Books by Mark J O'Connell
Lilac Time at the Rodeo: Stories of Identity, AIDS & Fashion, 2021
The subjects of the Lilac Time series of books are Gay male fashion and art practitioners we lost... more The subjects of the Lilac Time series of books are Gay male fashion and art practitioners we lost to AIDS: Steven Varble/Marie Debris; David Wojnarowicz & Martin Wong; and Patrick Kelly & Antonio Lopez (among others). In Lilac Time at the Rodeo we visit with: Chester Weinberg, Halston, and Way Bandy . These men, because of the stigma attached to their illness, were never properly eulogized. Bright, brilliant, and visionary all, the loss of these men to AIDS was devastating. In some cases, the memory of their oeuvres is fading, in others prurient focus on the narratives of their lives overshadows their work, in others they are now forgotten or excised from fashion history entirely. This is not only an injustice to their legacies, it leaves a disrupted chronology of Queer history. It also leaves some really wild and wonderful stories, as yet, untold. This (illustrated) book not only shines a light on their premature AIDS-related mortalities, but it also includes personal reflections from the author, and adds to the record of the vibrant and beautiful work that these men produced, and how they lived.
Papers by Mark J O'Connell
Stitching a Digital Age: The Convergence of Fashion and Technology
This article explores the intersection of fashion, gender, control, and technology in the represe... more This article explores the intersection of fashion, gender, control, and technology in the representation of female robots in science fiction. Through an analysis of iconic films such as Metropolis, The Stepford Wives, Blade Runner, and the series Better than Us, the research examines how fashion is utilized to convey deeper issues of gender performativity, domination, and the fluidity of identity. Drawing on theoretical frameworks from Jean Baudrillard and Judith Butler, the article argues that these representations serve not merely as aesthetic choices but as critical commentaries on the role of technology in shaping human identities and societal norms. By analyzing the hyperreal simulacra of these robotic figures and their subversive performances of gender, the article highlights the complexities of robot-human interaction and the implications of intimate technologies in a world where the boundaries between the real and artificial are increasingly blurred. The discussion ultimately underscores the power of fashion in these fictional narratives as a tool for both reinforcing and challenging traditional structures of power and identity.
Markoconnellstudio, 2024
The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into fashion design is transforming the industry ... more The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into fashion design is transforming the industry by introducing tools that enhance creativity and efficiency. AI systems, particularly generative AI, enable designers to generate unique patterns, styles, and predict fashion trends by analyzing vast datasets, thereby enriching the creative process with new aesthetics and experimentation with unconventional materials. This article explores the growing influence of generative AI across various domains, including creative arts, fashion, education, business management, and software development. In business management, AI optimizes operations, automates tasks, and supports decision-making. Additionally, AI streamlines design processes, enabling real-time customization, sustainable fashion practices, and virtual try-ons, thus revolutionizing customer experiences. In the realm of fashion education, AI offers the potential to personalize learning experiences and fosters collaboration among students. This article also provides a literature review of current academic research in fashion AI and addresses the ethical considerations of AI adoption. The conclusion emphasizes the need for responsible innovation, as the full long-term impacts of this nascent technology which offers so much potential are still largely unknown.
Key Words: Generative AI; Fashion Design; Creative Innovation; Ethical Considerations; Human-AI Collaboration
Luxury Studies: The In Pursuit of Luxury Journal
In Canada we struggle to recognize homegrown fashion talent, and our benchmarks for identifying q... more In Canada we struggle to recognize homegrown fashion talent, and our benchmarks for identifying quality work are based on imported luxury brands. Paradoxically, however, where we are most successful is when we are at our most Canadian. The Arc’teryx label, for example. This brand that grew from a passion for rock climbing, and whose gear subsequently expanded into luxury athleisure, has a uniquely Canadian DNA, one that actively engages with the natural world, the elements, and whose design and manufacturing directives are guided by a deep respect for sustainable principles. The goal of this research is to examine Arc’teryx to see how a successful fashion label has chosen to incorporate sustainable principles into their daily operations. The methodology for this article draws upon interviews with a key company employee, and it also examines the manufacturing model employed by Arc’teryx and how the fundamental corporate ethos drives decision-making. Theory for this article is adapted...
