Benjamin B. Roberts

Counterculture in Rembrandt’s Youth 

With his bushy, long hair and gold earring, Rembrandt was no stranger to pushing gender boundaries. Today, if someone would look at the
self-portrait of the 22-year-old painter, they might even identify him as ‘queer’.

Rembrandt’s generation of young men came of age in the 1620s
and 1630s and rebelled against the older generation. One of the
principle means of defying themselves from the previous generations was through rebellious acts of sporting different clothing, daunting another hairstyle style, and facial hair. Often, their new choice in clothing challenged existing notions of masculinity and blurred conventional gender boundaries, which older men condemned as effeminate.

This lecture will address the new fashion of young people in the early seventeenth
century and examine how it unleashed a counterculture that changed men’s
fashion and behavior.

Benjamin B. Roberts is a freelance journalist and historian specialized
in early modern Dutch education, youth culture, and life stages. He received a master’s in early modern history at the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam, and a Ph.D. in the history of education at the
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. Currently he teaches Media, Journalism, and
Society at the University of Amsterdam in the summer. His forthcoming new edition Sex, Drugs, and Rock ‘n’ Roll in Rembrandt’s Time (June
2024) reevaluates sexuality and LGBT+ culture in the early seventeenth
century, together with blurring gender boundaries.

Jane Tynan

Subversive fashion practices and speaking truth to power

In highlighting the connection between truth and power this talk considers alternative modes of body fashioning and the challenge they represent to the political establishment.

I use post- structural theories of philosopher/historian Michel Foucault to demonstrate that fashion both produces and critiques discourses of power. Here, the subject of power is defined not by ideology, but action. Various subversive fashion practices have characterized recent instances of civil disobedience and a new generation of activists are contesting the powers-that-be with counter-discourses in the form of hoodies, masking, theatrical costume, and uniforms.

I explore the significance of subversive fashion practices from a Foucauldian perspective to argue that the body is a battleground in our society, a problem intensified by the prevalence of surveillance systems. Personal appearance has taken on a new significance in the light of 'culture wars,’ which has prompted reactionary forces to search for deviance on the streets, online and in the workplace. We have seen moral panics pivot on the styling of the body in various settings, from anti-war demonstrations to disputes on gender. Foucault offers insights into these dynamics, revealing dressing as a political act and the body as key site of resistance
in everyday struggles for power.

Jane Tynan is Assistant Professor Design History and Theory in the Faculty of Humanities, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, where she is program lead for MA Design Cultures. Her research primarily concerns histories of fashion, clothing and the body with a focus on questions of citizenship, power, governance and public trust. Other research interests include socio-technical imaginaries, the militarization of popular culture, material histories and artdesign collaborations. Recent books include Uniform: Clothing and Discipline in the Modern World (2019) and Trench Coat (2022). She is editor of the book series Palgrave Studies in Fashion and the Body.

Anneke Smelik

Hippie influences in Dutch fashion

Dutch fashion has it all: vibrant colours, sculptural forms, flowing fabrics or naughty prints and designer blue jeans. Think of G-star or baroque designs by fashion artists Viktor&Rolf, hippie designers The People of the Labyrinths, punk designer Bas Kosters, or Moroccan-Dutch designer Mohamed Benchellal.

In this lecture, fashion scholar Anneke Smelik explores
how Dutch designers take their inspiration all the way back to the youth cultures of the 1960s. Fashion styles moved from top-down haute couture to bottom-up street culture. The lecture will discuss why this form of democratization was particularly strong in the Netherlands. And how individualism has countered conformism, from fashion queen of the 1970s, Mathilde Willink, to fashion performer Aynouk Tan today.

Anneke Smelik is Emerita Professor of Visual Culture at Radboud University Nijmegen. She has published widely in the field of fashion, cinema, popular culture and cultural memory.
Among her books are Delft Blue to Denim Blue. Contemporary Dutch Fashion and Thinking Through Fashion. A Guide to Key Theorists. She is co-editor of the journal Critical Studies in
Fashion&Beauty. For more information: www.annekesmelik.nl