Amidst the blurred boundaries of fashion and research, as they collide with various fields and disciplines, a profound challenge arises: the very foundations of knowledge in fashion practices must be rethought. As bodies and materials alike become increasingly expansive in their potential, we find ourselves asking: what are bodies and materials in the realm of fashion practices? And what may they become?

The shifting classifications of materials, as they transform into tangible forms of ‘matter', and the body that both creates and performs fashion, captivates, confounds and challenges practitioners. Linear methodology no longer suffices to capture the current state of fashion design; the future spaces of fashion design and research demand imaginative reconceptualisation. Fashion, traditionally understood as the association of materials and objects with established cultural, social, and commercial categories, transcends these categories to produce novel cultural identities, meanings, and ways of being. Its materials, though non-linguistic, contribute to the construction and substantiation of cultural capital.

This conference invites an exploration of matters' artistic potential in fashion design, as they shape the body and unlock new modes of creative expression. Through experimentation and research, we hope to reveal materials' previously undiscovered capacities and agencies in fashion design, unlocking novel ways of thinking, being, wearing and living. Thus, acknowledging the material’s propensity between things and bodies, the aim of this conference is to experimentally explore the artistic potential in all aspects of materials that is of importance to fashion practices.

The conference invites exhibitions, performances, showings, demonstration, intervention, pictorials and social events. We are interested in ways to present research with a focus on creative practice outcomes which may challenge traditional conference formats.

Keynote speakers, exhibitions and performances will introduce discussions, perspectives and critical reflection on ’everything’ and ’everybody’ as materials in the development of new fashion design methods.

The conference is presented by the School of Fashion and Textiles, RMIT University, ArtEZ University of the Arts and The Swedish School of Textiles, University of Borås.