UPCOMING EVENTS

FIRST ANNUAL
FAAR SYMPOSIUM

Fall 2018

Information to follow

PAST EVENTS

Envisioning New Realities: the intersection of fashion and aerospace

Chicago, July 20, 2017
6-8pm
Lost Arts, 1001 N North Branch Street

In a world where the future is arriving each day at an accelerated pace, technology has initiated a paradigm shift that is still in flux. Through technology, previously divergent industries have found common ground to collaborate and excel in this new economy. And yet, in many ways, we have not reconciled the conflicting demands of stakeholders, expectations from past paradigms, and short vs. long term outlooks. The result: industries with shared long term interests are tackling interrelated issues in isolation, and on wholly unsynchronized timelines. What would happen if new channels of communication and collaboration were introduced?

To allow ourselves to imagine the future relationship between fashion and aerospace challenges us to take steps towards that reality starting today. The first stages of this evolution are already happening, with parallel exploration into technologies such as 3-D printing, biometrics and advanced recycling being innovated in both the fashion and aerospace industries. What would happen if those efforts were aligned?

An introductory presentation will look at the shared history of fashion and aerospace, their mutual long-term interests, and the incredible possibilities of what could be if they proactively work together. 

A panel discussion will follow the presentation, discussing the practice of envisioning new realities, finding opportunities through differences, and interdisciplinary collaboration

Panelists:

Sean Lally

Sean Lally is the author of the book The Air from Other Planets: A Brief History of Architecture to Come.  He is the host of the podcast ‘Night White Skies’ and is currently associate professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. 

SeanLally.co

Anke Loh, MFA

Anke Loh is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Fashion at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she has taught since 2005.  Her current research entails finding ways to integrate stretchable circuitry into textiles, ready-to-wear fashion and accessories.

Anke Loh has collaborated with a range of interdisciplinary teams. Her work on incorporating fiber optics into interactive fabric included working with Luminex (Italy and Miami) and the computer science department at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. She broke new ground by integrating Philips Lumalive panels into dresses and skirts, featuring video imagery on soft embedded LED screens. She is presently collaborating with the Fraunhofer Institute in Berlin to research and explore the possibilities of stretchable circuitry.

Anke earned a Master’s Degree in Fashion Design from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp in 1999. She is impassioned by travel and observing compelling and dissonant cultural dynamics.

Ovetta Sampson

Ovetta is a Senior Design Research Lead at IDEO here in Chicago. But before that, she picked up her M.S. in Computer Science at DePaul University while working as the website administrator for the Driehaus College of Business.

In a previous life, (she's had many), she was a journalist for about 20 years having her work appear in such publications as The Washington Post, the Colorado Springs Gazette, The Chicago Tribune and the Christian Science Monitor. (She still writes for publications on occasion and authors books). She left the newspaper world for adventure and became a global writer and editor for humanitarian organizations interviewing people all over the world. Along the way she picked up some website design and application coding skills (enough to be dangerous) and fell in love with designing and crafting digital products.

Learn more about our host, Lost Arts

Personal Values: "How To Use Your Map & Compass"

June 28, 2017
6-8pm
Lost Arts, 1001 N North Branch Street

Every day we make decisions and exhibit behavior on auto-pilot. After a while, we can easily look back to find we’ve forgotten where, or why, we started. In order to re-orient ourselves, we need to establish a basis for that internal compass: personal core values. Your values are crucial principles that guide your behaviors, your decision-making process, and practically everything else that you do. People throughout history have used core values to create guidelines for their own self-development, and groups have used them to build community around shared values to achieve great things.

In this workshop we will explore different types of value systems from around the world, and throughout history, and use guided exercises to help participants identify their own personal core values.

This evening is an opportunity to reconnect with what drives you. You will leave the event with a deeper understanding of why values matter as well as new approaches to orienting and activating your own internal compass.

Learn more about our host, Lost Arts

ROUND TABLE: Fashion & Aerospace

March 8, 2017

In a world where the future is arriving each day at an accelerated pace, technology has initiated a paradigm shift, particularly in traditionally human-centered fields, that is still in flux. Through technology, previously divergent industries have found common ground to collaborate and excel in this new economy. And yet, in many ways, we have not reconciled the conflicting demands of stakeholders, expectations from past paradigms, and short vs. long term outlooks. The result: industries with shared long term interests are tackling interrelated issues in isolation, and on wholly unsynchronized timelines. What would happen if new channels of communication and collaboration were introduced?

To allow ourselves to imagine the future relationship between fashion and aerospace challenges us to take steps towards that reality starting today. The first stages of this evolution are already happening, with parallel exploration into technologies such as 3-D printing, biometrics and advanced recycling being innovated in both the fashion and aerospace industries. What would happen if those efforts were aligned?

Read about it here

FASHION WEEKEND

February 25-26, 2017 

Fashion Weekend is an opportunity for students from Parsons Fashion and School of Design Strategies to collaborate in problem solving for a real life case study proposed by a leading fashion company. Fashion Weekend will focus on the design of systems in the industry rather than the design of products, calling on skills developed in each of the academic departments. Over the course of two days, they will learn tools for system thinking, cross-disciplinary brainstorming and presentation. The weekend will conclude with pitches in front of a multi-disciplinary panel from the subject company. The skills developed during this weekend will support the attending students in their continued course work, and help them stand out as they enter into their future careers.

WORKSHOP: Define Your Company Values 

 on December 29, 2016

Learn how to create, communicate, and sustain your company values

Company values are more than a sequence of words or esoteric concepts, they are the foundation and spirit of your company. They are the reason people want to work for you, and the reason your customers choose you over the competition. They are the thing that you look to when important decisions leave you at a crossroads.

