- Home
- A-Z Publications
- Fashion, Style & Popular Culture
- Online First Listing
Fashion, Style & Popular Culture - Online First
Online First articles will be assigned issues in due course.
1 - 50 of 70 results
-
-
Indonesian metrosexuals on Instagram: A phenomenological approach of male fashion style experiences in communicating the identity
Available online: 15 March 2024More LessThis study analyses the self-representation of the Indonesian metrosexual community on Instagram, focusing on how they use the platform to showcase their fashion style and express their identity as consumers and members of society. Metrosexuality is a relatively new phenomenon in Indonesia, but it has quickly gained popularity, particularly among urban men. Metrosexual men are typically highly interested in fashion, beauty and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. They are also more brand-conscious than traditional consumers and are willing to invest in high-quality products. Social media has become an essential platform for the metrosexual community to express themselves and connect with others. Instagram, in particular, has become a popular platform for metrosexual men to share photos and videos of their outfits. This study examines how metrosexual consumers use Instagram to showcase their fashion style through their posts. The study employs a qualitative approach within the constructivist paradigm, using phenomenological research methods, including interviews, observations and a literature review. The informants comprised ten Indonesian male Instagram users with the highest followers and engagement. The study’s findings suggest that metrosexual consumers prioritize comfort and suitability over brand and product prestige for day-to-day activities and social media engagement. Also, the study reveals that metrosexual consumers use Instagram to express themselves and share their activities with others. Their commitment to their appearance extends beyond the online realm to offline settings. The study’s managerial implications underscore the importance of attending to male consumers for products such as clothing.
-
-
-
Camouflage in popular culture, fashion and accessory design in India
Authors: Nitin Hadap and Charuta PalsodkarAvailable online: 15 March 2024More LessThis article postulates that recent generations in India, particularly the middle and upper-middle classes, have experienced increased wealth due to the government’s open market policy, introduced after 1991. As a result of this improved financial situation, these consumers are now able to purchase affordable luxury goods. One notable trend emerging from this development is the rise in popularity of camouflage patterns in fashion and accessories. These patterns evoke emotions of military association, rebellion, strength, durability, ruggedness and a sense of distinctiveness from the rest of society. Surprisingly, even though camouflage is intended to conceal and blend in with surroundings, it has become a prominent aspect of popular culture in India. The younger generation aspires to stand out and possess larger-than-life personalities, perhaps influenced by the impact of globalization. Various audio-visual media, such as sci-fi literature and superheroes depicted on over-the-top (OTT) platforms contribute significantly to this trend, with fashion statements playing a crucial role in shaping these perceptions. In response to such demand, even international brands have started producing products featuring camouflage patterns for the Indian market. The widespread popularity of camo fashion and accessories can be observed in almost all public spaces across India.
The primary focus of this article is on exploring the popularity of camouflage in fashion accessories, design and trends by studying consumers’ preferences for leading global and local brands. Through a comprehensive literature review, a research gap in this area has been identified. The study concentrates on fashion accessories in India and takes a perspective of percolation of camouflage in the fashion market. The methodology involves the study of primary and secondary sources for documentation, and a survey was conducted to gain insights into consumers’ perspectives. By conducting a literature review and a thorough data analysis, the article reaches its conclusions.
-
-
-
Hanfu catwalk shows: A performance of Chinese femininities
Authors: Yan Jia and Anneke SmelikAvailable online: 15 March 2024More LessThis article analyses the complex relationship between the construction of gender identities among young Chinese females and the practice of dressing up in Hanfu attire. The study employs the perspectives of dress as a situated embodied practice, the performativity of gender and the catwalk as a form of performance art. By drawing on an ethnography of self-defined Hanfu fans in Beijing, China, the authors investigate how the female participants construct femininities through performing on Hanfu catwalks. The ethnographic findings are that, first, the Hanfu catwalk mediates the intricate interplay of Chinese aesthetic norms and gender expression between performers and the audience. Second, wearing Hanfu is an embodied practice unifying the Hanfu costume style, gender construction and corporeal acts, situated in China’s sociopolitical context. Third, Chinese femininity is complex, with both flexibility and internal conflicts, reflecting China’s paradoxical modernization.
