Sara Idacavage

Education

Research

Both inside and outside of academia, my work focuses on finding ways to encourage sustainable thinking and inclusivity by encouraging people to reevaluate their relationships to clothing and consumerism.

My doctoral research explores how fashion education can be enhanced by using sustainability to frame historical inquiry, placing unsustainable ideas and practices in today’s fashion system within a broader historical context while encouraging a more transdisciplinary and problem-oriented approach to fashion history.

Teaching

Instructor of Record, The University of Georgia
Department of Textiles, Merchandising, and Interiors
-    Fashion and Sustainability (Spring 2023)
-    Textiles for Consumers (Fall 2022)

Graduate Teaching Assistant, The University of Georgia
Department of Textiles, Merchandising, and Interiors
-    Apparel Design Studio (Spring 2022)
-    Fundamentals of Fashion Merchandising (Fall 2021, Spring 2021)
-    Pop Culture and Fashion (Spring 2021)
-    Creativity and the Design Process (Fall 2020)

Part-Time Instructor, Parsons School of Design
School of Fashion; School of Art and Design History and Theory
-    Advanced Research Seminar: Fashion (Spring 2020, Fall 2019, Fall 2018, Spring 2018, Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Fall 2016, Spring 2016)
-    Materiality of Fashion (Fall 2019)
-    Fashion Techniques: Couture (Spring 2019, Fall 2018)
-    Fashion Textile Survey (Spring 2019, Fall 2018) 
-    Fashion Culture (Spring 2019, Fall 2018, Spring 2017)
-    Fashion History: Fusion (Spring 2018) 
-    Fashion History: Survey (Fall 2016)
-    Fashion History: Couture (Fall 2016)

Visiting Instructor, The Pratt Institute
History of Art and Design Department
-    Contemporary Fashion (Fall 2019, Spring 2019, Fall 2017)
-    History of Interior Design (Spring 2018)

Adjunct Instructor, Fashion Institute of Technology
History of Art Department
-    History of Western Costume (Fall 2019)

Teaching Assistant, Parsons School of Design
School of Art and Design History and Theory
-    History of Fashion (Fall 2017, Spring 2014, Fall 2013)

Prior Professional Positions

Awards

Service

Outreach

Programming:

• Fighting Systemic Racism, Classism, and Individualism in Sustainable Fashion Education (UGA Campus Sustainability Grant with Sha'Mira Covington)

Advising:

• UGA's Fair Fashion Club

Advisory Committee

• Dr. Katalin Medvedev (major advisor)
• Dr. Patricia Hunt-Hurst (advisory committee member)
• Dr. Elizabeth Adams St.Pierre (advisory committee member)
• Dr. Kathryn Roulston (advisory committee member)

Areas of Expertise

Fashion history, fashion theory, museum studies, textile conservation, sustainability 

Journal Articles

Published:

• Idacavage, S., & Swadosh, J. (2017). Case study on cataloguing fashion adaptations. Art Libraries Journal, 42(1), 35–40. https://doi.org/10.1017/alj.2016.45
• Idacavage, S. (2016). David Bowie is. Fashion Theory, 4, 485. https://doi.org/10.1080/1362704X.2015.1100808  
• Idacavage, S. (2014). Make it big. Do it right. Give it class: The curatorial legacy of Diana Vreeland’s exhibition of ‘Romantic and Glamorous Hollywood Design.’ Fashion, Style & Popular Culture, 2(1), 29–44. https://doi.org/10.1386/fspc.2.1.29_1 

Accepted:

• Sklar, M., Kirkland, A., Wiebers, L., Sauro, C., & Idacavage, S. (Accepted if revised, December 2022). “I’m Not Searching the Right Words”: User Experience Searching Historic Clothing Collection Websites.  The International Journal of the Inclusive Museum. Common Ground Publishing. 

Commissioned (in progress):

• Winterthur Portfolio. Book Review: Unraveled: The Life and Death of a Garment by Maxine Bédat. 

Publications

Essays in Edited Volumes:

• Idacavage, S., & Medvedev, K. (Accepted December 2022) “Social Justice as a Sustainability Issue.” In Blanco, J. (Ed.) The Meanings of Dress (Fourth edition). Fairchild Books, Inc.

Encyclopedia Entries:

• Idacavage, S. (2021). New York fashion designers in the 1990s. In V. Steele (Ed.), Bloomsbury Fashion Video Archive. https://www.bloomsburyfashionvideo.com
• Idacavage, S. (2019). David Bowie’s influence on fashion. In J.B. Eicher & P.G. Tortora (Eds.), Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion: Global Perspectives. Oxford: Berg. http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781847888594.EDch101721
• Idacavage, S. (2018). The development of fast fashion. In J.B. Eicher & P.G. Tortora (Eds.), Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion: Global Perspectives. Oxford: Berg. http://dx.doi.org/10.2752/BEWDF/EDch101421
• Idacavage, S. (2018). Copying French couture for American consumers. In P.G. Tortora (Ed.), Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion: The United States and Canada. Oxford: Bloomsbury Academic. http://dx.doi.org/10.2752/BEWDF/EDch031420
• Idacavage, S. (2016). Glam rock. In J.F. Blanco, M.D. Doering, P. Hunt-Hurst, & H.V. Lee (Eds.), Clothing and fashion: American fashion from head to toe. ABC-CLIO. ISBN : 9781610693097

Thesis:

• Idacavage, S. (2014). "A Taste for Caviar": National identity ambivalence in American fashion between 1930-1960. (Master's thesis, available upon request). Parsons School of Design, New York, NY.