We will look at some of the greatest examples of company values, and the ways in which those values are communicated to the public and to their employees.

We will workshop your own company values (existing or under construction) and ways to communicate them beyond verbiage.

You will leave the event with a deeper understanding of why values matter, and new approaches to identifying and embodying the values of your own business.

THIS WORKSHOP is for current and future founders, human resource professionals, managers and branding professionals.

WORKSHOP: System Thinking

December 8, 2016

Learn how system thinking can help you in your career and running your own business

System thinking is a unique process for decision making and problem solving that takes into consideration all of the interacting elements related to an issue. It means looking at the bigger picture and the long term. It means looking across disciplines and across industries. More than anything, it is understanding that all things are interrelated. There are infinite opportunities in those overlaps, but the connections aren't always easy to see. Our goal in this workshop is to show you how a problem-solving mind set can help you identify those opportunities, gauge feasibility and measure their potential impact. 

You will leave the workshop with new tools for how to switch between big picture thinking and real time action, to identify opportunities for partnership and collaboration with other teams within your organization or across companies and disciplines, and a vocabulary for communicating these tools to your colleagues and peers.

THIS WORKSHOP is for problem solvers, looking for new ways to approach systemic issues in their workplace. The principles of system thinking can be applied during routine planning, or to support time sensitive decision making.

WORKSHOP: System Thinking

October 8, 2016       2pm-5pm

Learn how system thinking can help you in your career and running your own business

System thinking is a unique process for decision making and problem solving that takes into consideration all of the interacting elements related to an issue. It means looking at the bigger picture and the long term. It means looking across disciplines and across industries. More than anything, it is understanding that all things are interrelated. There are infinite opportunities in those overlaps, but the connections aren't always easy to see. Our goal in this workshop is to show you how a problem-solving mind set can help you identify those opportunities, gauge feasibility and measure their potential impact. 

You will leave the workshop with new tools for how to switch between big picture thinking and real time action, to identify opportunities for partnership and collaboration with other teams within your organization or across companies and disciplines, and a vocabulary for communicating these tools to your colleagues and peers.

THIS WORKSHOP is for problem solvers, looking for new ways to approach systemic issues in their workplace. The principles of system thinking can be applied during routine planning, or to support time sensitive decision making.

FOCUS GROUP: Education 

September 22, 2016        7pm-9pm

Surface relevant experiences and untapped opportunities in fashion education. What are the skills in demand in the work place? What extra curricular options are available to enhance those skills? 

WORKSHOP: Define Your Company Values 

August 27, 2016

Learn how to create, communicate, and sustain your company values

Company values are more than a sequence of words or esoteric concepts, they are the foundation and spirit of your company. They are the reason people want to work for you, and the reason your customers choose you over the competition. They are the thing that you look to when important decisions leave you at a crossroads.

We will look at some of the greatest examples of company values, and the ways in which those values are communicated to the public and to their employees.

We will workshop your own company values (existing or under construction) and ways to communicate them beyond verbiage.

You will leave the event with a deeper understanding of why values matter, and new approaches to identifying and embodying the values of your own business.

THIS WORKSHOP is for current and future founders, human resource professionals, managers and branding professionals. 

IN-COURSE WORKSHOP: Systems

April 26, 4-6pm

Research & Development Methods, Parsons The New School for Design

The idea is not to solve all of the problems, but to put a context around where we are and identify what kind of initiatives might help activate and empower change makers. We want them to get pushed and cultivated to their full potential. This starts with education, but it continues through work environments and then the cycle repeats. *We dissect the environment in order to find the right questions to ask, which will then lead to the deployment of problem solving methods.

Suggested readings: 

https://www.ideo.com/images/uploads/news/pdfs/Rotman_SAS_IDEO_Winter09.pdf
http://www.incose.org/AboutSE/WhatIsSE
http://www.strategy-business.com/article/10210?gko=20cca
http://www.iftf.org/future-now/article-detail/designing-a-new-operating-system-for-work/
Case Study: https://hbr.org/2016/04/how-intuit-built-a-better-support-system-for-intrapreneurs

FOCUS GROUP: Culture/Values

March 21, 6-8pm

Hosted by
Manufacture New York
850 Third Avenue (between 30th & 31st street)
Floor 7
Brooklyn, New York 11232

On the topic of culture and values in the fashion industry, we will be looking closely at happenings in the fashion industry and peripheral industries through news coverage and the unique vantage points and expertise of the participants. 

The following topics will be discussed:

1. Foundation: Defining core values, and not putting them up on a shelf to get dusty. Company culture is a living thing you have to take care of and cultivate.
True or False: In fashion, people don’t take jobs for the company culture. They take jobs for the product category or the prestige.
True or False: In fashion, design ethos/collection aesthetic is prioritized over company culture

2. B2B vs B2C culture: Does the nature of your company culture change if you are a customer facing brand versus a business facing brand?
True or false: Direct to consumer fashion brands are creating an opportunity for increased focus on company culture

3. Vernacular: “Startup founders” vs “young designers” 
True or false: Fashion designers are not seen as or referred to as entrepreneurs

The following readings are recommended:

What Is Organizational Culture? And Why Should We Care?, Harvard Business Review
Keeping Core Values Alive, Case studies
Culture: Why It's The Hottest Topic In Business Today, Forbes
What It Means To Work Here, Harvard Business Review
Ten Signs of A Progressive Company Culture, Forbes
Build Sustainability into Your Business From Day One, The Business of Fashion
New Vogue: Company Culture, The New York Times

*All attendees are encouraged to come prepared with one example of company culture in the fashion industry that sets a positive example.

The purpose of the readings and outline is to create a framework for the discussion, and for each attendee's expertise.
These events are participatory - we look forward to carrying the conversation forward with you!