"Critical Gender Issues in Fashion Studies"

Andrew (Andy) Reilly is a professor and curator in the Fashion Design and Merchandising program at the University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa. His research areas investigate appearance-related issues surrounding gender and sexuality identity as well as historic and cultural aspects of the fashion industry in Hawai‘i. His books include Handbook of Men’s Fashion (Intellect), Fashion, Dress, and Post-postmodernism (Bloomsbury), among other publications. He has served as president of both the International Textile and Apparel Association and the Textile and Apparel Programs Accrediting Commission, and is a fellow of the former.

"Threads of Resistance: Rethinking Gender-Fluid and Non-Binary Fashion Design"

Judith Beyer is a fashion studies lecturer at AMD Akademie Mode & Design, Germany. She was named to the 2023 Business of Fashion's BoF 500 and Zalando BoF's New Zealand and Oceania Dean's List. Her research focuses on the intersection of fashion and culture, identity, and queer fashion. Her books include Lesbian Styles in Cinema (co-authored, EUP) and Antigender Fashion: The Possibilities of Gender-Fluid and Non-Binary Fashion Design (Bloomsbury). She has also published in Queer Fashion, ZoneMode, and other academic journals.

"The Lolita Subculture: Reclaiming and Celebrating Cute Femininity and Girlie Innocence as Empowerment and Emancipation"

Yuniya Kawamura is professor of sociology at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT). She is the author of Fashion-ology (Bloomsbury) which has been translated into Italian, Swedish, Russian, Turkish, Chinese, and Korean. Her recent publications include Sebastian Masuda (Anthem Press) and Fashioning Japanese Subcultures (Bloomsbury). She was a visiting scholar at the National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University in Taiwan in August, 2025.