This conference analysed the creative process of styling – the purposeful construction of a ‘look’ –whether it be in dress, space, or object.

In his theoretical writings on fashion, Roland Barthes underscored the complexities of how style is consciously constructed, for example observing that dandyism manifested in the careful selection and combination of particular sartorial items and conventions, with a keen attention to detail; that it was ‘not only an ethos… but also a technique.’ Today we might call this process ‘styling’, and those who engage in the practice professionally, or personally, ‘stylists’. In contemporary visual culture, the professional Stylist is familiar largely within fashion, but can also be found in other design fields such as architecture, interiors, product design, film, journalism, and commercial photography. The Stylist is perhaps an overlooked creative figure, although many artists and designers have themselves been Stylists of a sort in their own practice. Yet the act of styling as a form of creative production has had extremely limited discussion.

The ultimate goal of the conference was to gain a more nuanced and interdisciplinary understanding of styling, problematizing accepted views of the creative acts that lie at the heart of artistic production.

Key questions to be explored included: Can styling itself be considered a mode of creative process and practice? Can we employ styling as a theory to re-examine and unpack complicated issues surrounding the identities we construct through our clothes, homes, offices, and even personal effects? How does styling differ between creative disciplines? To what extent is identity performed through the act of styling? How do issues such as class, gender, geography and national identity affect styling?