Fashion, Style & Popular Culture - Volume 3, Issue 3, 2016

Imitation continues to play a significant role within the fashion industry, but not in the way that Thorstein Veblen and Georg Simmel, who wrote over 100 years ago, suggest. Increased inequality in incomes, the adoption of an ethics of labour over leisure, and the creation of celebrities within the music and movie industries, who appear proximate to a broad demographic of consumers, means the social elite are no longer the predominant trendsetters and exemplars of sartorial tastes. More fundamentally, globalization has reduced interpersonal connections and increased feelings of isolation within many individuals. Correlatively, periods of the past, which appear to offer security, stability and status, have become an increasingly important source of sartorial – and cultural – imitation, as evidenced by the growing popularity of retro and vintage clothing styles. An awareness of the role played by heritage and history in the consumption of fashion is therefore important for researchers in academia and industry.

From 1947 until his death in 1990, Ted Tinling created couture fashion pieces for the world’s top tennis stars. A dressmaker in London’s famed Mayfair fashion district, Tinling turned to women’s tennis fashion after World War II due to the constraints on his creativity that the post-war rationing of goods caused. Tinling created some of the most notable dresses in tennis fashion, including Gussy Moran’s dress and lace bloomers that shocked the Wimbledon crowds in 1949 and Billie Jean King’s ‘Battle of the Sexes’ dress in 1973, which she wore as she defeated Bobby Riggs. His compulsion to push the limits of fashion, no matter how much the powers that be are offended, made him a couturier that will never be replicated. Tinling’s fashions, with their veil of femininity, allowed female athletes to compete unencumbered by cultural expectations. This would be Tinling’s greatest feat.

Drawing upon the components of the social role theory and postcolonial theory, this study examined the role of Bollywood diaspora films on the formation or renegotiation of identity among non-resident Indian women as manifested in their dress. We were specifically interested in the creation of a new hybrid Indian identity for young women of the diaspora, the women who are able to move seamlessly between their two worlds, and in looking at the role of Bollywood as it reconciles traditional Indian values with the progress of postcolonial India.

This study examines the challenges of finding special occasion dresses for teenage females who attend secondary schools with dress codes for school-related events such as prom, homecoming and honour’s banquets. A total of 228 high school females were surveyed online to identify the most common difficulties in finding a special occasion dress to fit the dress code. In addition, three focus group sessions were carried out to follow up with interested students for further information. According to the study, formal wear retailers and school officials are sending mixed messages about the expectations of how a teenage female should present herself in public recreational settings. Results suggest teenage girls often have to navigate a compromise between a market selling too provocative clothing and a school dress code that is too strict.

In today’s advertising landscape the use of celebrity endorsers continues to be a popular type of advertising. Due to the media’s continual creation of reality television and the revolving door of reality stars, the celebrity culture has changed. The purpose of the study was to separate the type of ‘celebrity’ into two categories, ‘self-made’ and ‘manufactured’, and measure consumers’ attitudes and purchase intentions towards the brand the celebrity is endorsing. Two print advertisements were used that contained a ‘self-made’ and a ‘manufactured’ celebrity endorsement of apparel brands. Respondents viewed both advertisements in the same order and answered questions pertaining to their attitudes to and purchase intentions for the advertised brand. Findings indicated that both types of endorsers increased purchase intent and created favourable attitudes towards the advertised brand.

The link between exposure to thin ideal images in the media and negative psychological impacts for women has been the focus of extensive, previous research. This link has led to recent research investigating potential avenues to mitigate these impacts by incorporating a warning label or disclaimer on fashion advertisements. In this research, the impact of incorporating a warning label in fashion advertisements on mood negativity, self-esteem and body satisfaction was investigated. Additionally measured were participants’ purchase intentions towards the product and reactions to the models and products in the advertisements. Results indicate that only body satisfaction was significantly impacted by the addition of a warning label and that participants had very different responses to models and products. Responses ranged from models influencing participants to buy products to indifference to models. Participants tended to evaluate products in terms of their fit to the participant’s personal style. Future research may want to investigate warning label wording choice and diverse samples of viewing audiences in relation to this topic.

Erika Lust is a film-maker, writer and blogger based in Barcelona. Born in 1977 in Sweden, she studied political sciences, feminism and sexuality. Tired of chauvinistic and tacky mainstream porn, she burst into the adult film industry in 2004, with the indie short film The Good Girl – a Humorous Statement of Principles. The immediate success of this first attempt encouraged her to pursue a film career. Besides the XConfessions series, Erika has directed four multi-award winning features: Five Hot Stories For Her, Barcelona Sex Project, Life Love Lust and Cabaret Desire. Last year she gave her ‘It’s Time for Porn to Change’ talk at TEDxVienna, which gained her notoriety for her campaign to change porn. She defends the need of having women behind the camera in all key positions. Her female characters are sex-positive, powerful and active, and captured within films that embody sexually intelligent narratives with relatable characters and realistic hot sex.

MOROCCAN FASHION: DESIGN CULTURE AND TRADITION, M. ANGELA JANSEN (2015) London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 144 pp., ISBN: 9781472524677, h/bk, $89.79

INDIAN FASHION: TRADITION, INNOVATION, STYLE, ARTI SANDHU (2015) 1st ed., London, New Delhi, New York and Sydney: Bloomsbury Academic, 216 pp., ISBN: 9781847887795, p/bk, $29.95

DRESS AND IDEOLOGY, SHOSHANA-ROSE MARZEL AND GUY D. STIEBEL (2015) London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 248 pp., ISBN: HB-9781472525499, p/bk, $27.99

FASHION WRITING AND CRITICISM: HISTORY, THEORY, PRACTICE, PETER MCNEIL AND SANDA MILLER (2014) London and New York: Bloomsbury, 151 pp., ISBN: 9870857854469, £19.99

DIANA AND BEYOND: WHITE FEMININITY, NATIONAL IDENTITY, AND CONTEMPORARY MEDIA CULTURE, RAKA SHOME (2014) Urbana, Chicago and Springfield: University of Illinois Press, 272 pp., ISBN: 9780252038730, cloth, $95; ISBN: 9780252080302, p/bk, $30; ISBN: 9780252096686, e-book

COOL SHADES: THE HISTORY AND MEANING OF SUNGLASSES, VANESSA BROWN (2015) London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 177 pp., ISBN: 9780857854445, p/bk, £19.99

AFRICA IN THE AMERICAN IMAGINATION: POPULAR CULTURE, RACIALIZED IDENTITIES, AND AFRICAN VISUAL CULTURE, CAROL MAGEE (2012, 2014) Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 263 pp., ISBN 978-1-617703-152-6 (h/bk), ISBN 978-1- 61703-153-3 (ebook), $55.00