Clare Lopeman
Fashion Counterintelligence: Artisanal Encryption as Embodied Resistance
A draping of the soul, a tailoring of the self, a secret second skin.
Fashion has always been a signifier, a tangle of linguistics, a performance of values, positionality, power, politics and symbolism. Fashion Counterintelligence proposes a new lexicon within this space, acting as interdisciplinary methodology, philosophical metaphor and material design practice.
In response to a new geopolitical era of epistemic flux, recurring Cold War narratives, increasing censorship, surveillance and critical climate thresholds, this research falls within a charged moment in history, throwing down the gauntlet for empathic design as an empowering and resistant force.
Drawing upon interdisciplinary methods of life-writing, cryptography, Cold War histories and couture archives, this research proposes artisanal encryption: the embedding of hidden narratives and coded forms of communication as a bespoke fashion practice, intimate insurgency and emotionally durable fashion expression.
Collaborations with British artisanal companies further situate Fashion Counterintelligence at the intersection of heritage and innovation, amplifying its role within UK craft through slow fashion and textile practices that counter extractive and unsustainable systems.
Positioned within post-critical design thinking, Fashion Counterintelligence moves beyond commodity and aesthetic practice to consider the ethical, emotional and cultural staying power of what we wear as a political and philosophical act.
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More about Clare
Biography
Clare Lopeman is a British Fashion Designer, Researcher and Educator with over 20 years of pedagogical and professional experience both nationally and internationally. She is a graduate of Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Clare is a Guest Lecturer on the Masters of Research at The Royal College of Art and Senior Tutor on the MA Fashion Design and Postgraduate Certificate in Research at Istituto Marangoni London.
Degrees
Master of Research, Royal College of Art
BA (Hons) Fashion Design Womenswear, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London
Experience
Previously, Clare established and led the first transnational BA (Hons) Fashion Design Degree in Moscow, Russia, developing a prolific, globally facing fashion department within complex and challenging socio-political conditions. As a designer, she is best known for her dynamic, graphic collections that explore the creative tensions and intersections across cultural histories, archives and political ideologies.
Inspired by French couture practices and their influences behind the Iron Curtain, Clare’s collections have been described by Susanna Lau as Spying through English Eyes and featured in Fashion Theory, The Journal of Dress, Body and Culture, The Guardian, The New York Times, The Pop, Style Bubble and The Telegraph.