-
-
-
The dress and commercial image of the American ‘Fat Lady’, 1850–1920
By Kenna LibesAvailable online: 15 March 2024More LessIn this article, I analyse the genre of ‘Fat Lady’ photographs popular between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. I assert that there is an archetypal appearance that developed in the 1860s and was standardized by the 1880s, consisting of certain dress, grooming and posing practices that emphasized their subjects’ sizes and presumed social status. Fatness was a performance that these women were employed to embody – one that straddled the lines between corporeal deviance and normality. Freak shows reveal cultural anxieties about bodies. The way Fat Lady performers were costumed reflected concerns about fatness taking up too much space and visibility as well as fatness rendering people immature and androgynous, thereby challenging established sex-role differences; it also revealed the potential erotic allure of extreme body size. Over a century of popularity, Fat Lady performers came to rely on costumes inspired by evening dress, childrenswear and then lingerie, all of which grew scantier as time progressed. Existing cartes de visite, cabinet cards, posters, advertisements, reports from journalists and side show insiders, and rare interviews with the performers themselves provide material for close analysis.
-
-
-
Fashioning Frankenstein: Deathliness, technology and the body in contemporary fashion photography
Available online: 15 March 2024More LessThe deathly aesthetic of Heroin Chic caused a moral panic in the late 1990s for its aestheticization of cadaverously pale and skeletally thin models. Subsequent photographers have experimented with the female body as a prop, staging high-fashion crime scenes and mimicking the passivity of corpses in prone posture. Fashion photography offers an arena to explore daily life and the national imagination by materializing concepts through a focus on corporeality and compelling stylized visuals. These images therefore represent a commercialized articulation of broader cultural concerns surrounding mortality. Steven Klein’s 2015 fashion editorial ‘Love machine’, published in W magazine, will be analysed to argue that this represents a cultural response to the shifting relationship between the human body and technology. The discourse of human–machine coexistence presents the transhumanist stance as idealized with the fashion field’s agenda of body modification, wellness and leisure assisted and instigated by technology. However, the tone of this shoot presents a less optimistic vision of a posthuman future. Whilst posthuman ideology is decisive and assured in its deference to technology, Klein’s use of Frankensteinian and cyborg motifs evidence the uncertainty and unease with which biological and technical forms begin to blur. The styling of the model as cyborg and the invocation of Frankenstein’s monster are a logical vehicle for personifying the ontological anxieties coming to the fore of public conscience as debates on digital immortality and artificial intelligence become more prevalent.
-
-
-
Wholesale Couture: London and Beyond, 1930–1970, Liz Tregenza (2023)
By Jennie CookAvailable online: 15 March 2024More LessReview of: Wholesale Couture: London and Beyond, 1930–1970, Liz Tregenza (2023)
London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 236 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-35024-586-0, h/bk, $115.00
-
-
-
Canadian Critical Luxury Studies: Decentring Luxury, Jessica P. Clark and Nigel Lezama (eds) (2022)
Available online: 15 March 2024More LessReview of: Canadian Critical Luxury Studies: Decentring Luxury, Jessica P. Clark and Nigel Lezama (eds) (2022)
Bristol: Intellect Ltd, 248 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-78938-515-1, h/bk, $93.84
ISBN 978-1-78938-517-5, e-book, $80.00
-
-
-
Authentic or fake fashion-branded items? Narratives exploring consumers’ perceptions towards copycat brands among Middle Eastern individuals
Authors: Nadine Khair, Nadine Hussam Khair and Tala MuradAvailable online: 15 March 2024More LessThis study explores the motives behind preferring luxury fashion-branded items and consumers’ perceptions towards copycat brands. A qualitative approach has been adopted in this research as narratives were obtained from 22 participants. Participants share their thoughts on the reasons for preferring luxury fashion-branded items and the meanings they associate with copycat brands. The results and conclusion of the current study indicate that the key reason for purchasing luxury fashion-branded items is status elevation and the urge to conform to and be associated with specific social norms and classes. Therefore, they tend to consume copycat brands because of their inability to purchase authentic brands and of the elevation of status and conformity associated with luxury fashion-branded items. This research also provides insights into understanding the different motivations resulting in the consumption of copycat brands. Precisely, this research underlines the importance of country of consumption in reflecting positive perceptions towards copycat brands. As a result, this research is the first to consider the relationship between the country of consumption and the acceptance of consuming copycat brands among individuals who are affected by status elevation motives and social norms.
