Is there such a thing as rural fashion? What does it look like? Where is it located? Who wears it? From the 'green welly brigade' to 'our green and pleasant land', the projects hosted under the Fields of Fashion banner set out to understand all aspects of fashion in - and of - the rural.
The Fields of Fashion (FoF) research cluster operates out of the School of Art and Design at Nottingham Trent University. It was established in October 2008 and brings together a number of academics from diverse backgrounds in the visual and creative arts, all of whom share a common interest in fashion and rural life.
In recent years, there has been a tendency for scholarship to concentrate on the study of fashion in 'world cities' and urban spaces and places. The fashion industry too is organised around a hierarchy of city-based hubs: London, Paris, Milan, New York, Tokyo.
Meanwhile, rural spaces and places - the countryside - are imagined as being mired in anti-fashion with utilitarian work wear and traditional costume being the order of the day. Part of the work of the Fields of Fashion team is to consider the provenance of these arbitrary classifications - and to problematise them.
Findings from our (ongoing) fieldwork have been presented at international academic conferences, disseminated to key fashion industry players in the form of interactive workshops and published internationally as articles and visual essays. The FoF archive is a work-in-progress, containing interview transcripts, numerous digital images of consumption in the countryside and related ephemera.
