About

MISSION STATEMENT

The Chicago Fashion Lyceum (CFL) is a community of fashion scholars, practitioners, and other engaged individuals convened to create spaces to advance the practices of thinking, making, and research in the field of fashion studies. The CFL is a place of sharing and learning for those who have studied formally and those who bring observations from places of knowing. Through international conferences, workshops, tours, lectures, reading groups, and critical response to fashion theory writings, our goal is to enable and develop broad, inclusive, enriching, and inspiring discussions.

VISION STATEMENT

The Chicago Fashion Lyceum envisions Chicago as a primary center for fashion research and theory in the United States.

BELIEF

The Chicago Fashion Lyceum believes that fashion is an essential component of the human condition. As such, we believe it demands purposeful interrogation and innovative examination.

VALUES

The Chicago Fashion Lyceum is founded on the three pillars of:

Criticality

Creativity

Collaboration

WHY LYCEUM?

The original Lyceum was a school founded by Aristotle in 335 BC just outside the city of Athens. The location was a temple to Apollo Lyceus (Apollo the wolf). At the Lyceum, Aristotle lectured for his students and the general public outside the constraints of more formal teaching spheres within the city. Just like the “wolves” of the Lyceum were engaged in philosophical discussion and debate outside the city limits of Athens, the members of the Chicago Fashion Lyceum embrace the potential of the periphery as a site for critical inquiry and creative experimentation in the field of fashion studies.

STEERING COMMITTEE

Abigail Glaum-Lathbury, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Camille Morgan, University of Chicago
Caroline Bellios, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
D. Denenge Duyst-Akpem, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Hoda Katebi, Blue Tin Production
Jacqueline WayneGuite
José Blanco, Ph.D., Dominican University
Lauren Downing Peters, Ph.D., Columbia College Chicago
Lotta Yanong, The Fashion Map
Melinda Watt, Art Institute of Chicago
Raúl Vázquez
Rikki Byrd, Northwestern University
Susan Neill, Field Museum
Timothy Campbell, University of Chicago
Toní Villaseñor-Marchal