Danish fashion research is important to the future of Danish design

Danish fashion research is crucial if Danish design still wants to be among the front runners

Fashion has caught on as a field of research within cultural as well as societal research. Fashion research is a key marker, which Danish design can and must use in order to survive globally. These are the words of Associate Professor Lise Skov from the Department of Intercultural Communication and Management at CBS. She is the editor of the Western Europe edition of the recently published "Bergs Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion".

First global overview

The encyclopedia, which covers the past 200 years, is the first to give a general overview of clothing and fashion in the world.

Lise Skov has been listening to the wishes of the design schools in the process of picking out topics for the encyclopedia.

- For instance, they demand research-based knowledge of how cultural differences may affect fashion, and it must be communicated in a digestible manner for their students.

Research is important to design

Such knowledge is very important for Danish design and how it will manage globally in the future. So therefore it is important that we have research within fashion, says Lise Skov

- When the fashion industry is looking for more cultural knowledge, forming alliances with researchers is clearly the way to go, says Lise Skov.

Very fragmented research

Fashion research is still very fragmented seen from a Danish and an international perspective. In Denmark, fashion research is conducted both at CBS, the University of Copenhagen and the design schools, but so far it does not point in the same direction. And internationally, research is characterised by researchers basing their research on their own country.

- And even if we have a common culture in so many ways, we do not have common knowledge. There are not yet an unambiguous understanding and definition of concepts, periods, etc. It was a challenge for me to edit this encyclopedia, but it is also a barrier for transnational collaboration, says Lise Skov.

Networks on the way

Both in Denmark and internationally, there are formal and informal research networks on the way. One of them is a Nordic network. A network worked up by the encyclopedia collaboration. This network for fashion researchers called "Wardrobe" are studying how people are using their clothes in connection with general issues such as innovation and environmental impact.

- Network are an important way to connect researchers from different disciplines and institutions. And the interdisciplinarity helps keeping research relevant to society, says Lise Skov.

Read more about the encyclopedia at Berg Publishers