Fashion, Style & Popular Culture
This article explores the design work and life of the New York based make-up artist Way Bandy. Th... more This article explores the design work and life of the New York based make-up artist Way Bandy. The beauty iconography created by Bandy is an important cultural record as it was imbricated within the larger glamour tropes of the 1970s and the draped, dancing luxury of disco divahood (explored through practice-led research in this article as well). Modes of dress, display and deportment often reflect much larger societal messages and meanings, and I would include the creation and presentation of the contemporaneous face within this cultural mythmaking. Make-up and cosmetics are vital components of that potent matrix, and Way Bandy designed the beauty aesthetic that reflected the sensual glamour of the disco era: glistening lips, alluring beckoning eyes and liquid silhouettes all echoed the promises of liberatory ease and an empowered sexuality for anyone who dared. His engagement with cosmetics was far more than ‘skin deep’ though, as he also engaged with the holistic and therapeutic ...
Fashion Theory, Mar 3, 2022
TEXTILE, 2022
This article describes two research residencies undertaken at the American Museum of Natural Hist... more This article describes two research residencies undertaken at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) during the months of August and October 2019, wherein Dr. Mark Joseph O’Connell looked specifically at weaving and dye techniques found in a form of ceremonial dancing blanket called the Chilkat. The examination of these artifacts provides valuable information on pre-colonial First Nations industry, the ongoing impacts of colonial processes, and also offers clues to a pre-colonial fashion history, one that re-contextualizes these exquisitely crafted garments and thereby re-situates them within previously held notions of political and social spheres of community life. This research provides a more nuanced and inclusive framework of Canadian fashion history, as well as information concerning pre-colonial First Nations industry and the ongoing impacts of colonial processes; It also to highlights the extraordinary techniques and iconography employed in their manufacture. Efforts toward cultural preservation through creative labor can also be examined through Chilkat artistry, as craft-based agency has served as a conduit for preserving cultural history as well as providing an ongoing means of ensuring First Nations autonomy and agency. Key Words: First Nation fashion design practices; indigenous fashion histories; natural dye practices; First Nations weaving; Canadian fashion history
THESIS STATEMENT Fashion is powerful; if you do not think it is important, look down at what you ... more THESIS STATEMENT Fashion is powerful; if you do not think it is important, look down at what you are wearing. Every person on this planet wears clothes or adorns their body in some way. 80 billion pieces of clothing are produced in a year (Siegle, 2011); 9.3% of the world’s employees are employed in the fashion industry; totalling 40 million workers and constituting 4% of global exports (Caniato et al 2012: 659; Hurley & Miller 2008) and consumers spent one trillion on clothes in a single year (Allwood et al., 2006 in Obregon 2013). How those clothes are designed, produced, manufactured and distributed has a massive global impact. There are brightly coloured rivers in Asia that correspond to the trendy hues of the upcoming season’s fast-fashion offerings, or look to the collapse of Rana Plaza1 in Bangladesh: the modern incarnation of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire that claimed ten times as many lives as the original disaster2 Clothing is also not being held onto and valued any...
Journal of Design, Business & Society, 2021
Contemporary engagement with fashion is with slick simulacra, daydreams and digital fantasies – a... more Contemporary engagement with fashion is with slick simulacra, daydreams and digital fantasies – an impossible promise of a beautiful, de-corporealized perfection. The virtualizing of fashion consumption has in turn dematerialized garments completely. Although late to the party, the consumer engagement with online luxury fashion has grown exponentially. Extremely expensive items are now purchased before they are engaged with physically. Therefore, within the new realities of device-based fashion design and consumption, the ‘wow’ factor and virtual considerations are paramount. There should be no surprise though that these garments align so closely with our taste, our consumption habits and our life patterns; they have been designed to do just that. In this research, through observation of a garment that was virtual before it became physical, the ascendant contemporary structure of modern fashion retail is analysed. This research explores how physical aspects of clothing have been dev...
Queer Studies in Media & Popular Culture, 2021
Succès de Scandale, the manipulation of outcry over the deliberately shocking, has been used freq... more Succès de Scandale, the manipulation of outcry over the deliberately shocking, has been used frequently to garner notoriety and fame in the past. Currently, fashion brands are notorious for dropping crypto-offensive items into their marketing and then backing off with a meagre apology when customers react with legitimate offence. Social media hashtags generate viral visibility, and the associated brand is amplified exponentially. Engaging in this dance between the edgy and the truly offensive becomes tactical for brands to appear ‘cool’, and to push back against notions of the ‘politically correct’. However, as consumers become increasingly inured to the abject, brands go to ever-greater lengths to generate publicity they hope will translate to higher sales. Shocking visual tropes become increasingly provocative to engage the online masses, moving into dangerously racially charged and homophobic territory at times. Offensive? Certainly. Of larger concern, though: are there deeper co...
