Teaching & Learning Centre, AUP, grant for conference organization (The Digital Multilogue 2020)
  • 2020: Network Fashion & Textiles, grant for conference organization (The Digital Multilogue 2020)