Fashion Borders: Interdisciplinary Articulations of Clothing and Textiles

Title:  Fashion Borders: Interdisciplinary Articulations of Clothing and Textiles

Acronym:   FABO

Project Code: FABO TTF-IIP-01

Project Leader: Prof. Dr. Katarina Nina Simončič

Project Team Members:
Prof. art. dr. Jasminka Končić
Assist. prof. dr. Tonči Valentić
Assist. prof. dr. Karla Lebhaft
Assist. prof. dr. Maja Stracenski Kalauz
Assist. prof. art. Barbara Bourek
Dr. Ivana Lukica, Lecturer
Dr. Duje Kodžoman, Senior Assistant
Dr. Marijana Tkalec, Senior Assistant
Jozefina Ćurković, MA (Art History) and MA (Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology), Teaching Assistant

Collaborators from Other Institutions:
Maja Arčabić, Senior Museum Advisor, Zagreb City Museum

Project Summary:

The project “Boundaries of Fashion (FABO)” adopts an interdisciplinary approach to investigate the ways in which fashion, costume, and textiles are articulated visually, linguistically, and socio-economically within both historical and contemporary contexts, with particular emphasis on Croatian fashion of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
At the core of the research lies the concept of boundaries—understood not as fixed limitations, but as dynamic sites of negotiation between identity, the body (clothed and unclothed), materiality, language, technology, and social structures. The project seeks to bridge conventional divisions between theory and practice, past and present, haute and street fashion, wearable and conceptual design, as well as analogue and digital modes of production and representation. Fashion is examined as a cultural and productive system that both shapes and reflects social roles, values, and transformations, while simultaneously traversing or reinforcing various spatial, aesthetic, conceptual, and political boundaries.
The project aims to contribute to the scholarly valorisation of Croatian fashion, strengthen its visibility, and stimulate public dialogue on fashion as a key component of cultural, social, and economic identity.