The Library as Threshold: Liminality in the Context of Fashion Research

Davalli, Carolina Francesca Maria (2024) The Library as Threshold: Liminality in the Context of Fashion Research. In: P/References of Design. Cumulus conference proceedings series, 1 . Cumulus Association, Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest, Budapest, pp. 211-226. ISBN 978-952-7549-02-5

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Abstract

The academic field of Fashion Studies is a relatively new one and has been traditionally defined by its scholars as a mixed, hybrid and layered area of study. Merging various and sometimes unexpected disciplines, methods, and approaches; Fashion Studies have therefore been the protagonist of a long-lasting debate on their positioning within academia. With this paper, I argue that the state of in-between-ness which distinguishes this area of study permeates not only its identity as a discipline, but also as a research practice, ultimately characterizing the spaces in which it is carried out as well. The contribution employs key concepts such as liminality and thresholding to investigate the spatial qualities of fashion research and of the fashion library, with the objective of defining them as fundamentally intermediary, entre-deux and transgressive. These theoretical premises find their actualization in the analysis of International Library of Fashion Research (ILFR), a public library dedicated to fashion printed matter founded in 2020 by editor and curator Elise By Olsen and hosted since November 2022 by the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design of Oslo (NAM). Observing the intertwining of the digital ramifications of the project and its physical space, the peculiar positioning in fashion's geographies and the proximity to an established cultural institution, as well as the heterogeneity of the collection and the multidisciplinary team that guides it; ILFR can be identified as inherently decentralized, capillary and in-becoming, and therefore the ideal site-of-passage for fashion research.

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