Fashion and Pyschoanalysis Symposium
Friday, November 14, 2025
10:00 am – 5:00 pm
Katie Murphy Amphitheatre
Fred P. Pomerantz Art and Design Center
Fashion and Psychoanalysis is The Museum at FIT's 34th symposium, planned in conjunction with the exhibition Dress, Dreams, and Desire: Fashion and Psychoanalysis. As the historian Peter Gay wrote, "We all speak Freud whether we know it or not." Certainly fashion designers speak the language of psychoanalysis, and like analysts, designers often focus on sexuality and the unconscious. Speakers include fashion designer Bella Freud, psychoanalysts Patricia Gherovici, Anouchka Grose, Christine Anzieu-Premmereur, Chanda Griffin, fashion scholar Simona Segre, and MFIT Director Valerie Steele.
| Friday, March 28, 2025 | |
|---|---|
| 10 am |
Welcoming Remarks, Dr. Joyce F. Brown, President of FIT |
| 10:05 am |
Dr. Valerie Steele, "Dress, Dreams, and Desire: Fashion and Psychoanalysis" |
| 10:50 am |
Anouchka Grose, "Your Clothes Give You Away" |
|
10 min break |
|
| 11:45 am |
Chandra D. Griffin |
| 12:30 pm |
Dr. Christine Anzieu-Premmeruer, "Clothing as Second Skin: On the Theory of the Skin Ego" |
| 1–2:30 pm |
Lunch |
| 2:30 pm |
Dr. Simona Segre-Reinach, "Fashion Interprets Psychoanalysis" |
|
3:15 pm |
Dr. Patricia Gherovici, "Wrestling With Fashion: Arts of Wearing a Body" |
|
10 min break |
|
| 4:00 pm |
Bella Freud in conversation with Dr. Valerie Steele |
| 4:30 pm |
Laverne Cox in conversation with Dr. Valerie Steele |
The Fashion and Psychoanalysis Symposium has been made possible thanks to the generosity of the Couture Council of The Museum at FIT. This project is supported in part by the Coby Foundation. The Museum at FIT's programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