-
-
-
‘Con poporos y guacamayas’: Representaciones indígenas y el traje típico colombiano en el Miss Universo
Available online: 16 February 2024More LessThis article addresses in five examples, the participation of Miss Colombia and her Indigenous-themed costumes at the Miss Universe pageant. First, the methodology used for this research is approached, from the use of images as a historical document and visual culture. Then, we approach a definition of the typical or national costume and its different denominations, to finally analyse a set of costumes representing Colombia and alluding to the Indigenous at the Miss Universe pageant. It is concluded that the typical Indigenous costumes presented in this international beauty contest are invented costumes that recreate stereotypes and establish identities that can be related to the idea of creating imaginaries that can present a good image of Colombia both nationally and internationally. The research was also based on a dialogue with authors who have addressed issues related to the creation of national identities and their construction from the history, culture, and heritage of a country, related to popular contemporary culture and media.
ResumenEste artículo aborda, en cinco ejemplos, la participación de la Señorita Colombia en el concurso de Miss Universo y sus trajes típicos de temática indígena. En primer lugar, se aborda la metodología empleada para esta investigación, a partir del uso de las imágenes como documento histórico y la cultura visual. Seguidamente, nos aproximamos a una definición del traje típico o nacional, sus diferentes denominaciones, para finalmente analizar un conjunto de trajes colombianos que han concursado en el Miss Universo, por el ‘Premio al mejor Traje Típico’, haciendo alusión a lo indígena. Se concluye que los trajes típicos de referencia indígena, desfilados en este concurso internacional de belleza, acaban siendo trajes inventados que recrean estereotipos y establecen identidades que se relacionan con imaginarios que pueden dar una buena imagen de lo colombiano, tanto a nivel nacional como internacional. La investigación también se fundamentó en el diálogo con autores que han abordado temáticas relacionadas con la creación de identidades nacionales y su construcción a partir de la historia, la cultura y el patrimonio de un país, relacionado con la cultura popular contemporánea y los medios de comunicación.
-
-
-
Nothing to wear: The fashion behind Rebelde, Mexico’s most popular teen telenovela
Available online: 16 February 2024More LessReleased in 2004, Rebelde represented a turning point for telenovelas in Mexico, partly due to its subversion of conventions considered intrinsic to the genre. The series achieved this by relying heavily on fashion, not only to challenge traditional gender roles but also to address changing perceptions of class and wealth within the country. Clothing was used to explore identities new to Mexican entertainment media at the time and was central to many of the show’s narratives and to the ways characters related to one another. As such, Rebelde was not only a reflection of a new globalized media landscape that had been arriving to Mexico in the previous decade but was also indicative of the ways in which teenagers all over the world were embracing these changes under the guise of freedom, rebellion and independence.
-
-
-
Santa Muerte: The most fashionable saint of the year
Available online: 16 February 2024More LessThis article presents and analyses the relation between the cult of a Mexican folk saint, Santa Muerte (Saint Death), and fashion. The article describes the unique phenomenon and its complex history as an amalgamation of Christian and pre-Hispanic elements. Even with the cult’s growing recognition, Santa Muerte is still surrounded by controversies – lack of academic research and stereotypes presented by media and popular culture lead to numerous discrepancies such as erroneous image of the followers of Santa Muerte who are often depicted as criminals related to drug smuggling. The main part of the article focuses on the practices of building and decorating the altars, shrines and chapels for Santa Muerte. The text also highlights a spreading custom of designing various types of dresses and robes for the figures of the patron and the practice of modifying the figures themselves (adding ornaments, artefacts and various items). Some of these items and ornaments express the intentions of the prayers, holidays and individual preferences of the worshippers. Following sections present the impact of the cult of Santa Muerte (especially its aesthetical dimension) on the fashion industry, which is visible in the example of jewellery and clothing. The article concludes with an exploration of trends among the followers of Santa Muerte and their impact on the esoteric industry that is wide and rapidly developing in Mexico.
