The Yarn (zine) 2025

Antwerp - Brussels 

contact: pierreantoine.vettorello (at) kdg.be #2 On Colonial Violence in Fashion Museums

Official Launch Monday APRIL 28 2025    

Pre-order your copy! First drop APRIL 15 2025




ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS


Editor: Pierre-Antoine Vettorello
Graphic Design, illustration and layout: Felix Godefroy
Copy-editing: Pierre-Antoine Vettorello & David Garrahy. 
Extra Thanks to Julie Brunel, Kim Gorus & Diana Arbaiza.

Advisory board: Erica de Greef, Audrey Bartis, Mi Medrado & Alison Moloney

Support: Antwerp Reserach Institute for the Arts (University of Antwerp)
Sint Lucas School of arts


Publisher: Black Yarns Antwerpen
ISBN number 978-2-9603419-1-1.

First edition of 300 copies 

ENG/ 

This second issue of The Yarn explores colonial violence in fashion museums, museums often acting as “hygienist” entities—fixated on “cleansing and disinfecting their contaminated past” (Deliss, 2022). At stake here is the intersection of two frameworks invented in colonial contexts, fashion and museums, and how their entanglement involves specific negotiations. Fashion’s sympathy capital has driven many Western museums to curate exhibitions that foreground national historiographies through designers’ stories, social movements, and selected notable figures. What role, then, does the fashion museum play in upholding colonialism and imperialism? This bilingual anthology provides a platform for reflecting on the role of fashion museums in the decolonial discourse and exploring ways to challenge their foundations. It welcomes texts by Alison Moloney, Angela Jansen and Karolien de Clippel, Françoise Vergès, Audrey Bartis, Pallavi Chamarty, Morolake Dairo, Sharifa Jamaldin, Marius Janusauskas, and Pierre-Antoine Vettorello. It also features in dialogues, Kaat Debo, Janice Deul, Gangadhar gaaru, Nashilongweshipwe Mushaandja, Nyanchama Okemwa, and Michaëlle Sergile

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CONTRIBUTORS/

• Audrey Bartis - Decoding the Absence, Weaving the Traces. In conversation with Michaëlle Sergile.
  

• Pallavi Chamarty - Our Riches and Their Riches: A block maker's record, museums and the archive. Interview with Gangadhar gaaru.
  

• Morolake Dairo - What’s in a name and place? A review of the Victoria & Albert Museum’s ‘Africa Fashion’ Exhibition. 
  
  
• Angela Jansen & Karolien de Clippel - Shared Histories: Dior by Maison Joste Casablanca.
  
  
• Sharifa Jamaldin
  • - The Lack of Representativeness in the Fashion Museums Collections Curation: In conversation with Janice Deul.
• Marius Janusauskas - Kinds of Closets: Reimagining Fashion Installations.

• Alison Moloney - Absence as Action.
  

• Seminar transcripts - Archival Frictions: In conversation with Nashilogweshipwe Mushaandja, Nyanchama Okemwa, Kaat Debo, and Alison Moloney.
  
  
• Françoise Vergès - The Death of the Textile Industry and the Birth of the Fashion Museum in the West.
  
  
• Pierre-Antoine Vettorello -
  • Reviewing the Fashion Folklore Exhibition at the Mucem in Marseille.

• Book Review by Pierre-Antoine Vettorello - Reclaiming Artisanal Legacies: Handcrafted Traditions and Community History in Ariella Aïsha Azoulay The Jewellers of the Ummah: A Potential History of the Jewish Muslim World (2024).

