Fashion, Style & Popular Culture - Volume 5, Issue 2, 2018

This study posits that the postmodern practice of uniting dress and mythology has its roots in the Creation Stories of the Judeo/Christian Bible, perhaps the greatest myth ever told. Here the practice of dress finds its genesis in Genesis at the same time as the civilization project. Using the work of Jacques Lacan, Gregory Stone and Georg Simmel, the article questions the significance of this coincidence by tracking the responses that the initial state of nakedness calls forth, and the effect of these responses on the development of self and society in tandem with the development of the practice of dress.

It is contended in this article that independent fashion retailers who display conscious and proactive cultural positioning can be considered as not only retail practitioners, but creative practitioners playing a cultural role in the fashion industry. Australian fashion retailer and designer Jenny Kee is used as a historic example. Kee opened her Flamingo Park retail store in Sydney in 1973 and later became one of Australia’s best-known fashion designers. Using primary sources from the Jenny Kee Archive at the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences in Sydney in addition to Kee’s recollections in her autobiography, Kee’s retail work is viewed through the lens of Bourdieu’s field theory and her position in the field of fashion and role as a cultural intermediary is established. By framing her work in this way, the potential for a fashion retailer to mediate culture for fashion consumers using retailing as their creative practice is demonstrated.

Although the traditional focus in fashion studies on Western Europe and America has been widely critiqued, the examination of what influences and major institutions were critical in the diffusion of fashion in Eastern and Central Europe is still limited. To counter this drawback, this study charts the history of the development of fashion and fashion retailing in one Eastern Central European capital, Budapest, Hungary, from the early nineteenth century until the late 1960s. It brings to light that even though Budapest does not register as an important European fashion centre among western fashion scholars, the city had a steadily growing fashion production, consumption and retail scene in Eastern-Central Europe from the early nineteenth century until the Second World War, and again from the late 1960s onwards. It explores the ideological, political and economic reasons fashion and its supporting retail scene disappeared in Hungary after the communist takeover in 1948 and discusses what led to their gradual comeback following the 1956 Uprising against Soviet-style totalitarian dictatorship and the introduction of the New Economic Mechanism in 1968.

The rapid growth of the Chinese economy since the late 1970s has dramatically changed the dynamics of the marketplace. China’s consumer society has been transformed to a more liberal market system in which a variety of diverse market imageries have been created and circulated to consumers. This article examines how global fashion brands construct different ‘modern girl’ archetypes for consumers in the emerging Chinese market. Through conducting a semiotic analysis of printed advertisements published in four major fashion magazines during a four-year period from the beginning of 2009 to the end of 2012, we identified six ‘modern girl’ archetypes constructed by global fashion brands. Our findings reveal a dialogical relationship between brand-created imageries and prevailing cultural attitudes. We argue that fashion brands strategically create alternative modern girl archetypes as a way to depict a new era marked by the liberation of Chinese women under the influence of global consumer culture.

The purpose of this study was to examine how lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer and/or questioning women manage their appearance during and after the interview process. I conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews with 22 self-identifying LGBTQ+ women who worked in an environment with business casual or business dress code expectations and were between the ages of 23 and 39. Based upon analysis of the data, four key themes emerged. These themes included appearance labour, appearance malleability, appearance inflexibility and job search motivations. Participants related that they were actively thinking about and reflecting on their appearance in relation to their sexual identity and how this might impact hiring outcomes. Implications for how employers can potentially reduce bias during the hiring practice are offered.

In 1972 Rosemary (Rosie) Casals, an established player in women’s tennis and winner of several doubles championships at Wimbledon, appeared on the court of the staid English event in a tennis dress with a purple design with a ‘VS’ (Virginia Slims – a cigarette brand marketed to a female audience) embroidered on her outfit. The next day she appeared on the number one court for the women’s doubles semi-final match with the cigarette insignia clearly displayed across the front of the athletic wear. Instructed to adhere to Wimbledon’s dress code of ‘predominantly’ white outfits, officials warned Casals would be banned from further play if she did not comply. Forced to obey Wimbledon dress codes, Casals conceded, though not without a verbal assault directed at tournament officials. In this paper we argue, analysing oral history as well as various press reports in the US and abroad, that Casals’ ensemble and the reaction by officials and those in the media symbolized far more than a perceived fashion faux pas by the tennis star. Rather, Casals’ attire and public reaction to it throw into sharp relief debates around equal rights and female independence that raged throughout society during the late 1960s and 1970s. Importantly, the discussions and tensions in relation to Casals’ tennis outfit did not simply mirror these broader conversations they contributed greatly to them. The dress, like Casals, challenged rules of conduct on the court – and social convention off it. The attire was, for her, a form of self-expression, which personified a style she was eager to portray to a public, some of whom were not necessarily similarly keen on its exhibition.

The role of blogs and bloggers as conduits of fashion information has strengthened through their growing popularity with fashion consumers. Convenience has been identified as a key reason why fashion consumers use the Internet and social media, enabling them to quickly and easily find trend information, new products and retailer discounts. While research into blogs and blogging is growing, little is given of how blog readers perceive and merit the success of fashion blogs. In this study, we aim to promote a better understanding of the characteristics that fashion blog readers value as contributing factors of a successful fashion blog. This is achieved through an exploration of blog readers’ opinions and through the identification of key blogging trends focusing on female fashion bloggers and readers. The most significant measure of a blog’s success was found to be how relevant it is to its readers, the qualities of which are revealed in this article.

This project examines how the social media persona Oscar PR Girl was constructed and humanized as a luxury brand identity for Oscar de la Renta. To understand this issue, the article considers branding literature focused on luxury brand marketing via social media, then details a textual analysis of Oscar PR Girl content across three social media accounts (Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest) between 1 February and 31 March 2015. The findings of this analysis address how Oscar PR Girl’s messages on various social media accounts interacted with each other to become a unified branding tool. This exploration comes at a time when luxury marketers grapple with how to participate in social media platforms without diminishing brand identity and exclusivity.

Personal Style Blogs: Appearances that Fascinate, Rosie Findlay (2017) Bristol and Chicago: Intellect Ltd, 185 pp., ISBN: 9781783208340, p/bk, $33

Fashion and Everyday Life: London and New York, Cheryl Buckley and Hazel Clark (2017) London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 313 pp., ISBN: 9781847888266, h/bk, $79.20; p/bk, $19.79

Acts of Undressing: Politics, Eroticism and Discarded Clothing, Barbara Brownie (2017) London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 144 pp., ISBN: 9781472596185, p/bk, $29.95