Fashion Theory, 2019
Camp, historically a coded communication of queer identity has been recently dragged out of the c... more Camp, historically a coded communication of queer identity has been recently dragged out of the closet and into the limelight with the exhibition "Camp, Notes on Fashion" (2019) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. While a lot of the fashion that was on display was kitschy, and certainly fun and clever, some of it left the exhibition vulnerable to criticism that it was not actually Camp. Also, an exhibition like this while overtly very gay-positive brings up many issues about the packaging and presentation of queer culture. This essay involves a review of the exhibition itself as well as an examination of the criteria for inclusion or (sometimes deliberate) exclusion of key elements of Camp: the abject, consumerism, and queer liberation This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
Fashion, Style & Popular Culture, 2020
From its earliest roots, art was used to codify and communicate what is fashionable, powerful and... more From its earliest roots, art was used to codify and communicate what is fashionable, powerful and luxurious. Recently, however, through institutional mega art projects like the Fondation LV and the Fondazione Prada, fashion seeks not just to legitimize itself, but to position itself as patron-cum-collaborator. Up until now the art world has been happy to take the money, but has been ambivalent towards the commercialization that co-branding brings. However, the highest grossing exhibits at hallowed cultural institutions – like the McQueen retrospective at the Met – have been fashion based. It seems, as of late, the fashion industry has gone past sponsorship and now seems to be colonizing the environs of the art world itself. These new imbrications hold significance for a broad range of related topics such as creative appropriation, feminist theory, and issues of gendered representation and power. As such, the politics of criteria for inclusion and collection must now become a necessa...
Luxury Studies: The In Pursuit of Luxury Journal,, 2022
In Canada we struggle to recognize homegrown fashion talent, and our benchmarks for identifying q... more In Canada we struggle to recognize homegrown fashion talent, and our benchmarks for identifying quality work are based on imported luxury brands. Paradoxically, however, where we are most successful is when we are at our most Canadian. The Arc’teryx label, for example. This brand that grew from a passion for rock climbing, and whose gear subsequently expanded into luxury athleisure, has a uniquely Canadian DNA, one that actively engages with the natural world, the elements, and whose design and manufacturing directives are guided by a deep respect for sustainable principles. The goal of this research is to examine Arc’teryx to see how a successful fashion label has chosen to incorporate sustainable principles into their daily operations. The methodology for this article draws upon interviews with a key company employee, and it also examines the manufacturing model employed by Arc’teryx and how the fundamental corporate ethos drives decision-making. Theory for this article is adapted from technology and social critic Ursula Franklin’s prescient 1989 Massey College (University of Toronto) lecture series (‘The Real World of Technology’) wherein she examined the social shifts that were being catalysed by ascendant technology. Historically, Canada has been a locus of colonial imports and of raw resource export; perhaps now, the cultural values of Canada can constitute another valuable export commodity. One that is sorely needed as the fashion industry as a whole – in its current structure and practices – is massively destructive to the environment and the workers who manufacture our fashionable luxuries. For Arc’teryx, there may not be the same cachet of status-based cosseted luxury or aspirational identification with a rarefied clientele that a European haute-couture fashionable item carries. Conversely, this brand may illustrate that there is more to the ontology of luxury than just the narrow parameters of the Faubourg Saint Honoré or 5th Avenue. For Arc’teryx it is more about an athletic, holistic aesthetic, one that espouses the ‘luxury’ of a strong, healthy body that actively engages with a pristine, natural environment. Worthwhile aspirations that can have much wider implications when applied to a business model.
Fashion, Style & Popular Culture, 2022
This article explores the design work and life of the New York based make-up artist Way Bandy. Th... more This article explores the design work and life of the New York based make-up artist Way Bandy. The beauty iconography created by Bandy is an important cultural record as it was imbricated within the larger glamour tropes of the 1970s and the draped, dancing luxury of disco divahood (explored through practice-led research in this article as well). Modes of dress, display and deportment often reflect much larger societal messages and meanings, and I would include the creation and presentation of the contemporaneous face within this cultural mythmaking. Make-up and cosmetics are vital components of that potent matrix, and Way Bandy designed the beauty aesthetic that reflected the sensual glamour of the disco era: glistening lips, alluring beckoning eyes and liquid silhouettes all echoed the promises of liberatory ease and an empowered sexuality for anyone who dared. His engagement with cosmetics was far more than ‘skin deep’ though, as he also engaged with the holistic and therapeutic roots of his artform: cosmetics (a history also explored in this article). Unfortunately, as one of the first fashion celebrities whom we lost to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), his life also must stand as a tragic metonymic of his troubled times, and the theoretical explorations of Susan Sontag from AIDS as Metaphor are included as a way of analysing the application of epidemiological meanings and the consequences of those processes. Ultimately, this research seeks to reclaim the importance of the Bandy legacy as his oeuvre was marginalized after his death, as happened with so many brilliant designers and artists whose deaths from AIDS overshadowed truly amazing careers.