-
-
-
Renová tu Vestidor: Second-hand online clothing retail as an extension of domestic labour and as resistance practices in Argentina between 2016 and 2018
Available online: 16 February 2024More LessThe aim of this article is to look into some fashion consumption practices that manifest resistance at the micro social level and which occur through one specific virtual platform from Argentina, Renová Tu Vestidor (renovatuvestidor.com). The resistance mentioned here seeks to overcome market prices during the period concerning 2016 and 2018, as well as to find brand items and other affordable stylish garments and simultaneously generate extra income. Therefore, resistant practices through online shopping are linked to the need of managing the household economy in a time of national (and global) crisis, without neglecting the pleasure that fashion consumption provides (visiting virtual stores and shopping online), as well as avoiding the loss of class status and, last but not least, evincing an unconscious extension of domestic labour. This article will specifically address the relationships some women maintain between fashion consumption as resistant practices in virtual platforms that trade with second-hand clothes, and formal occupations, leisure, pleasure and an extension of domestic labour.
-
-
-
Time and space in Brechó de Troca: Reflections on the method of a clothing exchange group in Brazil
Authors: Helena de Barros Soares and Inês HennigenAvailable online: 16 February 2024More LessThis article analyses the creation of a group time-space and its effects based on a master’s thesis research that analysed some processes in a second-hand exchange group called Brechó de Troca. This group is a space for interaction, whose meetings promote the exchange of clothes and accessories. It was founded in Porto Alegre (south of Brazil) in 2009, with a distinct method aiming to produce subjectivity by exchanging clothes in a way that considers their stories. For this research, we assembled materials that paved the way to such results, analysing the mode of production of subjectivity through the dressing practices in the group. We could observe that the invention of another time, which suspends the eagerness for consumption, potentiates modes of subjectivation through the practices of dressing. This article also highlights the fact that access to consumption is not equalitarian in Global South capitalism. This can be seen in a social phenomenon called ‘rolezinhos’, which took place in Brazil in 2014 and illustrated the contrast between the purchasing power of the lower and upper classes. We believe that the invention of the limbo, name given to the time-space created in the group, works as a trigger of processes, which suspends and enables exercises of the self through clothing in the group meetings. The exchanges gain potency and various stories after going through the Brechó de Troca.
-
-
-
Artisanal collaborations in the Mexican fashion industry: The case of Otomí embroiderers and Carla Fernández
Available online: 16 February 2024More LessThe present article aims to demonstrate the intersected relations between Indigenous communities and designers in the fashion industry. These interrelations are explained through a case study between Dotnit, an Otomí embroidery cooperative, and the Mexican designer Carla Fernández. An extensive multi-sited ethnography was carried out between 2013 and 2017 in Tenango de Doria, Hidalgo, and Mexico City. Both places were explored with the purpose of understanding the complex relationships between the local and the global through the introduction of tenango embroidery into the fashion world. This research aims to understand the consumption of Indigenous textiles in a glocalized world by following the paths of diversion that tenango embroidery navigates through artisans, designers and consumers. Through the article, interrelationships among different agents will be examined in an effort to understand the complexities within artisan–designer dynamics.
-
-
-
Más es más: Cómo el éxito del Carnaval de Barranquilla se mide a través del ajuar de su reina en la era digital
Authors: Jeniffer Varela Rodríguez-Licata and Melissa Zuleta BanderaAvailable online: 16 February 2024More LessDeclared by UNESCO as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, Barranquilla’s Carnival gathers thousands of dancers, performers, artists and carnival doers for months leading to the four official days of the festivity, and it is all traditionally led by a Queen. Her commitment to the city of Barranquilla and its most important event is tested from the moment of her election until Ash Wednesday, when the Carnival ends. Her performance is scrutinized now more than ever thanks to the immediacy of social media: her dancing abilities, enthusiasm, charisma and, in great detail, her wardrobe. Traditionally chosen among the wealthiest and deepest-rooted families in the city, her reign is often measured by the purchasing power of her clan, represented in the variety and quality of her dresses and costumes. This article examines the social perception of the Queen through the lens of her wardrobe, using as case studies the Carnivals of three young women in the years 2014, 2016 and 2020. We look to determine how the quality, quantity and luxury of a queen’s festive outfits throughout her reign shape the public opinion of the queen herself and the opinion of her Carnival overall.
