Fashion, Style & Popular Culture - Online First

Review of: The Future of Clothing: Will We Wear Suits on Mars?, Simone Achermann and Stephan Sigrist (2023)

London and New York: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 175 pp.,

ISBN 978-1-35013-859-9, p/bk, $27.00

This article explores the evolution and diverse interpretations of ‘design’ throughout history, emphasizing its broader implications beyond mere aesthetics. Initially a verb in the English language during the 1500s, design encompasses a range of activities from thought and planning to the creation and execution of artefacts. The work challenges narrow perceptions, highlighting design’s role across various domains as identified by Terence Love, who views it as a set of instructions for realization. The discourse extends to the discipline of design, asserting that all human activity inherently involves design, thus blurring the distinctions between design and daily life. The article also delves into fashion design, tracing its historical significance and the transition from individual craftsmanship to mass production, and the subsequent rise of different fashion genres. Additionally, the relationship between design and style is scrutinized, noting the influence of societal and cultural factors on fashion. The article concludes with an examination of aesthetics in design, underscoring the essential balance between functionality and visual appeal in successful design outcomes.

Media and societal values play a significant role in influencing social physique anxiety among female university students. This, in turn, affects the multifaceted roles that attire assumes, including concealing, enhancing and expressing. A recent study conducted in Taiwan examined 503 female college students, utilizing the Social Physique Anxiety Scale and Clothing Functions Scale. The research aimed to uncover how anxiety about body image influences the selection of clothing. Cluster analysis identified three distinct groups: those with a ‘Confident’, ‘Comfortable’ and ‘Anxious’ body image. Further analysis through ANOVA revealed variations in clothing preferences across these clusters. Regression analysis then delved into the impact of public, physical and competitive and non-public, evaluative and comfort on clothing choices within each group. The findings indicated that clothing preferences were strongly influenced by the level of anxiety. While individuality and fashion preferences remained stable, high anxiety levels led to more practical and concealing clothing choices. In contrast, lower anxiety levels were associated with more individualistic and fashionable selections. The study emphasized the significant roles of ‘PPC’ and ‘NPEC’ in shaping clothing functions within the identified clusters, highlighting the complex relationship between self-perception, attire and self-expression in the pursuit of confidence. Overall, the research emphasized the strong correlation between social physique anxiety and the decisions made in clothing selection.

Review of: Memories of Dress: Recollections of Material Identities, Alison Slater, Susan Atkin and Elizabeth Kealy-Morris (eds) (2023)

London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 258 pp.,

ISBN 978-1-35015-379-0, h/bk, £85

Review of: Fashion-ology: Fashion Studies in the Postmodern Digital Era, Yuniya Kawamura (2023)

London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 182 pp.,

ISBN 978-1-35033-186-0, p/bk, $29.95

Visual communication today is often characterized as more complex and multi-dimensional than in the past, and it is often argued that we are separated from our past by a greater range of visual concepts, imaginings and technologies that have never before been dreamed of. But such a conceit does not withstand a critical interrogation; moreover, if it were unchallenged then it would lead to an underestimation of the enduring human capacity for nuance and comprehension, for both understanding and misunderstanding one another. The thoughtful exhibition of Micaela de Vivero’s art underscores the hazards of stipulating a conceptual and material gap between the cultural and visual landscape of then and now, and by extension the autonomy and richness of past cultures obscured or annihilated as a part of the colonial endeavour. These ideas are beautifully drawn out and elegantly captured in a large, deeply researched exhibition by Micaela de Vivero, an Andean artist, who makes sculpture using often non-traditional sculptural materials, such as hand-dyed sisal cord and wool, hand-made paper, pig intestines, and gold and silver leaf. Her work draws on decolonial theory and in this exhibition specifically the work of a remarkable letter written around 1600 by Guaman Poma, an Andean scholar, to reveal unprecedented and still unattainable complexities in (visual) communication.

Maya the Drag Queen is Alex Mathew, a drag persona from Kerala, India. Being a drag queen in Indian society takes a lot of guts, confidence and determination. Alex has been performing as a theatre actor since 2011 and as an Indian drag queen since September 2014. They have been credited with making drag popular as an art form in India. Their ideals are to fight against inequality, individualism, gender equality and feminism. Their purpose is to mainstream drag as an art form on many platforms that will give them a voice and show the truth about the Indian community. This article is an interview conducted with Maya the Drag Queen, which discusses the varied aspects of drag as a performance art in the cultural context of India. It specifically addresses the politics and performance of drag; its reception and challenges in India; the role of fashion and clothing in constituting the drag identity; the characteristics of gender nonconformity and queer fashion in India.

Review of: The Fundamentals of Fashion Filmmaking, Nilgin Yusuf (2023)

London and New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 176 pp.,

ISBN 978-1-47424-237-0, p/bk, $39.95

Review of: Fashion before Plus-Size: Bodies, Bias, and the Birth of an Industry, Lauren Downing Peters (2023)

London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 198 pp.,

ISBN 978-1-35017-254-8, h/bk, $115.00

Review of: Copenhagen Chic: A Locational History of Copenhagen Fashion, Katrina Stark (2023)

Bristol: Intellect Books, 230 pp.,

ISBN 978-1-78938-783-4, p/bk, $29.95