International Symposium - Institute of Italian Culture Stockholm
Conference
Start date: Monday 24 November 2025
Time: 09.30
End date: Tuesday 25 November 2025
Time: 16.00
Location: Gärdesgatan 14, Stockholm
Registration is required for this event
”Exploring Masculinities in Fashion, Film and Media in Sweden, Italy and the UK, Past and Present”
Hosts: Francesco Di Lella and Patrizia Coggiola, Institute of Italian Culture
Moderators: Louise Wallenberg and Romana Andò
This two-day long symposium brings together prominent scholars and practitioners working in film, media and fashion to discuss and explore the representation, creation and negotiation of masculinity on film and in fashion in the past and in the present. The symposium is open to the public. The speakers include scholars Patrizia Calefato, Nick Rees-Roberts, Pamela Church Gibson, and practitioners Maria Eriksson-Hecht, Daniela Ciancio and Luca Litrico.
SCHEDULE
Monday, November 24
09.30 Welcome Note by director Francesco di Lella, IICS, and organizers Louise Wallenberg, SU, and Romana Andò, La Sapienza
Session 1: Reading Masculinity on the Silver Screen
09.45 Pamela Church Gibson, formerly Reader in Film and Fashion at London College of Fashion and now lecturing at Central St Martins, London, “A Hundred Years of Hollywood Heroes: Action Heroes and Style Icons”
10.30 Nick Rees-Roberts, Professor of Media, Culture and Communication, Sorbonne Nouvelle University, Paris, “Success-ion: On Masculinity and Failure”
11.15 Louise Wallenberg, Professor of Fashion Studies, Stockholm University, “Desirable Deviation: Ideal Men in 1930s Swedish Cinema”
12.00 LUNCH break
Session 2: Negotiating Masculinity in the Media
13.00 Romana Andò, Professor of , La Sapienza, Rome, “Fashioning the Boyhood: Male Fashion, Audiovisual Content and the Construction of Masculinity”
13.45 Anja Hirdman, Professor of Media Studies, Stockholm University, “The Manosphere: Digital Homosociality and the Feminine Other”
14.30 Break
Session 3: Film Practitioners on Representing Men on the Screen
15.00 Daniela Ciancio, Costume designer (The Exception 2016; La grande bellezza 2013; Il mio nome è vendetta 2022), “Making the Invisible Visible”
15.40 Maria Eriksson-Hecht, Film director (Alvaret 2021; Kevlarsjäl 2025), title TBA
Session 4: Bridging Theory and Practice I
16.30 Panel discussion with Ciancio, Hirdman, Eriksson-Hecht and Rees-Roberts
Moderator: Pamela Church Gibson
17.30 Concluding remarks by di Lella, Wallenberg and Andò
17.40 Reception
Tuesday, November 25
09.30 Welcome note by di Lella, Wallenberg and Andò
Session 1: Fashionable Men: Past and Present
09.45 Patrizia Calefato, Professor at University Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, ”Masculinity, Body, and Fashion in Contemporary Politics”
10.30 Jacob Östberg, Professor of Marketing, Stockholm University, ”Fragile Masculinity in the Welfare State”
11.15 Edoardo Ferrari, PhD Candidate in Fashion at IUAV, Venice, and visiting scholar at ILFR, Oslo, “Type Me in Bold. Advertising Helmut Lang”
12.00 LUNCH break
Session 2: Fashion Practitioners Talk Masculinity
13.00 Luca Litrico, CEO of Litrico Sartoria, Rome (in conversation with Patrizia Calefato)
13.30 Göran Sundberg, Fashion Designer and Senior Lecturer at Beckman College of Design, Stockholm, “Fabric of Masculinity: On Men's Fashions in Graduation Design Projects”
14.00 Andreas Palm, CEO of CDLP, Stockholm, “Reimagining Representations of Masculinity: A Case Study of CDLP”
14.30 Break
Session 3: Bridging Theory and Practice II
15.00 Panel Discussion with Östberg, Litrico, Palm and Sundberg
Moderator: John Jamal Gille, Director of the Association of Swedish Fashion Brands
16.00 Closing Remarks by Di Lella and Wallenberg
Last updated: November 7, 2025
Source: Institutionen för mediestudier