December 11, 2025 Château de Versailles

December 12, 2025 The New School Parsons Paris

How can we build a more connected and sustainable future for fashion, costume, and textile heritage?

Fashion, costume, and textile heritage are not merely collections of objects. They are vessels of memory, identity, and cultural
imagination. Yet too often their caretakers — curators, conservators, scholars, archivists, collectors, educators, makers — work in
isolation, separated by institutional boundaries, disciplinary divides, or geographic distance.
Organised by the European Fashion Heritage Association, in collaboration with the Château de Versailles and The New School Parsons Paris, with the support of the French Ministry of Culture, Weaving Connections responds to this fragmentation by offering a forum where professionals, research groups, museums, archives, conservation studios, digital platforms, and community-led initiatives
can come together to share methodologies, address shared challenges, and imagine new modes of working across institutional and
national borders.
Versailles offers more than a symbolic backdrop: as a site that shaped European aesthetics and luxury industries from the seventeenth century onward, it provides a historically rich setting for rethinking the cultural and political stakes of costume and textile preservation today. Parsons extends this dialogue into an academic and educational context, emphasising research, outreach, and collaborative pedagogy. This joint initiative marks a significant step toward building more connected, inclusive, and sustainable models of global cooperation in the field.

Day 1 | December 11, 2025
Château de Versailles 

The first day focuses on museums and specialist networks. Participants hear from international associations, collectives, and heritage organisations dedicated to fashion, dress, costume, jewellery, and textiles. Presentations highlight how professional networks support research, conservation, and interpretation, while also addressing questions of sustainability, visibility, and collaboration across different
traditions and geographies.
Versailles, as a historic epicentre of sartorial culture and luxury industries, offers a powerful setting for reflecting on the enduring cultural and political stakes of fashion and textile heritage.

Day 2 | December 12, 2025
The New School Parsons Paris

The second day shifts towards education, research, and outreach networks.
Sessions bring together academic projects, research initiatives, and digital platforms that expand the understanding and accessibility of fashion and textile heritage. Topics include decolonial approaches, innovative pedagogies, critical writing, collaborations with makers,
and the role of digital tools in creating “living archives.”
Parsons Paris frames these discussions within an educational context, emphasising the need to connect heritage to teaching, creative
practice, and public engagement.

To read the full programme, click here.