ResumenDeclarado por la UNESCO como una de las Obras Maestras del Patrimonio Oral e Inmaterial de la Humanidad, el Carnaval de Barranquilla reúne a miles de bailarines, intérpretes, artistas y hacedores del carnaval durante meses en preparación para los cuatro días oficiales de la festividad. Y todo ello es tradicionalmente presidido por un Reina. Su compromiso con la ciudad de Barranquilla y con su evento más importante es puesto a prueba desde el momento de su elección hasta el Miércoles de Ceniza, cuando finaliza el Carnaval. Su desempeño es examinado ahora más que nunca gracias a la inmediatez de las redes sociales: sus dotes para el baile, su entusiasmo, su carisma y, en gran medida, su vestuario. Tradicionalmente elegida entre las familias más ricas y arraigadas de la ciudad, su reinado suele medirse por el poder adquisitivo de su clan, representado en la variedad y calidad de sus vestidos y disfraces. Este trabajo examina la percepción social de la Reina del Carnaval a través del lente de su ajuar, utilizando como estudios de caso los carnavales de tres jóvenes mujeres en los años 2014, 2016 y 2020. Buscamos determinar cómo la calidad, cantidad y nivel de lujo de los atuendos de una soberana a lo largo de su reinado alimentan la opinión pública sobre la reina misma y sobre su Carnaval en general.
-
-
-
¡Moda Hoy! Latin American and Latinx Fashion Design Today: An interview with Tanya Melendez-Escalante and Melissa Marra-Alvarez
Available online: 16 February 2024More LessThe Museum at FIT (MFIT) in New York City hosted the fashion exhibit ¡Moda Hoy! Latin American and Latinx Fashion Design Today from 31 May to 5 November 2023. The exhibit included over sixty objects from the museum’s permanent collection representing designers from several Latin American countries and the diaspora including Brenda Equihua (United States), Bárbara Sánchez-Kane (Mexico) and Willy Chavarria (United States). An edited volume published by Bloomsbury complemented the show and expands on topics such as identity, popular culture, sustainability and gender. In this interview co-curators Tanya Melendez-Escalante and Melissa Marra-Alvarez share details of the exhibit planning process.
-
-
-
Selling Europe to the World: The Rise of the Luxury Industry, 1980–2020, Pierre Yves Donze (2023)
Available online: 25 November 2023More LessReview of: Selling Europe to the World: The Rise of the Luxury Industry, 1980–2020, Pierre Yves Donze (2023)
London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 166 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-35033-578-3, p/bk, $29.95
-
-
-
Westernwear: Postwar American Fashion and Culture, Sonya Abrego (2022)
Available online: 25 November 2023More LessReview of: Westernwear: Postwar American Fashion and Culture, Sonya Abrego (2022)
London and New York: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 310 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-35014-767-6, p/bk, $37.95
-
-
-
Dressed in Time, Margaret Maynard (2022)
Available online: 25 November 2023More LessReview of: Dressed in Time, Margaret Maynard (2022)
London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 206 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-35003-275-0, p/bk, $31.39
-
-
-
The Fashioned Body: Fashion, Dress and Modern Social Theory, Joanne Entwistle (2023), 3rd ed.
Available online: 25 November 2023More LessReview of: The Fashioned Body: Fashion, Dress and Modern Social Theory, Joanne Entwistle (2023), 3rd ed.
Cambridge: Polity Press, 281 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-50954-789-0, p/bk, $28.95
-
-
-
Gastrofashion: From Haute Cuisine to Haute Couture, Adam Geczy and Vicki Karaminas (2022)
By Lara RössigAvailable online: 25 November 2023More LessReview of: Gastrofashion: From Haute Cuisine to Haute Couture, Adam Geczy and Vicki Karaminas (2022)
London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 248 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-35014-750-8, p/bk, $32.35
-
-
-
Rei Kawakubo: For and against Fashion, Rex Butler (ed.) (2022)
By Hawa StwodahAvailable online: 25 November 2023More LessReview of: Rei Kawakubo: For and against Fashion, Rex Butler (ed.) (2022)
London and New York: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 236 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-35011-822-5, h/bk, $115.00
-
-
-
Political and Sartorial Styles: Britain and Its Colonies in the Long Nineteenth Century, Kevin A. Morrison (ed.) (2023)
Available online: 03 November 2023More LessReview of: Political and Sartorial Styles: Britain and Its Colonies in the Long Nineteenth Century, Kevin A. Morrison (ed.) (2023)
Manchester: Manchester University Press, 274 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-52615-307-4, h/bk, $195.00
ISBN 978-1-52615-306-7, e-book, $135.00
-
-
-
Fear and Clothing: Dress in English Detective Fiction between the First and Second World Wars, Jane Custance Baker (2023)
Available online: 03 November 2023More LessReview of: Fear and Clothing: Dress in English Detective Fiction between the First and Second World Wars, Jane Custance Baker (2023)
