Dressing the New World. The Trade and the Culture of Clothing in the New Spanish Colonies (1600-1800)

Project Information

DRESSINGTHENEWWORLD

Grant agreement ID: 661517

DOI

10.3030/661517

Project closed

EC signature date 19 March 2015

Start date 1 September 2015

End date 31 August 2017

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 212 194,80

EU contribution

€ 212 194,80

Coordinated by

KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET
Denmark

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - DRESSINGTHENEWWORLD (Dressing the New World. The Trade and the Culture of Clothing in the New Spanish Colonies (1600-1800))

Reporting period: 2015-09-01 to 2017-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

1. Summary: DRESSING THE NEW WORLD: The Trade and the Culture of Clothing in the New Spanish Colonies 1600-1800.
What effect did the successful marketing of European products have on the New World at the beginning of the 18th century? And how should one go about studying the European Fashion and Textiles that transformed the way people dressed in the Spanish colonies?

“Dressing the New World” research project is framed by a unique document, which describes Mexico in 1700s. This document is a rare reference for the knowledge of Spanish America at the beginning of the 18th century, and a very unique source to understand how and why Europe aimed to disseminate its textiles, commodities and fashionable goods overseas.

The research project seeks to consider Early Modern Fashion in detail through this historical piece and other resources from literature, iconography and material culture, merging into different disciplines: Modern History, Art History and Dress History. Finally, the research project aims to integrate the impact of politics and global connections in fashion studies for the early modern period. Official reports, political correspondence and accounts written by travelers are a rich source of information that allows us to write the history of fabrics and fashions and to study their impact, consumption and distribution in early modern times. Taken together these sources will offer a unique manner in which to envisage and articulate textiles and dress in the mix of cultures of the New World from the Spanish conquest in 1521 up to the 19th century, and map up how the global market connected different parts of the world in early modern time.

Matched with a unique source of iconography (the “Casta paintings”), the achieved research aim to produce the first illustrated glossary on Textiles and Garments whose were consumed on a global scale in the preindustrial time.
Dressing the New World Blog: https://dressworld.hypotheses.org

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

2. The work performed during the fellowship was:
- The study of reports, politic correspondences for the years 1700-1715 found in the national archives and public libraries in Paris.
- Object research in museum collections was undertaken in order to connect texts, images and objects for the material culture study.
- The visual study of Casta paintings.
Implementation was very good at the University of Copenhagen. Thanks to Prof Marie-Louise Nosch I could manage my research with independence thinking and could enhance my creativity in learning and building up new research ideas within the research centre. I have received encouragements from Prof Nosch to perform my work and organize guest lectures and seminars at CTR and at the French Embassy in Denmark. Along with the research carried out, regular meetings were attended each month at the research centre as well as regular coaching sessions with the research mentor and CTR director at the university in Copenhagen, and brown bag lunch lectures with the other research and Marie Curie fellows at CTR. I received training in all sorts of ways from CTR with a focus on experimental lab, and got knowledge from CTR scholar community.
Training was also very well performed in Textile analysis and expertise in the Netherlands, Curatorial practice in London, Blog training in Paris, and Application writing in Copenhagen.
Networking activity was intense and very fruitful through membership such as ICOM, CIETA and Asiatic Society.
Teaching experience was gained through the organization of seminars (2016-2017) at the University of Copenhagen and for the CTR Summer School in 2017.
3. Actions of the research achieved are:
- Research Blog instalment (2015-17): Website DRESSING THE NEW WORLD https://dressworld.hypotheses.org
- 24 Objects in Focus presenting context, text and images construct the list of fashionable goods available and consumed in 18th century-Mexico. These OIF build up the virtual exhibition on the “Dressing the New World” project Website, and reach a broad audience through the net (2015-17) with about 1000 visits each month.
- Glossary writing and draft for publication project.
- Conferences papers and attendees: ICOM-Costume committee and annual meetings (2015-17), and many international conferences.
- Publication in peer reviewed journal “Perspective” INHA-Paris special issue on Textile (2016).
- 4 Essays and Book chapters (2017).
- Proceedings of ICOM-Costume annual conference (2015 & 2017).
- Project DRESSING THE NEW WORLD Networking activities and final outreach activity (2017).
- Open up to a new research project about Rococo in Scandinavia (May 2017).
- A successful application for a visiting fellowship at the Bard Graduate Center in New York (USA) in the fall 2017.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Outreach of the research:
Mobility: 6 countries visited during the fellowship outside Denmark (Canada, France, UK, Netherlands, Italy, USA)
Training: curatorial training x 1 (abroad: UK), textile training x 1 (abroad: Netherlands), blog training x 2 (abroad: France), application writing training x 3 (inland: Denmark)
Networking: Project collaborators, including professors, students, independent scholars, museum curators and conservators from 22 different countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, UK, USA.
Outcomes of the research:
Publication: 11 publications on paper, 3 proceedings on-lines publications
Research Blog: 29 posts
Research reviewed: Nyhedsbrev 2016 (Denmark), Week-end Avisen 2017 (Denmark), HUMANIST University Magazine 2016-17 (Denmark), blog Enfilades 2016-17 (USA), ICOM-Costume newsletter 2016-17 (International), CIETA newsletter 2016-17 (International)
4. Links and Websites:
Research Blog DRESSING THE NEW WORLD:
https://dressworld.hypotheses.org
Professional profile on Linkedin:
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/corinne-thepaut-cabasset-ba608a36
Researcher Profile on academic Webpage University of Copenhagen:
www.ctr.hum.ku.dk
Research on social media:
http://www.ifm-paris.com/en/ifm/fashion-school/presentation.html
2017-2018 Research Fellows at the Bard Graduate Center, NYC (USA)
https://www.bgc.bard.edu/bgc-research-fellowship

Final Conference Copenhagen May 2017

Corinne Thepaut-Cabasset organizer of seminar on dress and Diplomacy at CTR March 2017

CTR researcher office

Corinne Thepaut-Cabasset leading discussion with the guest in Copenhagen nov 2016

interview with Monique Levi-Strauss, Palais Thott, The French Embassy in Denmark, nov 2016