INTO THE PAGE: Rethinking L’Officiel
A collaboration between L’OFFICIEL and PARSONS PARIS MA FASHION STUDIES
On the occasion of their shared centenary anniversary in 2021, L’Officiel and the MA in Fashion Studies at The New School Parsons join forces for a project on practices of representation in the fashion media and publishing industry.
Focusing on the case of the seminal magazine L’Officiel, students will explore practices of representation in this publication. Founded in 1921 within the Jalou Editions House, L’Officiel was born with the ambition to be the official voice of the fashion industry, playing a crucial role in its global dissemination and therefore becoming an exceptional prism to observe the oscillations of an industry based on change and novelty.
During the Fall semester, students will have the unique opportunity to dig into the unseen archive of this magazine and put in a contemporary perspective one of the most influential magazines in the history of fashion publishing. The aim of this project is to explore forgotten histories, its multiple trajectories and transformations, its unique contribution to the diversification of the landscape of global fashion in the industry and its role in the international and French publishing industry.
Not only students will reconstruct the history and the multiple figures involved in the making of L’Officiel but they will have to highlight specific themes emerging on the page of the magazine, revealing how fashion imaginaries in L’Officiel live in the intersection between representation of labour, gender, national identities, race, aesthetic subversion and class. During their work, students will be assisted by the MA Faculty and will also have the unique opportunity to receive feedback from Stefano Tonchi, Global chief Creative Officer of L’Officiel, and his team.
The final output of this research project will consist of an online presentation to the L’Officiel Team and a consequent exhibition of the students’ results.
We are thrilled welcome Stefano Tonchi, Global Chief Creative Officer of L’Officiel for a kick-off talk to launch this project on September 30, 2020.
Read more about the Parsons Paris MA program in Fashion Studies and follow the program on Instagram at @parsonsparis.fashionstudies.