Papers by Nicolas Cambridge
Fashion practice, May 1, 2011
(2011). Exhibition Review: Maison Martin Margiela 20. Fashion Practice: Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 123-130.
Journal of Design History, May 1, 2011
(2011). Exhibition Review: Maison Martin Margiela 20. Fashion Practice: Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 123-130.
The thesis addresses the reception and consumption of Japanese fashion in the U.K. between 1980 a... more The thesis addresses the reception and consumption of Japanese fashion in the U.K. between 1980 and 2006 and concomitant constructions of Japanese identity in the critical discourses surrounding fashion. It examines the impacts of the sartorial traffic emanating from the Japanese fashion system, the creative outputs of which are polarised in Western critical thought as either unreflective cultural borrowings (Japanisation, appropriation) or as embodying an unfathomable Eastern aesthetic (zen, wabi/sabi, wa). Building on a substantive account of the cultural impacts of the initial encounters with the West, the investigation identifies sites where Japanese sartorial culture is consumed in the form of text, image and artefact. A variety of methodological approaches are mobilised in the analysis of data from retail outlets, cultural institutions and media publications. Material pertaining to "high-concept designers" whose outputs are largely consumed within visual and intellectual contexts is balanced by that from "high street apparel makers" operating in a more commercially-oriented manner. Findings regarding the role of an "intermediate matrix" of designers/brands employing creative approaches and retail strategies that supersede issues of culture, race and historicity are presented in order to map a creative continuum in contemporary Japanese fashion design. In addressing the imbrications of Japanese identity and contemporary sartorial practice, the thesis interrogates research findings from creative, commercial, critical, curatorial and mass media sources within a framework of existing academic accounts of the construction of Japan in the Western mind. The conclusion articulates new readings of the nature of "Japanese-ness" available to a globally connected audience and identifies a gendered differentiation between visual representations of Japanese-designed fashion mediated through the gatekeepers of sartorial culture in the United Kingdom.
International Journal of Fashion Design Technology and Education, Jul 1, 2013
International Journal of Business and Globalisation, 2016
Journal of Design History, 2011
Romanian Journal of Communication and Public Relations
This article documents a practice-based research project that interrogated the aesthetic assumpti... more This article documents a practice-based research project that interrogated the aesthetic assumptions and material contingencies incorporated into the regime of flat pattern cutting. An introductory section provides a historical overview of the discipline's development, ranging from its antecedents in the courts of medieval Europe to challenges to the system's hegemony authored by contemporary practitioners. The main section documents the development of a methodological approach derived from the gendered rubrics of apparel-sizing regimes and its implementation via the predictive function of a digital design package. Examples of creative outcomes produced by, in effect, 'unpicking' the standard design sequence are provided in diagrammatic and photographic form. The conclusion situates the findings within overarching debates surrounding the discipline of fashion – suggesting that in dynamic interactions between the 'new' knowledge of design technology and 'traditional' knowledge of sartorial culture lie opportunities for reconciling commercial imperatives of the mass market with innovations in design-led creative practice.
International Journal of Management Cases, 2011
Interactions: Studies in Communication & Culture, 2013
Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture, 2004
Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture, 2006
Fashion Practice The Journal of Design Creative Process & the Fashion Industr, 2011
Fashion Practice The Journal of Design Creative Process & the Fashion Industr, 2009
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Papers by Nicolas Cambridge