Symposium The Design of History and the History of Design


London College of Communication
15 September, 2025



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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




    Fenella Hitchcock
    Uchronic fashion collections as queer archives


    As Caroline Evans and Alessandra Vaccari note, ‘fashion has a curious affinity with unorthodox models of time’ as a performative and thus ‘time-based and time-specific medium’ (2020: 3). This paper explores strategies and aesthetics of contemporary fashion designers whose design practice engages with aspects of queer history and memory. In doing so, it initiates a map of diverse approaches to fashion as queer archive, focusing on the ways that specific works and collections can be said to encompass ‘emotional experiences and intimacies’ (Cvetkovich, 2014: 274).

    The first example discussed is Edward Crutchley’s Spring Summer 2022 collection as an illustration of anachronistic fashion practice. The paper analyses two looks developed from 18th century robe a l’anglaise, an ensemble originally worn in aristocratic salons and the everyday life of the upper classes. Particular attention is also placed on the use of specific textile techniques across the collection, as well as links drawn between London’s 18th and 19th century molly houses and 1980s and 90s queer club cultures.

    This is then contrasted with work produced by Adeju Thompson, founder of non-binary luxury label Lagos Space Programme. Analysis focuses on the brand’s Spring Summer 2024 project titled Cloth as Queer Archive, paying specific attention to the use of Yoruba textile cultures and resistance dyeing techniques. The paper positions this as an example of uchronic approaches to fashion, which also align with an Afrofuturist sensibility that shapes Thompson’s work.

    By bringing these examples together, the paper offers an expanded understanding of ‘queer fashion’, one which is grounded in practice and attentive to the ways in which temporality and materiality help to produce fashion’s affective force. Ultimately, it demonstrates fashion’s ability to both communicate and satisfy a ‘queer desire for history’ (Dinshaw et al 2007: 178) in a manner which is imaginative, playful and sensual.



    — Fenella Hitchcock

    Fenella Hitchcock is a Senior Lecturer in Cultural and Historical Studies at London College of Fashion. She publishes scholarly, critical and creative writing focused on the interrelationship of sexuality and style, with a particular interest in work at the boundaries of fashion and performance. She also conducts pedagogic research into the experiences of LGBTQ+ students in arts education. Her work can be found in journals such as Critical Studies in Men’s Fashion and Viscose. In tandem with her academic role, she also works with both emerging and established practitioners to communicate their work through a range of media.