Hiroshi Ashida "Words & Images: Data Surrounding Fashion"

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At Fashion Tech News, we bring on guest supervisors from various fields to deliver interdisciplinary special features that explore the future of fashion and technology. In our second feature, we welcome Hiroshi Ashida, a fashion researcher and Associate Professor at Kyoto Seika University’s Faculty of Design, as our supervisor to present five articles under the theme "Words & Images: Data Surrounding Fashion."

In collaboration with Ashida, who published "言葉と衣服" (literally "Words and Clothes") this February, we will delve into the current experience of words and images within fashion, the nature of the data surrounding fashion, and how this influences or could influence the interpretation of fashion, from perspectives of practice, research, and creation.

PROFILE

Hiroshi Ashida

Born in 1978. Ashida left the doctoral program at the Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies of Kyoto University after obtaining credits. He has worked as an Associate Curator at the Kyoto Costume Institute and is currently an Associate Professor / Vice President at Kyoto Seika University’s Faculty of Design. His specialization is in fashion theory. His notable works include "言葉と衣服" (Adachi Press, 2021). He has also translated works such as Agnes Rocamora and Aneka Smelik's edited volume "Thinking Through Fashion" (Chief Translator, Film Art Publishing, 2018). Ashida serves as an editorial board member for the fashion critique magazine "vanitas" (Adachi Press) and is a member of the operational team for the store "Kotobatofuku" that sells both books and clothes.

Considering Fashion from "Words & Images"

Thinking About Fashion Logically

My basic concern is how logically we can perceive fashion. To establish fashion as an academic field, we need to think logically. Technology, a major theme of Fashion Tech News, is an area of engineering, so I think we can share this concern. Some people in the fashion industry may view fashion as a sensory experience, but when it comes to education, it's difficult to teach something that is purely sensory.