CFP: Dress in America
Call for Papers
Dress in America: 250 years of American Fashion
In 2026, the United States will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. As the country commemorates this momentous milestone, it is a great opportunity to examine the role of dress, clothing, textiles, and fashion in shaping ideas about the nation, its people, and its history. We invite submissions to a special issue “Dress in America: 250 Years of American Fashion” that will focus on the topics of what is American about American Fashion? How are American identities, past, present, and future, constructed through dress? How dress was used and imagined in commemorating the American experience? We especially encourage submissions that explore definitions of who or what is American, who belongs to the Nation, and how dress can be used as both an inclusionary and exclusionary tool in those definitions. Graduate students, early-career researchers, and museum practitioners are especially welcome to submit.
Contributors are invited to prepare full manuscripts that address this theme from a variety of perspectives. We accept submissions in the format of Research articles (6000-10000 words), Research reports (3000-5000 words), or Visual Essays (10-20 images, 1500-2000 words).
Selected articles will be subject to a double-anonymous peer review. The deadline for submission of articles and reports is September 30, 2025. Possible topics may include but not limited to:
- Dress and American Identities
- Indigenous dress
- The Definition and Evolution of “American Style”
- Producers and Consumers of American Dress
- Dress and Slavery
- Dress and Independence
- Dress as resistance in the United States and its territories
- Commemoration through Dress
- Dress and Memory
- American Textiles
- American Fashion Industry
- Immigration and Nationalism
- Activist Dress in the United States and its territories
- Exhibiting American Fashion
- Constructions of Americana and heritage through dress
- The presence/influence of American military dress in the US and beyond
Submission Requirements:
- Submit full manuscripts, including low-res images, as a Word document (not as pdf).
- Include an abstract of 150-200 words with 6 keywords.
- Use Chicago Manual of Style citation method (notes only).
- Use double-spaced Times New Roman 12-point font and include page numbers.
- Images should include full captions (permission not required at submission stage).
- Label file name: Lastname_Short Title.
- Indicate category of submission as research article, report, or visual essay.
All submissions should be made through ScholarOne submission portal available by clicking here.
Detailed Instructions for Authors are also available on the Taylor & Francis webpage for Dress found here.
Any other questions can be addressed to Dress Principal Editor Dr. Einav Rabinovitch-Fox at dress@costumesocietyamerica.com.
