Clothing Cultures - Volume 6, Issue 3, 2020

Design practice has historically been constrained by the assumption that designed objects, including clothing, will be made and worn in Earth gravity. The notion that designed objects have an upright state has influenced common approaches to design, including the tendency towards depiction and presentation of designed objects in elevation view, which, for fashion, is frequently understood in terms of silhouette. However, those who have experienced weightlessness, either in space travel or on board reduced-gravity aircraft, describe a post-gravity experience that prompts them to revisit these assumptions and consider the extent to which future commercial space travel will liberate creative practitioners to operate at all angles and orientations. As we enter the commercial space age, fashion will be increasingly worn in a variety of gravitational conditions, and the dressed body will therefore be encountered at a variety of orientations, showcasing views of garments that are not often encountered on Earth, and that are therefore often overlooked by fashion designers. This article responds to descriptions of the post-gravity experience by identifying the need to consider alternative views of the clothed body, and consequently to define garments without reference to the silhouette in fashion design for the new commercial space age.

This study examines the types of shoes that were worn in the 1970s in Hakkâri – a city and province in Turkey close to the Turkish–Iraqi border – and its surroundings, linking them to social status, choice and taste, as well as economic power and the original cultural heritage of the local community. The findings detailed herein are based on samples taken from fieldwork conducted in 32 localities. Severe winter conditions have an important place among the factors that shape the social life of the local people of Hakkâri. In winter, they used to wear snowshoes called ‘leken’ to walk comfortably on snow of 2 m depth. Unlike various types of shoes worn today, there were three types of shoes worn in Hakkâri and its surroundings in the past in addition to snowshoes. The first is the one made of goat hair called ‘reşik’; the second is called ‘lastik’, which has a tyre sole and has knitted sides made of goat’s hair yarn; the third is a shoe called ‘kalik’, made from cattle skin. The characteristics of these have close relations with the material, colour and shape of shoes and the class and status of the people who wore them as well as with traditions and culture of the community. As well as exploring the material and other features of these shoes, similar examples, redesigned and made in other nearby provinces, are compared and discussed. This study is significant in that these traditional handicrafts are at risk of vanishing, as are other handicrafts in other parts of the world, due to the influence of technology and industrialization. By considering the traditional methods of shoe-making in Hakkâri and contextualizing this amongst the practices of other nearby provinces, this study aims to contribute to the promotion of the culture and art of the region and add to the limited literature in this field.

This article presents a study of lace textiles used for clothing in southern Nigeria. The study was conducted with the aim of providing a preliminary morphological categorization and typological classification of the lace textiles. Based on field research conducted in six strategically selected cities of southern Nigeria, the study used a total of 135 lace textile samples available in the region from 1990 and 2016 for its analyses. The study categorized the lace textiles into two morphological classes of handmade lace and machine-made lace. It also classified the machine-made lace into eleven typological groups based on the visual qualities of the laces.

Fashion is a product and reflection of time and tantamount to modernity. The promise of which rests in the future, thus fashion is forever looking forward in the ambition to be ‘new’. Vintage fashion, namely clothes from past periods apprehend this perpetual cycle, often adopted by alternative groups of consumers to create different looks as a subcultural trend. This trend has in recent times been subsumed by capitalism while the label ‘vintage’ has become a marketing term applied to new mass-produced fashions. What can be understood from society’s attitude to progress and the promise of modernity by this remaking of the past into a pastiche? Fashion can prove to be a perfect conduit through which to understand complex conceptualisations of time, and more specifically the concept of 'political time'. What people wear can further cast a light on public consciousness and its faith in development and hope for a better future. This article will consider conceptions of time and modernity as a theoretical tool to reflect on the development of nouveau vintage, which is a recreation of vintage styles and fashion, mass produced for a wider market. Including the role of memory and dialectics, nouveau vintage can be thought of as a refusal for development, while demonstrating fashion is a cultural object worthy of philosophical enquiry.