Symposium The Design of History and the History of Design


London College of Communication
15 September, 2025



Book a ticket

SpeakerS and Abstracts:

Huda Almazroua
Alberto Atalla Filho
Russ Bestley
Kevin Biderman
Silvia Bombardini
David Cross
Dora Souza Dias
Sam Gathercole
Ian Horton and Ian Hague
Jennifer Hankin
Zarna Hart
John-Patrick Hartnett
Fenella Hitchcock
Abbie Vickress and Sakis Kyratzis
Christopher Lacy
Timothy Miller
Danah Nassief
Jesse O’Neill
Nina O’Reilly
Patrick O’Shea
David Preston
Cheryl Roberts
Rebecca Ross
Antoin Sharkey
Andrew Slatter
Kate Trant
Vanessa Vanden Berghe
Judy Willcocks
Christin Yu



A symposium for UAL’s Design History research community


The Design of History and the History of Design is a one-day symposium that maps research into, through or at the boundaries of design history at UAL. While design history may underpin our teaching across different disciplines, research in design history across UAL is somewhat hidden. This symposium aims to share and make visible the work of researchers (staff and students) at all career stages across all UAL colleges.

Exploring the intersections of historical narrative and design practice, it examines how history is constructed, represented, and mediated through design, and how the discipline of design itself is shaped by its evolving historiography.

The symposium will serve as the starting point for a Design History Network at UAL, bringing together researchers from across the university. It also lays the foundation for a welcoming research community in design history, with potential for ongoing events, collaboration, publications, and curriculum development.

If you have any questions or would like to be involved in future activities, please get in touch with the convenors:

Rujana Rebernjak
r.rebernjak@lcc.arts.ac.ukTai Cossich
t.cossich@lcc.arts.ac.uk
Please also sign up for the UAL Design Histories Newsletter




    Alberto Atala Filho

    Tailoring the Past: An Approach to Dress, Making, and Embodied Knowledge


    This presentation examines how history can be constructed and made visible through design, using a methodology that brings together object analysis, making, remaking, and embodied research. Focusing on early- to mid-nineteenth-century historical garments, this presentation explores how dress functions as material evidence and participant in the shaping of historical knowledge. This reflection positions design as a means of historical analysis by using three interconnected approaches: ‘dress as object of evidence’, ‘remaking as research method’, and ‘embodied research as process of knowing’. Together, these methods offer a way of accessing forms of historical understanding that are sensory, practice-based, and materially based. Through the examination of museum collection garments, historical tailoring techniques, and the experiential act of wearing remade clothing, this study highlights how the history of design is not only told through text, but also designed—using cut, construction, and movement. By engaging with the materiality of the past, this investigation challenges conventional historical narratives that neglect the labour, technique, and embodied knowledge embedded in clothing. It asks: what can made, or remade garments tell us that archival documents cannot? And how might historical research change when it is practiced through the hands and the body, rather than through the written word? This paper contributes to a growing discourse around practice-informed design history, demonstrating how the relationship between design, making and theory can open new ways for understanding the past—not only as it was recorded, but as it was worn, made, and experienced.



    — Alberto Atalla Filho

    Alberto Atalla Filho is an Associate Lecturer in Cultural and Historical Studies at UAL, London College of Fashion. He has over 35 years of experience working in the fashion industry in creative and technical roles, as well as lecturing and teaching in Brazil and the UK. He holds a BA in Fashion Business with a specialization in Fashion Design from Anhembi Morumbi University in São Paulo, Brazil, and a Master’s degree in Pattern and Garment Technology from UAL, London College of Fashion, where he is completing a practice-based PhD in Cultural and Historical Studies. He has collaborated with The Underpinnings Museum, co-curating the exhibition Remaking the Past, and has taught numerous fashion courses. He also recently published an article in the Costume journal.

    Costume journal: Engaging the Past to Fashion the Future: The Use of Early Nineteenth-Century Bespoke Tailored Men’s Coats and Gender Narratives to Shape Contemporary Womenswear.

    The Underpinnings Museum: Remaking the Past

    Instagram: @to_look_at