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- Volume 5, Issue 1, 2018
Critical Studies in Men's Fashion - Volume 5, Issue 1-2, 2018
Volume 5, Issue 1-2, 2018
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Looking and behaving: Sartorial politics and Jewish men in fin-de-siècle Vienna
More LessAbstractThe contribution of Viennese Jews to the cultural milieu of the Austrian capital at the fin de siècle is undisputed. Jewish women and men contributed to the social artistic, economic and philosophical centrality of Viennese culture. But what did Jewish urban, middle-class men wear and in what ways was it significant. This article examines the sartorial habits of two Viennese cultural and literary icons, Stefan Zweig (1881–1942) and Peter Altenberg (1859–1919), and considers how men’s fashions in Vienna during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries both facilitated and negated the assimilatory aspirations of the city’s middle-class Jewish population. A comparison of visual and literary accounts of Jewish acculturation and assimilation will offer a further understanding of the manifestation of visual ‘Jewishness’ and the heterogeneous Jewish identities present in Vienna during the period.
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Dumpster Chic and Haute Homeless: Placing Brother Sharp in a fashion industry continuum
More LessAbstractIn 2010, a Chinese homeless man became an Internet sensation when photos of him were posted online. Soon nicknamed ‘Brother Sharp’, the man’s celebrity went viral, first in China and then the world; Chinese young men imitated his style while he still ate out of trashcans. His fame coincided with a controversial homeless-inspired menswear collection from Vivienne Westwood, and the two incidences were linked in the media. While Brother Sharp’s sudden fame was a phenomenon of the Internet age, the idea of the homeless and the poor has had a long history as inspiration and entertainment for the general public. This article traces fashion collections from Christian Francis Roth and John Galliano, among others, the popularity of Mary Kate Olsen’s ‘Dumpster Chic’, along with the phenomenon of ‘slumming’ across centuries, and the ethics of such fashion expressions and fascinations.
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Becoming the West: Cowboys as icons of masculine style for gay men
By Elyssa FordAbstractThe cowboy has long been an icon of the American West, and in many ways, the cowboy has become the symbol of the American man. This understanding of the cowboy as the ideal of masculinity has held true even in alternate competitions, such as the gay rodeo. From its origins, the gay rodeo promoted itself as a space for gay men to be ‘real’ men. It was a place where the masculine cowboy was embraced. Yet, the gay rodeo is a complex space because within it there exists an interplay between the normative masculine cowboy and the subversively homosexual one.
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Who wore the breeches?: An insight into early modern female cross-dressing, between the 1570s and 1625
More LessAbstractDuring the last three decades of Elizabeth I’s reign and the death of James I (1570s–1625), a tendency towards the adoption of masculine attire emerged. This was fierily criticized by satire and critical literature and condemned by law. This study aims to explore and analyse the existing material related to early modern female transvestism that has seldom been the subject of detailed academic scrutiny.
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Clothing-related information-seeking practices in an online menswear community
More LessAbstractDespite increasing cultural expectations for men to attend to their physical appearance, there remains significant dearth of face-to-face social contexts in which men can comfortably pursue clothing-related knowledge. As such, there exists scarce scholarship on the ways that men use online resources to construct articulations of masculinity through clothing and dress. In this article, I examine men’s clothing-related knowledge-seeking practices in the subreddit Male Fashion Advice (MFA), a widely visited online style community. Men’s participation in MFA offers a rich and unexplored social context in which to examine this phenomenon. Based on virtual ethnographic fieldwork, I address the following two research questions: (1) Which factors prompt men to seek out clothing-related knowledge and advice? and (2) About which aspects of clothing, style and dress do men express the most concern? I also provide a discussion of the implications of my findings in terms of their consequences for contemporary constructions of masculinities and give suggestions for future research.
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Decisions men make with ill-fitting clothing: Keep it or throw it away?
Authors: Diana Saiki, Kayla Crecelius Ritchie and Rebekah FinchAbstractThe purpose of this article was to examine why men keep clothing that does not fit. Previous research with women suggests that clothes that do not fit are not simply thrown away, but may be kept as a reflection of the self. A web-based survey that prompted discussion of keeping ill-fitting clothing was completed by 76 men at a Midwestern university of all ages. The themes found were these clothes were kept for Weight Management, Investment Value, Sentimental Value and Functional Value. Young men made less reference to Weight Management than older ones. Younger men kept clothing for Sentimental Value with pleasant associations to childhood. Societal pressures to limit interaction with clothing were evident with responses such as finding function in ill-fitting clothing rather than purchasing new ones. However, identity was reflected in these choices. Further research with men is needed to fully understand clothing disposal practices among men.
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Men in fashion illustration textbooks: A critical analysis of race and the body
Authors: Kelly L. Reddy-Best, Eunji Choi and Hangael ParkAbstractAn examination of various fashion-related media revealed a significant lack of racial diversity and a preference for fit, muscular male bodies. The ideals related to race have also been studied extensively in numerous academic disciplines’ textbooks and yielded similar results. Scholars have analysed women’s bodies in fashion-related textbooks, but men have largely been ignored from these analyses. Using intersectionality theory as a lens, we critically examined the representation of men in fashion illustration textbooks and asked the following questions: how many men are represented? Is there racial diversity, and how are men’s bodies represented? We focused on fashion illustration textbooks as drawing bodies and garments are often the foundation to the design process, and current industry projections suggest that the men’s market is expected to expand significantly over the next few years. Therefore, we question the types of messages being communicated through the imagery in these important educational tools. We analysed the fashion illustration textbooks published since 2000 using the content analysis method, and coded race, skin colour, body size, muscularity and body position. Not surprisingly, we found a significant lack of racial diversity and preferences for lighter-skinned Blacks. In addition, male bodies were often fit and muscular. Implications for authors and college-level instructors are provided.
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Reviews
Authors: Paul Bench, Henry Navarro Delgado and Tim EdwardsAbstractMasculinities in the Archive Symposium, London College of Fashion, London, UK, 18 November 2017
Fashion and Masculinities in Popular Culture, Adam Geczy and Vicki Karaminas (2018) New York: Routledge, 185 pp., ISBN: 9781138658684, h/bk, $150
The Suit: Form, Function and Style, Christopher Breward (2016) London: Reaktion Books, 240 pp., ISBN: 1780235232, h/bk, $27
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