Abby Lillethun

  • Professor Dean's Office, College of the Arts
Email
lillethuna@montclair.edu
Phone
(973) 655-5713
Location
Montclair Campus > Life Hall > Room 0406
Office Hours (Spring)

Tuesday: 8:30 am - 9:30 am, Make an appointment by emailing me at lillethuna@montclair.edu

Friday: 8:30 am - 9:30 am, Make an appointment by emailing me at lillethuna@montclair.edu

Biography

My teaching and scholarship center on the study of fashion and textiles as cultural production that is created, expressed, experienced, and reconfigured through their intersections with technological and business developments and social change. I examine design processes over time.

My scholarship has several strands within the context of global fashion history and cultures as they intersect with design processes. I investigate the nexus of Asian and Western design, primarily between 1885 and 1935, with emphasis on Indonesia. I also study Bronze Age Aegean dress using experimental archaeological techniques to recreate dress objects.

I am a member of The Research Collective for Decoloniality and Fashion (RCDF+), and my scholarship incorporates decolonial theoretical perspectives to investigate historical design processes.

BOOKS:

The Fashion Reader
by Linda Welters and Abby Lillethun (2022, 3rd ed., revised, is an anthology reader with a global perspective and a wide range of source types, including commissioned essays from scholarly experts. Professor Welters and I contributed 4 co-authored essays. I wrote an essay on dress in the ancient world and six introductions to the book's parts. The book is available from Bloomsbury Publishers.

Fashion History: A Global View
by Linda Welters and Abby Lillethun (2018), proposes a new perspective on fashion history, arguing that fashion has occurred in cultures beyond the West throughout history, this groundbreaking book explores the geographic places and historical spaces that have been largely neglected by contemporary fashion studies, bringing them together for the first time. The book is available from Bloomsbury Publishers.





Education

  • BFA, University of Georgia
  • MFA, Florida State University
  • PhD, The Ohio State University

Research

Research and scholarship:
Fashion theory
-decoloniality
-embodiment
-trade and contact
Fashion/style/dress and textile history
-global fashion history
-fashion history pedagogy
-the Aegean Bronze Age
-Asian-Western design exchange,1885—1935


Media Expertise

Research and scholarship:
Fashion theory
-decoloniality
-embodiment
-trade and contact
Fashion/style/dress and textile history
-global fashion history
-fashion history pedagogy
-the Aegean Bronze Age
-Asian-Western design exchange,1885—1935


Related Links

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In the News

  • Permanent Jewelry: Dr. Abby Lillethun Comments on the Trend for CT Insider

    Dr. Abby Lillethun, Professor in the Art and Design Department, recently commented on the permanent jewelry trend for CT Insider.

    What began as a social media phenomenon has spread; you might see permanent-jewelry popups at the local spin studio, hair salon or farmers market, or at traditional stores.

    If you’re new to the concept, permanent jewelry isn’t as scary as it sounds. A chain is made into a bracelet, anklet, ring or necklace with the ends welded together, no clasp. There’s no pain involved as there is in getting a tattoo. And technically, it’s not permanent since you can cut off the chain.

    Jewelry is one of the oldest ways to express sentiment, so it’s no surprise that permanent adornments have captured the public’s imagination, said Dr. Lillethun. Skeletons adorned in jewelry have been found at sites thousands of years old, including pieces made of gold and semiprecious stones. Humans also used shells and nuts strung together on plant fiber and fashioned into necklaces as far back as the Mesolithic period. As with any fashion, jewelry trends change over time, but what’s out often ends up coming back in.

    “Jewelry that doesn’t have a clasp is not new, but at this moment, it is new,” Dr. Lillethun said. The trend is about identifying your tribe, connection, rites of passage and commemoration. “It is differentiating from the past and a new way to mark a moment,” she said. “We all have a drive for novelty, but we also want to be like those who you identify with or want to emulate,” Dr. Lillethun said.

    Yahoo!
    Abby Lillethun