Fashion, Style & Popular Culture, 2020
From its earliest roots, art was used to codify and communicate what is fashionable, powerful and... more From its earliest roots, art was used to codify and communicate what is fashionable, powerful and luxurious. Recently, however, through institutional mega art projects like the Fondation LV and the Fondazione Prada, fashion seeks not just to legitimize itself, but to position itself as patron-cum-collaborator. Up until now the art world has been happy to take the money, but has been ambivalent towards the commercialization that co-branding brings. However, the highest grossing exhibits at hallowed cultural institutions – like the McQueen retrospective at the Met – have been fashion based. It seems, as of late, the fashion industry has gone past sponsorship and now seems to be colonizing the environs of the art world itself. These new imbrications hold significance for a broad range of related topics such as creative appropriation, feminist theory, and issues of gendered representation and power. As such, the politics of criteria for inclusion and collection must now become a necessary aspect of the dialogue within fashion, art and museum studies, and the thinking that situates them as discrete entities that exist within autonomous domains irrelative to each other also needs to be challenged. This article explores the cartography between autonomous art culture, fashion marketing, and fashion exhibition, and the increased blurring of their overlapping borders. It also looks at the commercialization of the museum and fine art institutional domain.
Luxury in the Age of Technology: 3rd Special Issue, In Pursuit of Luxury Journal., 2021
Contemporary engagement with fashion is with slick simulacra, daydreams and digital fantasies – a... more Contemporary engagement with fashion is with slick simulacra, daydreams and digital fantasies – an impossible promise of a beautiful, de-corporealized perfection. The virtualizing of fashion consumption has in turn dematerialized garments completely. Although late to the party, the consumer engagement with online luxury fashion has grown exponentially. Extremely expensive items are now purchased before they are engaged with physically. Therefore, within the new realities of device-based fashion design and consumption, the ‘wow’ factor and virtual considerations are paramount. There should be no surprise though that these garments align so closely with our taste, our consumption habits and our life patterns; they have been designed to do just that. In this research, through observation of a garment that was virtual before it became physical, the ascendant contemporary structure of modern fashion retail is analysed. This research explores how physical aspects of clothing have been devalued by the technology of modern capitalism, even as the importance of the ‘look’ has ascended. Another important aspect of the research is the seductive aspects of the marketing of fashion goods. The methods of procurement, in addition to the physical characteristics of the object itself, undergo a close analysis – how we as consumers are shaped by our methods of consumption as much as by our goods now. This research uses an object-based method, a process wherein both intrinsic and extrinsic information can be gleaned from a close examination of a garment, as well as an interview with a fashion journalist who witnessed the reorganization of a leading fashion website into a retail portal. This data is then combined with relevant theoretical frameworks to form ‘grounded theory’. The dematerialization of the modern ‘boutique’ that has now migrated online, the incipient forms of marketing to engage consumers and, ultimately, the recontextualization of the body and understanding of the self, all catalysed by online consumption are considered. As garments are now as ephemeral and placeless as the mechanism for the acquisition, an examination of the manufacture and dissemination of fashion product is warranted, and this in turn provides a more nuanced understanding of the ontology of luxury garments as well as their consumption in the modern fashion retail agora.
Queer Studies in Media & Popular Culture., 2021
Succès de Scandale, the manipulation of outcry over the deliberately shocking, has been used freq... more Succès de Scandale, the manipulation of outcry over the deliberately shocking, has been used frequently to garner notoriety and fame in the past. Currently, fashion brands are notorious for dropping crypto-offensive items into their marketing and then backing off with a meagre apology when customers react with legitimate offence. Social media hashtags generate viral visibility, and the associated brand is amplified exponentially. Engaging in this dance between the edgy and the truly offensive becomes tactical for brands to appear ‘cool’, and to push back against notions of the ‘politically correct’. However, as consumers become increasingly inured to the abject, brands go to ever-greater lengths to generate publicity they hope will translate to higher sales. Shocking visual tropes become increasingly provocative to engage the online masses, moving into dangerously racially charged and homophobic territory at times. Offensive? Certainly. Of larger concern, though: are there deeper consequences to reckless dissemination of scandalous content?
