Fashion, Style & Popular Culture - Volume 1, Issue 3, 2014

Elements of fashion-forward dress and appearance, along with novel fashion initiation and adoption practices, have been described as exhibiting the expressive features of postmodern culture. But a recent body of theoretical work suggests that postmodernism has been eclipsed by a new epoch. ‘Post-postmodern’ is a catch-all term for the new cultural ethos and the theories that describe it. Among these are Bourriaud’s thesis on altermodernism, Lipovetsky’s proposal on hypermodernity, Eshelman’s discussion of performatism, Samuels’ argument on automodernity, and Kirby’s argument on digimodernism. I describe these theories and address how their authors substantiate post-postmodern expressions in varying forms of popular culture. And, because none address fashion-related dress and appearance per se, I extrapolate from the propositions to propose possible parallel post-postmodern fashion phenomena. I conclude with a critique of the extrapolations and an assessment of the viability of the idea that aspects of current fashion-related phenomena reflect a post-postmodern condition.

Clothing operates as a medium of communication, and military clothing has particular and powerful meanings. In 2004, the US Army adopted a new uniform, based on the digitized ‘Universal Camouflage Pattern’ (UCP). Since then, the digital Army Combat Uniform (ACU) has operated rhetorically to reinforce messages promulgated by the Army around the time the uniform was introduced, particularly those messages related to the Future Force and the Warrior Ethos. Drawing upon research and theory of fashion, sociology and visual rhetoric, this article examines how the US Army has presented itself through the ACU as powerful, agile and technologically driven, while reinforcing traditional martial and American ethics. Its success at employing the digital camouflage as visual rhetoric is validated by cultural appropriations of the camouflage pattern.

Suits and suit-like jackets are clothing signifiers in our culture, denoting professionalism, seriousness of purpose and formality. The suit jacket is the standard for male formal wear in both social and professional settings: a suit is de rigeur for a man attending both his daughter’s wedding and a meeting with his Board of Directors. The more status, income and power connected to his job, the more likely he is to wear a suit jacket (hence the term, ‘power suit’). The most powerful men in an organization may be (somewhat derisively) referred to as the ‘suits’. Precisely because the jacket is so laden with social meaning, it is not unambiguously welcomed in the world of academia. To the extent a jacket is associated with traits such as power and conformity to a masculinist norm, it eschews the traits of intimacy, informality, creativity and femininity. We have been engaged in a research project on faculty clothing choices, involving extensive interviews with over sixty faculty members. We found that female professors understand the meanings associated with the jacket and thus take a variety of stances towards wearing this garment. Some don it regularly to project an image of masculinized authority, some completely reject it for much the same reasons, and many pull it on and take it off as they shift between the various demands of their jobs. In this article we examine the latent meaning of the suit jacket and the various responses it provokes among female faculty members.

This article explored the histories of both Steampunk and Dieselpunk with a focus on their dress behaviour and musical preferences as related to the ideologies of these groups. Particular attention was paid to both group’s fixations on nostalgia for periods outside of the individual members’ living memories and how this nostalgia is a feature of their consumption experiences. The article also addresses the anachronistic use of the word ‘punk’ in the name of each of these groups. There is an obvious incongruity with the naming of Steampunk and Dieselpunk because they are shameless consumer cultures with no obvious political inclinations. Although Steampunks and Dieselpunks do share the DIY aesthetic of the traditional punk subculture, their styles have been prefabricated, neatly packaged and made available for sale on any of the many websites devoted to providing the quintessential Victorian or diesel-era garb.

This article explores the crucial issues of identification, access, participation and documenting addressed within the research design and methodology for my M.A. thesis. Within my thesis I questioned whether English Gypsy and Irish Traveller women’s style-fashion-dress can indeed be culturally defined and fixed collectively by cultural definitions, which are so often deemed to be set by terminology. Reflecting on some of the ‘novice’ research dilemmas I faced within the field of Gypsy and Traveller Studies this article is about first approaches to ethnographic research specifically for new fashion scholars, like myself, engaging with ‘minority’ fashion studies.

Animal skins and furs are some of the earliest clothing items worn by humankind and the practicality of their toughness and warmth is one of the reasons why they are still worn today. Beyond its practical use, fur acquired the added appeal of decoration and luxury throughout fashion history, and its wearers, criticism via accusations of ostentation. With the rise in the late nineteenth century of a middle class with economic means, greater demand for luxury fashions such as fur ensued. To meet market and fashion trend demands, overharvesting of fur species led to rapid declines in animal populations. This in turn resulted in industry regulations protecting endangered species and domestic farming of fur animals. Aggressive activities of animal rights organizations in the late twentieth century resulted in devastating consequences for indigenous economies dependant on fur hunting. These peoples in turn organized to counter misinformation and promote fur as the ultimate natural fibre contrasted to fake furs that are petroleum by-products with their own harmful environmental harvesting issues.

This article explores how a fashion programme introduced into a traditional business school curriculum exemplifies disruptive innovation and can enable differentiation for an institution that is in a region dominated by competitive business school programmes. We point out the ways in which we have implemented Laster’s Model Driven Design method at Philadelphia University in transitioning the Fashion Industry Management programme into the business school and fulfilling the requirements of accreditation.

Fashion design and public art can be perceived to inhabit almost opposite realms, yet both practices engage audiences in the social domain. Through the completion of three site-specific projects, I have found that combining both disciplines makes for a uniquely effective way to empower and strengthen communities. To wit, my most recent sited fashion project brought together the African American and Caucasian communities of Cincinnati, Ohio, transforming the city into a space for cultural discourse. The success of these in situ fashion projects underlines the advantages of such work over other forms of public art, as audiences normally intimidated by contemporary art become willing participants in fashion-based undertakings. This article introduces the concept of site-specific collections, explains the peculiarities of fashion-based public-art practice, and defines their objectives, features and theoretical framework.

This article studies the use of anatomical motifs in fashion on example of Jean Paul Gaultier’s musculature bodysuit Flayed. Through a visual and tactile analysis of the garment and further contextualization in the light of anatomical imagery created since the Renaissance times, the author intends to find the meaning for showing the inner anatomy on the outside of the body. Previous research in the area of fashion and body considered mostly the way the image of the body can change by applying clothing. Is the anatomical fashion working of the image of the body in different ways than common clothing?

Oral History in the Visual Arts, Linda Sandino and Matthew Partington (eds) (2013) London, New Delhi, New York and Sydney: Bloomsbury, 212 pp. ISBN: 9780857851970, h/bk, $99.95, ISBN: 9780857851987, p/bk, $29.95

The Story of Colour in Textiles: Imperial Purple to Denim Blue, Susan Kay-Williams (2013) London: Bloomsbury, 176 pp., ISBN: 9781408134504, p/bk, $29.95

Fetish Style, Frenchy Lunning (2013) London: Bloomsbury Academic, 159 pp., ISBN: 9781847885715, h/bk, $100, ISBN: 9781847885708, p/bk, $29.95

Coco Chanel: A New Portrait by Marion Pike, Paris 1967–71 Fashion Space Gallery, London, 5 September–15 November, 2013