 
FR/

Ce deuxième numéro de The Yarn explore la violence coloniale dans les musées de mode, des musées qui agissent souvent comme des entités « hygiénistes » - fixées sur « le nettoyage et la désinfection de leur passé contaminé » (Deliss, 2022). L'enjeu est ici l'intersection de deux cadres inventés en contextes coloniaux, la mode et les musées, et la manière dont leur entrelacement implique des négociations spécifiques. Le capital de sympathie de la mode a poussé de nombreux musées occidentaux à organiser des expositions qui mettent en avant les historiographies nationales à travers les histoires des “créateurs”, les mouvements sociaux et des personnalités choisies. Quel rôle joue alors le musée de la mode dans le maintien du colonialisme et de l'impérialisme? Cette anthologie bilingue offre une plateforme de réflexion sur le rôle des musées de la mode dans le discours décolonial et explore les moyens de remettre en question leurs fondements. Elle accueille des textes d'Alison Moloney, Angela Jansen et Karolien de Clippel, Françoise Vergès, Audrey Bartis, Pallavi Chamarty, Morolake Dairo, Sharifa Jamaldin, Marius Janusauskas et Pierre-Antoine Vettorello. En dialogue avec, Kaat Debo, Janice Deul, Gangadhar gaaru, Nashilongweshipwe Mushaandja, Nyanchama Okemwa et Michaëlle Sergile.

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CONTRIBUTEURS.ICES/

• Audrey Bartis - Décoder l’absence, tisser les traces. Entretien avec Michaëlle Sergile Michaëlle Sergile.
  

• Pallavi Chamarty - Nos trésors et leurs trésors : témoignage d’un sculpteur de blocs d’impression sur les musées et les archives. Entretien avec Gangadhar gaaru.
  

• Morolake Dairo - Le nom et le lieu. Une critique de l'exposition Africa Fashion du Victoria & Albert Museum  
  
  
• Angela Jansen & Karolien de Clippel - Histoires entrelacées : Dior by Maison Joste Casablanca.
  
  
• Sharifa Jamaldin
  • - Le manque de représentativité dans le commissariat des expositions de mode : entretien avec Janice Deul.
• Marius Janusauskas - Types de placards : Réinventer les installations de mode .

• Alison Moloney - L’absence comme action.
  

• Seminar transcripts - Archival Frictions: In conversation with Nashilogweshipwe Mushaandja, Nyanchama Okemwa, Kaat Debo, and Alison Moloney.
  
  
• Françoise Vergès - La mort de l’industrie textile et la naissance du musée de la mode en Occident.
  
  
• Pierre-Antoine Vettorello -
  • Une critique de l’exposition Fashion Folklore au Mucem de Marseille .

• Critique litéraire de Pierre-Antoine Vettorello - Se réapproprier les héritages artisanaux : traditions et histoires communautaires dans « Les bijoutiers de l'Oumma : Une histoire potentielle du monde judéo-musulman » (2024) par l’autrice Ariella Aïsha Azoulay.

Previous Issue - The Yarn #1 (2023)






If we ever believed that colonial violence ended upon entering the educational system, we were mistaken. The roots of colonial hegemony, patriarchy, and capitalism underlie the very framework of the fashion education system, enticing numerous young students each year with aspirations and desires. It creates hierarchies, classifications, and othering. The Yarn offers a compilation of writings from individuals with an experience of the system as students, teachers, or models within the fashion school, and those who perceive and question these institutions as places where colonial violence persists. It provides a platform for individuals who have encountered or witnessed violence related to race, class, and the environment and who desire to share their experiences through their written works.
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This anthology of texts forms part of a wider research endeavour focused on exploring the intersections between colonial hegemonies and the Western fashion system and redefine fashion in the present context. The study involves an examination of the modes of canonization of designers, places and hierarchies within the Western fashion environment. The research delves into the dynamics of colonisation and their impact on the fashion industry between the Global North and South. It also considers how these dynamics are established, propagated, and the ideologies they disseminate.

CONTRIBUTORS/ CONTRIBUTEURS.ICES

1. Sandra Niessen - Violence by Definition

2. Audrey Bartis - Atypical

3. Seija Mistiaen - Watching From the Elevated Platform

4. Celina Szymanowski - The Ordinary Cotton

5. Sarah Bartmann - Moon Face

6. Veronica Pesantes - Representation Matters : Recent Fashion Photography and Non-performative Diversity

7. Ivoire Boza-Nguyen - You Must Wear a Mask in the Fashion School

8. Afez Chirazi - My Sanctuary, My Life

9. Douglas Dos Santos - Grávida Dourada

10. Maryse Simplon - I Have Regained my Dignity

11. Sonia Tagba-Millet - Embracing Natural Skin Tones

12. Pierre-Antoine Vettorello - The Chicken or the Egg ?