Theme
This year’s theme is focused on luxury, sustainability and waste with particular attention to the history of luxury, craft and the handmade, materials, sourcing and production, eco-design, consumption and consumer attitudes, the retail environment, technology, re-purposing, re-use and re-framing, branding, marketing and communications, and fashion film.
The 2018 conference provides a platform to examine and expand our understanding of luxury within the sustainable context. By inviting contributions from various disciplines, we aim at generating a lively debate on the past, present, and future of luxury.
For the first time, we’ve welcomed submissions of fashion films that explore luxury through visual storytelling and look forward to this engaging media as part of the conference. The aim of the conference is to explore the concept of luxury from a variety of perspectives.
Delegates come from a global constituency and bring a correspondingly wide range of perspectives to the subject. The conference also provides an interdisciplinary forum to examine the subject of luxury and delegates come from the disciplines of design, history, cultural studies, retail, architecture, business, communication studies, marketing and economics.
Within the conference we welcome debate on what luxury means on an individual, social and cultural level. Can this be enhanced through consumption, and if so how do we deal with materials in a way that aspires to zero environmental impact? The implications of circular economies, supply chains and a reassessment of the actual value of materials, are considered in the context of luxury. Why for example, are diamonds more valuable than recycled plastic? We have kept it focused to provide all attendees with the opportunity to have discussions and engage with the presenters and panel members in an open forum.
Our goal beyond the conference is to continue to build a network of academics and industry practitioners, and to continue this important dialogue in a peer reviewed publication, and new research projects and initiatives which will help shape the form of the fourth international In Pursuit of Luxury conference. We would like to thank Ruth Prowse, School of Art, Idiom and Spier for hosting us. We hope that you enjoy the conference and that our mutual interests in the subject of luxury will provide a springboard for further debate and research.
Dr Shaun Borstrock, Dr Silvio Carta and Dr Veronica Manlow
For further information about our conference programme, please contact our coordinator Nicholas Thomas (info@inpursuitofluxury.com) or complete the contact form below, providing a statement of your background, interests and the areas in which you wish to contribute.