Mikhail Borg

As a starting point, it is fundamental to underline that without the support provided by the Malta Arts Scholarship Scheme financed by the Government of Malta it would have been tough to further pursue my studies abroad.

The Malta Arts Scholarship Scheme opened up a one in a life time opportunity to further my studies abroad and with this opportunity brought a lot of benefits both educational, personal, artistic and on a research level. The Malta Arts Scholarship has provided me with the opportunity to further my studies and research on a subject that I have shown a vast interest in from my years at the MCAST Institute for Art and Design.

Through the Arts Scholarship I was able to further pursue detailed research on Fashion Design and the History of Fashion throughout the years at the Accademia Italiana, a University in Florence. Being right in the middle of the fashion centre of the world, I was heavily exposed to the best materials one could possibly access to complete his research.

Through this 10,000 word thesis, the purpose of my research study is to identify distinctive types of human ideas about the evolution of gender through clothing and fashion, what is feminine and that of which has a male appearance in the evaluation of various clothing styles and fashion throughout the years.

Moreover I continued my research by focusing on the influence of fashion and gender in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It is discussed that the nineteenth century class structures on women were different than for men and there was a major existence of differences between men and women and the belief in fixed gender identities. However By the late twentieth century, nineteenth century concepts of fixed gender identities and prejudice of gender uncertainty were slowly vanishing.

I discussed the impact of gender in fashion and deliberated gender role theories perceived by sociologists, wrote about artists such as the famous photographers during the 1970s and 1990s Peter Hujar and Nan Goldin which both showcased in their work fashion and gender non-conforming individuals in their photos and also various fashion designers that all classify the different connections between gender, fashion and social identity and how fashion design is not only incorporating unisex but also terms such as agender, non-binary and ungendered fashion.

Lastly I focused my study on LGBT and Nonconforming gender individuals that are an influence in fashion Magazines and the media. By showing examples of ad campaigns in the 1990s by Calvin Klein were there was a representation of effeminate men, gay couples kissing and blurred gender lines. After discussed how in this century in ad campaigns, androgyny has been intertextual with dandyism, with the importance on power dressing of female dandies, homosexuality and transvestisms.

The Scholarship was extremely beneficial to my education and research skills, however its effects will not terminate there, as with the knowledge that I have obtained I can use such knowledge in my day to day working life.