Critical Studies in Fashion & Beauty - Volume 6, Issue 2, 2015

This article explores the recent emergence of ‘authenticity’ in fashion in the context of tribal brand cultures in which the value of fashion items results from co-creation processes in environments created by online social media. The study used a qualitative approach in the form of a netnographic study, supported by secondary research such as online documents, photographic footage and media reports. Focusing on a young New York City-based outdoor fashion firm, the research explores the life- and experience-worlds of consumers in an online context. Following the tenets of Symbolic Interactionism, the study identified a socially and emotionally charged process of value exchange as a key driver in the relationship between brands and consumers. Social exchange between consumers is where meaning is extracted and symbolic properties are converted into markers of collective identification. While most analyses of co-creation and tribal consumption focus on offor online contexts separately, the present study seeks to develop an understanding of the intersecting dynamics between on- and offline environments.

In this article, I argue that the qualities distinguishing luxury fashion from its ‘fast fashion’ imitators are conceptually akin to the subversive street-statements which inspire both catwalk designers and mass retailers. To demonstrate how designers’ catwalk creations and counterculture street-style share inherent conceptual qualities that are contrary to fast fashion, I illustrate my argument with the example of ripped denim and tears or holes in other fabrics. While scholars offer insight into the sociological, aesthetic and ideological importance of ripped denim, lesser attention has gone towards examining high-end designers’ artful tearing of opulent fabrics in their catwalk collections. This article discusses the origins of this style and examines the meaning of tears in five influential designers’ representative catwalk collections: Rei Kawakubo (for A/W Comme des Garçons, 1982), Marc Jacobs (for Perry Ellis, SS ‘92), Ann-Sofie Back (A/W ‘08), Rodarte (A/W ‘08) and Ashish (S/S ’14). By examining these collections, I analyse the ascent of the tear as a story of fashion functioning as art and social commentary. Although street-style and catwalk garments function as fodder for fast fashion trends, this article argues that individuals who wear their jeans to threads and designers who painstakingly craft handmade holes are aligned in making conceptual counterpoints to fast fashion. Contrary to fast fashion that relies on commercial considerations, it is only designer fashion that can participate in the critical discourse about fashion. It does so by reflecting subcultural anti-materialist viewpoints, or making anti-consumerist statements.

This article seeks to discuss the relation between TV series characters, fashion and fandom through social media. It focuses on a specific kind of TV series, quality dramas, and in particular Netflix’s House of Cards (Netflix, 2013–). This series is a model example of the way clothing is a key factor that elicits audience engagement: the fashion universe of the female protagonist, Claire Underwood, is clearly included in the story, contributing to the definition of both the environment and the character. The relevance of style, outfits, clothes and fashion accessories is underlined by several online fandom interactions: audiences talk daily about how particular characters dress or act, check and share information and images about outfits and brands and buy online the products seen on TV. Audience members build and negotiate their gender identity through a performative self-representation, using (buying and wearing) fashion-symbolic materials provided by TV. These practices, now enabled by the social TV phenomenon, allow audiences to engage with the contents in a sort of expanded TV experience, which is the focus of this article. In particular, the aim of the article is to explore the process of fashion appropriation and reworking enacted by the audience with respect to Claire Underwood’s power dressing and to provide evidence as to how TV shows can offer diverse fashion experiences by which individuals can be inspired in representing the self.

In the past two decades body hair has fast become a taboo for women. The empirical data of sociological and medical research reveal that the vast majority of women remove most of their body hair since the beginning of this century. Body hair is typically a marker that polices significant boundaries: between human–animal, male–female and adult–child. Removal or refusal to remove body hair places the female body on either side of the boundary, thus upholding and displacing binary oppositions between fundamental categories. The new beauty ideal requires techniques of control, manipulation and self-improvement. This article first assesses how empirical studies map and confirm existing trends of body hair removal, and then explores indepth the cultural reasons for the development of the normative ideal of a hairless female body. While body hair functions socially as a taboo, it refers psychologically to the realm of the abject. One line of argument places the taboo in the realm of abjection, while another argument attempts to demystify the Freudian anxieties surrounding the visibility and invisibility of the female sex organ. While the hairless body connotes perfected femininity, it simultaneously betrays a fear of adult female sexuality. The hairless body may be picture-perfect, but its emphasis on visual beauty runs the risk of disavowing the carnality of lived life. The hair-free trend of today’s beauty ideals affirms that the twenty-first-century body is a work in progress.

‘Fashion: Red in tooth and claw’: A lycology for Alan Moore and Malcolm McLaren’s Fashion Beast, Alan Moore, Malcolm McLaren, Anthony Johnston and Facundo Pericio (2013) Fashion Beast, Rantoul, IL: Avatar Press. ISBN 9781592912117, Trade Paperback, $24.99

Lyndal Walker, Silk Cut: The F Word, Ararat State Gallery, Ararat, Victoria, Australia, 21 August–12 October 2014; Benglis 73/74, TCB, Melbourne Australia, 1–18 October 2014; The Invitation, hangmenProjects, Stockholm, Sweden, 16–19 April 2015; Supermarket Independent Art Fair, hangmenProjects Stand, Stockholm, Sweden, 16–19 April 2015

David Bowie is, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne, Australia, 16 July–1 November 2015