Fashion Edit-a-thon at Les Arts Décoratifs
Paris, breeding ground of legendary couturiers like Yves Saint Laurent and Christian Dior, was the location for the latest fashion edit-a-thon. On March 22nd, a varied group of fashion-experts, enthusiasts, students and designers joined forces at Les Arts Décoratifs to write new fashion-related articles and improve existing ones on Wikipedia.
Participants start writing. Photo: Jesse de Vos/Aurélie Champ. CC-BY-SA.
After a classic French breakfast, Alessandra Arezzi Boza, Communication Director at Europeana Fashion, started the day with a presentation on the Europeana Fashion project.
The participants then went to work in the library where they could use books and other sources for their articles. French Wikipedians were there to help participants write on Wikipedia. Participants wrote on designers, certain types of dress and historical time-periods.
Participants use sources from the library at Les Arts Décoratifs. Photo: Jesse de Vos/Aurélie Champ. CC-BY-SA.
After lunch, participants toured the “Dries Van Noten – Inspirations” exhibition currently on display at Les Arts Décoratifs. In this exhibition, Belgian fashion designer Dries Van Noten’s work is shown side by side with fashion and art objects that inspire him.
At the end of the day, participants shared their experiences. Some found the learning curve for writing on Wikipedia a bit steep and would have appreciated another short workshop at the start of the day. Nearly half of the participants indicated that they would again write on Wikipedia in the future.
A concentrating participant. Photo: Jesse de Vos/Aurélie Champ. CC-BY-SA.
The results of this productive day can be summarised as follows:
30 participants dedicated a full day to editing and creating fashion-related articles on Wikipedia. 22 first-time editors created new accounts just before or during the event.The group created 14 new articles (see the project page for a full list), among wich this richly illustrated article on Elizabethan Costume and this article on Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen
22 articles were expanded and more than 200 edits made by new editors
More picture of the day can be found here
For those interested in organizing an edit-a-thon, Europeana Fashion can assist you with resources, communication and advice. Please contact Erwin Verbruggen at the Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision everbruggen@beeldengeluid.nl.
The next fashion edit-a-thons will most likely take place in Lisbon and Belgrade, so stay tuned!
The author would like to thank Wikimedia France, the team at Les Arts Décoratifs and the participants of the edit-a-thon.
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