BIAS: Journal of Dress Practice Issue 8 - Fashion + Systems

CONTRI BUTORS Itala Aguilera is a textile artist from Mexico City. She is interested in reflecting the exploration of the unconscious and sexuality through clothing and textiles. She experiments with a mix of textiles and unconventional materials in her work and is currently playing with crochet, knitting, and ceramics in her practice. @italaaguilera Henrique Grimaldi Figueredo is a PhD student in Sociology at the University of Campinas (IFCH-UNICAMP), São Paulo, Brazil. He is also a PhD candidate in Sociology at l’École des Hautes Éudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris, France. Executive editor of “All the Arts Luso-Brazilian Journal of Art and Culture,” University of Porto, Portugal. He is a scholarship recipient at FAPESP- Research Support Foundation of the State of São Paulo.

Elena Johansen is a 2021 graduate of the MA Fashion Studies program at Parsons School of Design. Before moving to New York from Oregon, she worked in financial technology and is focusing her academic and career efforts in Fashion Archiving. She is currently a Research Assistant for two Parsons faculty and also a Teaching Assistant for an undergraduate History of Fashion course. She recently completed her MA thesis titled “Monstrous Women: Costuming Horror Film in the 21st Century.” It investigates the costuming of women in a selection of horror films from the 21st century and how these costumes express and intensify the current social and cultural narrative.

Asato Kitamura was born in 1996 in Japan. His creation comes from two basic desires. The first is to help people who are misunderstood make sense of this existence, and the second is to have an outlet for the feelings he has built up from his creative world. This world is a peculiar, somber, and vaguely spiritual space, where multiple detached versions of himself exist. For him, fashion design is the only way out of loneliness and the only way to save others from loneliness. The fashion that goes from creator to others and is perfected by wearing is the only bond between him and others and it is the strongest communication for him. @asato_kitamura Sasha de Koninck is an artist and researcher from Santa Monica, CA. She graduated in 2013 with a BFA in fibers, a minor in creative writing, and a concentration in sound art from Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). The next leg of her journey led her to the Windy City, where she graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) with an MFA in Fiber and Material Studies. She is currently a PhD student in Intermedia Art, Writing, and Performance at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she works with Laura Devendorf and the Unstable Design Lab. Currently, her work is centered around labor and the undoing of labor; the relationship between the body and the garment; and dissolving. studiosdk.net Mailye Matos currently works as a stylist and lecturer on fashion history and theory at Universidad del Sagrado Corazon where she also obtained a BA in Communications. She ís passionate about fashion sociology and fashion’s role in shaping identity, politics, and societal structures. She was born in New Jersey and raised in Puerto Rico. Traveling between New York and Puerto Rico initially inspired her interest in fashion. Her experience as an international exchange student in Universidad Argentina de la Empresa exposed her to fashion history and sociology.

Maureen Muse uses photography, video, installation, and performance to communicate stories, particularly narratives that visualize an embodied discomfort and rebelliousness towards one’s own existence. She received a BFA in 2017 from Parsons Paris studying in the program of Art, Media, and Technology. She also spent time in Paris studying photography and video at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (ENSAD). maureenmuse.com