Write with Us!

 

The Fashion Studies Journal (FSJ) is an activist-oriented online home for members of the global fashion studies community to share and discuss fashion within a rapidly evolving world. More than just another fashion magazine, blog, or website, we are here to cultivate new ways of thinking about – and being involved in – the system of fashion, and aim to carve out a space for new voices to speak about how fashion is taught, researched, conceptualized, and preserved.

While we support topics that investigate the many facets of fashionable embodiment, production, and mediation, we are always looking for new content that amplifies marginalized voices and experiences, approaches fashion scholarship from alternative and innovative angles (e.g., practice-based scholarship, critical design, etc.), and foregrounds labor issues in the fashion industry and academia. We aim to disturb the canons of traditional academic writing, and welcome you to write with us.

Please send pitches of no more than 100 words to info@fashionstudiesjournal.org. Pitches are accepted on a rolling basis, and reviewed monthly by our editorial board. 

Looking for some inspiration? Here are some recently published articles that reflect our renewed mission to prioritize perspectives that are equitable, feminist, queer, and actively antiracist:

• Fashion and Motherhood Issue, Edited by Laura Snelgrove
• Fashion as Collective Action by Erique Zhang
• Op-Ed: Designing our Futures - Fashioning Small Markets by Jonah Solomon
• Sacrifice and Scarcity: The Realities of Museum Work by Callie O’Connor
• Making it Work: Kim Jenkins and The Fashion and Race Database by Laura Snelgrove
• The Material is the Message: Or, US Democrats in Kente Cloth and the System of Fashion by Osman Nemli
• Dressing for Protest: The Abortion Movement in Buenos Aires by Ismelka Gomez
• More Than Sight: Embodying Blindness at Dialogue in the Dark by Julie Macindoe
• The Uncertainties of Faculty Life During a Pandemic by Anthony Palliparambil, Jr.

This special issue of FSJ builds on the conference Front and (Off-)Centre: Fashion and Southeast Asia, which sought to answer three questions:

1. How do fashion practitioners with ties to Southeast Asia engage with the self, their local regional communities, and the global fashion system?
2. What are the ideas and values that underpin the work that they do?
3. What are the common threads and unique characteristics that define fashion from the region, if any?

The issue will further explore some of the themes that emerged from the conference. Broadly:

1. Creative agency can be observed in historical and contemporary fashion practices, and we have much learning – and unlearning— about this to do.
2. Pride in local knowledge systems drives preservation (including innovation) of the traditional for the present.
3. There is intentionality in creating things of lasting value.

We invite both researchers and industry practitioners to address the themes through these areas of interest: archives, businesses, curation, design, diaspora, films, identities, journalism, multi-disciplinarity, styling, and the wardrobe. This can be in the form of an academic, reflective or visual essay, an interview, or please feel free to propose an alternative format you would like to offer. In essence, the issue will continue efforts to decentralise fashion studies with content from the Southeast Asian fashion community.

If you are keen to apply, please submit in a single PDF an abstract/proposal of 150-200 words, with a representative image, and a biography of 100 words.

We are also looking for a graphic designer to work on the issue. Pleasee send a portfolio with 3 to 5 samples of work, and a biography of 100 words.

All applications are to be sent to the guest editor, Nadya Wang, at nadya@fashionandmarket.net by 15 September 2023, with the subject “FSJ: Fashio & Southeast Asia.” Applicants will be notified of the outcome by 20 October 2023.
Recent years have brought big changes to FSJ, including the welcoming of guest editors into our publishing program. The success of these guest-edited issues inspires us to continue to invite new voices onto our platform, and we hope you’ll join us! We particularly invite contributions that will amplify marginalized voices, facilitate honest conversations about the fashion industry and fashion academia, and create space for our global community to congregate in solidarity.

What is a guest-edited issue?

Guest editors will choose a topic, write a call for papers, select the authors, and oversee submissions through to publishing. FSJ editors can assist with every step of the process, from conceiving and writing the CFP, to assisting with editing and copyediting, to sourcing illustrations and original artwork to accompany the pieces. The guest-edited issue will then live on our open-access website indefinitely.

Why FSJ?

FSJ can get your scholarship and writing to an engaged audience. With a global and dedicated readership spanning every continent (except Antarctica...at least to our knowledge!), our site welcomes an average of 10,000 unique visitors per month and 15,000 page views (not to mention our rapidly expanding Instagram following). Different from formal academic journals, we also have a wider and more diverse readership that includes scholars, practitioners, business professionals, and general fashion enthusiasts alike. While a good number of our articles also appear on academic syllabi and reading lists, we also encourage writing and creative work that transcends the boundaries of academic scholarship, a freedom many of our contributors relish.

What kinds of topics make for a good issue of FSJ?

While we are interested in topics that investigate the many facets of fashionable embodiment, production, and mediation, we particularly welcome proposals that amplify marginalized voices and experiences, approach fashion scholarship from alternative and innovative angles (e.g., practice-based scholarship, critical design, etc.), and foreground labor and identity issues in the fashion industry and academia. You can read more about our commitment to diversity, equity, and antiracism here and here and you can visit our past guest-edited issues here and here.

Who can submit a proposal?

Anyone really! We do, however, especially welcome editors who don’t quite see their projects fitting the conventions of traditional academic publishing (i.e., edited volumes and peer-reviewed special journal issues) and who would like to see their work reach a wider audience. We also welcome the convenors of academic conferences and panels to consider FSJ to share their contributors’ work and research. Existing platforms can also propose collaborations to be co-published or otherwise create a bridge between your readers and ours. Recent graduates of MA and Ph.D. programs in fashion studies, dress history, creative publishing, or related fields are also encouraged to submit proposals. From our experience, we recommend that editorial teams stay between 1-4 people and that at least one member have experience in a similar role.

How do I propose a special issue?

We ask that you submit a title and 250-word summary of the topics to be covered in your special issue, a list of potential contributors and/or articles, and 250-word (max) bios for each of the guest editors to info@fashionstudiesjournal.org.

What’s the timeline?

A special issue will take anywhere from 12-18 months to a year of flexible, part-time engagement to complete from start to finish.

Can I/we submit a proposal for an issue in a language other than English?

We are keen to expand access to the articles we publish by offering more translations to and from English. While we don’t have in-house translators, previous guest editors have successfully secured outside funds to facilitate translations for their contributors’ work and we are ready to support any future such efforts. Please see the recent guest-edited issue Border Garments: Fashion, Feminisms, and Disobedience for an example of how we have included translated content in two languages.

What if I/we have questions?

We’re here to answer them! Just shoot an email to info@fashionstudiesjournal.org.