What Would Ursula Franklin Say? The McLuhan Centre for Culture and Technology Research Working Group: Reprising the Real World of Technology, 2022
COVID-19 necessitated the accelerated growth of a powerful and aggressive new form of fashion ret... more COVID-19 necessitated the accelerated growth of a powerful and aggressive new form of fashion retail: online, device-based consumption. This online migration has radically altered modern retail, from invasive marketing to engage consumers, through virtual selection and ultimately the dematerialization of the body and understanding of the self in relation to others. Canadian physicist and technology theorist Dr Ursula Franklin provided valuable insight into the processes wherein emergent technology and human behaviours enmesh within quotidian engagements. In her (brilliant) 1989 Massey College lecture series The Real World of Technology (1999) stated of the adoption of nascent technologies that “Many technological innovations have been introduced in order to change the boundaries of human and social activities with respect to time and space” (194). Time and space have certainly been disrupted with the technological migration of the boutique, and this virtualizing of fashion has in turn dematerialized garments completely. Thus, the engagement is primarily with the technology and not the tactile. The impacts of this are staggering as current models used for fashion manufacturing are deeply imbricated into transglobal “Fast Fashion” supply chains, a process extremely harmful to both workers and environment.
TEXTILE : The Journal of Cloth and Culture, 2022
This article describes two research residencies undertaken at the American Museum of Natural Hist... more This article describes two research residencies undertaken at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) during the months of August and October 2019, wherein Dr. Mark Joseph O’Connell looked specifically at weaving and dye techniques found in a form of ceremonial dancing blanket called the Chilkat. The examination of these artifacts provides valuable information on pre-colonial First Nations industry, the ongoing impacts of colonial processes, and also offers clues to a pre-colonial fashion history, one that re-contextualizes these exquisitely crafted garments and thereby re-situates them within previously held notions of political and social spheres of community life. This research provides a more nuanced and inclusive framework of Canadian fashion history, as well as information concerning pre-colonial First Nations industry and the ongoing impacts of colonial processes; It also to highlights the extraordinary techniques and iconography employed in their manufacture. Efforts toward cultural preservation through creative labor can also be examined through Chilkat artistry, as craft-based agency has served as a conduit for preserving cultural history as well as providing an ongoing means of ensuring First Nations autonomy and agency.
Key Words: First Nation fashion design practices; indigenous fashion histories; natural dye practices; First Nations weaving; Canadian fashion history
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Books by Mark J O'Connell
Papers by Mark J O'Connell
Key Words: Generative AI; Fashion Design; Creative Innovation; Ethical Considerations; Human-AI Collaboration
Key Words: First Nation fashion design practices; indigenous fashion histories; natural dye practices; First Nations weaving; Canadian fashion history
Key Words: Generative AI; Fashion Design; Creative Innovation; Ethical Considerations; Human-AI Collaboration
Key Words: First Nation fashion design practices; indigenous fashion histories; natural dye practices; First Nations weaving; Canadian fashion history
Session E: Oct. 23, 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM
LIM College - The Townhouse, 12 E 53rd St, New York, NY 10022, United States
Session E: Schedule
Material Explorations
Jessica Lertvilai, Materials & Products Co-ordinator, University of the Arts London - Central Saint Martins & London College of Fashion (United Kingdom)
الماضي، الحاضر، المستقبل: (Past, present, future): Digital Fashion Image Archives and Library Instruction
Lore Guilmartin, Head of Instructional Services and Liaison to the VCU Qatar’s Fashion Design and Liberal Arts and Sciences programs, Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar
Tiffany Schureman, University Archivist, Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar
The Fashion Museum as a Pedagogical Tool
Mark O’Connell, Professor and Program Coordinator of Fashion Studies, Seneca College
Session:
Technology, Medium, and Communication
Chair: Steve Bailey
Wendy Donnan: “Motion Capture and Posthumanism: A New Synthetic Reality.”
Mark Sardella: “After You: How Medium Changes the Cosmetic Surgery Story.”
Andrew Miroshnichenko: “Robo-journalism, the third threat.”
Mark O’Connell: “Second Hand News: Cultural and Economic Messages Encoded
in the Consumption of Used Garments”