Dr. Marco Pecorari completed a PhD in Fashion Studies at Stockholm University’s Centre for Fashion Studies. During his time there, Pecorari conducted research focusing on the politics of archives and museums, exploring different institutions and ways in which we create knowledge about fashion. He also led the research group for Europeana Fashion, a European Union–funded project aiming to bring the major European private and public museums and archives into a unique online database. “Our contribution on this project was to rethink the ways we collect fashion today and begin to conserve digital fashion content,” Pecorari explains.
In 2016, after serving as a lecturer at several European art and design schools, Pecorari joined Parsons Paris to launch the MA in Fashion Studies. “My aim was to expand the role of fashion studies, move beyond a traditional academic pedagogical approach, and explore ways in which theory can inform fashion practice and vice versa,” he says. His goal has challenged students to develop critical and practical skills in preparation for the dynamic and ever-changing global field of fashion. And it has entailed integrating the program into Paris—arguably fashion’s most influential capital—and drawing on the city’s unique historical and contemporary resources. The process has enabled Pecorari to tailor the curriculum to two main fields, media and heritage, and led to research partnerships with cultural institutions including the Fashion Museum of Antwerp (MoMu), the Fondation Azzedine Alaïa, Palais Galliera, and the Fashion Museum of Paris and even brands and agencies such as InDigital.com.
Pecorari's research and publishing also focus on the intersections of critical theory, fashion media, archive, and heritage. It is a provocative crossroads he takes students to in his role as co-founder of Printing Fashion (printingfashion.fr), a thematic annual symposium that brings together the MA Fashion Studies community, academics, and fashion practitioners, critics, and media professionals to explore the contemporary role and value of fashion-related print publications. MA students have participated by helping organize the event and creating content for the publication connected to the festival and distributed at Parisian cultural institutions.
Pecorari sits on the editorial boards of the journals Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture, ZoneModa Journal, and Bloomsbury Fashion Central. He is also part of the Scientific Board of the European Fashion Heritage Association (EFHA). He co-authored Fashion, Performance & Performativity (Bloomsbury, 2021) and published his first monograph, Fashion Remains: Rethinking Fashion Ephemera in the Archive (Bloomsbury, 2020), which explores fashion ephemera such as invitations, catalogs, and press releases and their role in documenting the creative tensions, aesthetic affinities, interdisciplinary relationships, and commissions within the fashion industry.
Pecorari's current work explores the politics of labor and the ways French luxury brands use their own archives, craft artisans, and ancient traditions to surround their products with an aura of allure and authenticity.