Conference call for papers

FACTUM25 Fashion Communication: between tradition and future digital developments 

Stockholm University, Sweden

25-27 July 2025

www.digitalfashion.ch/factum25

Conference Chair

Paula von Wachenfeldt, Stockholm University, Fashion Studies (Sweden)

Conference Co-Chairs

Lorenzo Cantoni, USI – Università della Svizzera italiana (Lugano, Switzerland)

Nadzeya Sabatini, Gdańsk University of Technology (Gdansk, Poland) & USI – Università della Svizzera italiana (Lugano, Switzerland)

Teresa Sádaba, ISEM Fashion Business School, University of Navarra (Madrid, Spain)

The Conference

Hosted by Fashion Studies, Department of Media Studies at Stockholm University, the Conference “FACTUM25 Fashion communication: between tradition and future digital developments” is a major academic event. It aims to promote theoretical and empirical interdisciplinary work on how various communication practices impact on the fashion industry and on societal fashion-related practices and values. Scholarly work on media in its broad term, sustainability, luxury brands and visual and written communication are particularly welcome. The conference is an arena for the latest studies that seek to understand traditional practices and novel digital development within the fashion and luxury industry and how these may affect consumers and societies.  

FACTUM25 conference is the fourth event in the series of conferences on fashion communication and will be organized by Fashion Studies, Department of media studies at Stockholm University. 

The third event, FACTUM23, was held at the University of Pisa in collaboration with Museo della Grafica and the Pisa municipality. The second event, FACTUM 21 took place in Pamplona (Spain) and was hosted by the University of Navarra and the ISEM Fashion Business School. The first one within this series was held in 2019 in Ascona (Switzerland) and it was organized by USI – Università della Svizzera italiana. 

All conferences had their proceedings published by Springer: 

• 2019: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-15436-3
• 2021: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-81321-5
• 2023: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-38541-4

Hereafter the main goals of the Conference:

• to consolidate Fashion Communication as an academic field
• to establish and consolidate an international and interdisciplinary network of scholars in the field of Fashion Communication
• to share methodological approaches
• to expand the dialogue between communication studies, heritage studies, and Fashion-related disciplines
• to support junior researchers

Topics of interest

The major topics of interest focus on communication aspects in the Fashion domain. They include

but are not limited to:

• Communication of sustainability and ethical issues in fashion
• Corporate communication in the fashion domain
• Digital fashion communication (e.g. digital media channels, blogging, User Generated Contents, online reputation, NFT)
• Fashion brands and communication with consumers
• Fashion communication in the retail environment
• Fashion shows and fashion films as a communication object
• Gamification in fashion
• Historical perspective on fashion communication
• Intangible Cultural Heritage dimension of fashion
• Intercultural Communication in Fashion
• Luxury brands and media
• Luxury and sustainability
• Media in fashion
• Visual communication in fashion
• Visual communication in fashion, sport, and tourism
• Relationships between fashion, sport, and tourism

Paper formats and submissions

• Full Papers: presenting a major original contribution, up to 12 pages in length.
• Research Notes: presenting an in-progress research (e.g.: by a PhD candidate), up to 6 pages in length.

All types of research are invited for the application, including empirical/case studies, evaluation/impact studies, assessments, etc. Theory development: adaptations of existing theoretical frameworks to better explain how communication formats work in the fashion domain, and measurement issues of the new formats of fashion communication are especially invited.

All contributions should be innovative and should advance the knowledge base of related fields.

All papers should be formatted according to the provided template, available online, at www.digitalfashion.ch/factum25

Submit your paper here: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=factum25 

All papers will be double-blind peer-reviewed by experienced researchers who are members of the scientific review committee. To ensure blind-review process, please, keep your submission anonymous. Final acceptance will depend on whether the author(s) can adequately address review comments to the satisfaction of the reviewers.

Conference proceedings

Accepted papers will be published in an Open Access Proceedings volume by Springer. 

The conference proceedings will be indexed by Scopus.

Key dates

Papers are required no later than 2 December 2024

Notification of acceptance will be provided by 3 February 2025

Final papers should be submitted by 3 March 2025

Location and venue

The Conference will take place at the Department of media studies/Fashion Studies at Stockholm University, Karlavägen 104, Stockholm.

For further inquiries, please, contact:

Associate Professor Paula von WachenfeldtFashion StudiesPaula.von.wachenfeldt@ims.su.se

or

PhD student Paulina RydénFashion StudiesPaulina.ryden@ims.su.se