London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 252 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-35024-030-8, h/bk, $82.80
-
-
-
A New History of ‘Made in Italy’: Fashion and Textiles in Post-War Italy, Lucia Savi (2023)
By Rachel HartAvailable online: 03 November 2023More LessReview of: A New History of ‘Made in Italy’: Fashion and Textiles in Post-War Italy, Lucia Savi (2023)
London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 204 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-35024-7758, h/bk, £85
-
-
-
Fashion Brand Stories, 3rd ed., Joseph H. Hancock II (2022)
Available online: 03 November 2023More LessReview of: Fashion Brand Stories, 3rd ed., Joseph H. Hancock II (2022)
London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 216 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-35013-554-3, h/bk, $50.35
-
-
-
When the clothes fit: Exploring the embodied transition to motherhood
Authors: Jaime R. DeLuca and Jacob J. BustadAvailable online: 29 September 2023More LessClothing practices can assist women in cultivating a particular body image and, thus, are sutured with details regarding how they manage their identity and appearance. Clothing can also help women cope with corporeal transitions, such as pregnancy. The relationship between clothing and one’s perception of their body shape changes during pregnancy as does how women feel about their clothes as they assume a new maternal identity. However, there is a lack of scholarly attention focused on exploring how postpartum mothers manage and relate to their bodies through clothing. Anchored in qualitative data collected from 128 in-depth, longitudinal interviews with 32 women at three, six, nine and twelve months postpartum, this article explores how postpartum body image, satisfaction and change are intricately linked with clothing across the first year after childbirth. Depicted through six women’s postpartum journeys, this article demonstrates that clothing becomes a barometer for bodily recovery following pregnancy and reveals details about maternal struggles, successes and spending patterns in the postpartum period.
-
-
-
Philadelphia Store-y: Nan Duskin (1927–65)
By Clare SauroAvailable online: 29 September 2023More LessAnn Duskin Lincoln, the founder of the Philadelphia specialty shop Nan Duskin, dominated Philadelphia retail for decades and played a significant role in the development of American fashion. At its peak, Nan Duskin was one of the leaders of American retail, and its founder, Mrs Lincoln, was internationally recognized for her fashion instincts and was one of the most respected, feared, and loved retailers in the business. This article will focus on Mrs Lincoln and Nan Duskin from 1927 to 1965, a transformative period for American fashion. It will explore the unique social role of the women’s specialty shop in American retail during the first half of the twentieth century and the critical role they had in the promotion and development of American fashion. Exemplary in every aspect, Mrs Lincoln’s career is representative of the many independent female retailers that flourished in the first half of the twentieth century.
-
-
-
‘The American Look’: The transformation of women’s sportswear in 1930s and 1940s America
Available online: 07 September 2023More LessThis article will suggest that the American sportswear style reflects the unique historical and cultural influences on American dress from the birth of the new democratic nation in the eighteenth century to the dominance of New York City’s ready-to-wear industry in the 1950s. Focusing on the key decades of the 1930s and 1940s, this article will explore the marketing campaign of Dorothy Shaver, vice-president of the luxury retailer Lord & Taylor, who in 1932 coined the phrase ‘the American Look’ to promote American fashion designers’ collections. The legacy of sportswear designer Claire McCardell, arguably the best known of the New York-based ready-to-wear designers will be examined. McCardell’s combination of nostalgic American prairie style with the use of everyday workwear fabrics of cotton plaid, denim, wool and jersey created an unpretentious casual American style based on comfort, ease and flexibility, which is reflected today in the contemporary American ready-to-wear market. The article will maintain that the promotion of the American Look via photographic shoots, magazines, advertisements, visual merchandising, exhibition and film influenced the style and taste of dress that the female American body ought to ‘fit into’. This style, it will be argued, encouraged the development of a cultural memory of American dress by establishing a material link between national identity and clothing.
-
-
-
Determinants of a shift in consumer values towards minimalistic clothing consumption during global crises
Authors: Hanieh Choopani, Stephan Wallaschkowski and Samira IranAvailable online: 07 September 2023More LessThe COVID-19 pandemic, as a global crisis, has affected the clothing consumption behaviour of consumers and it might create long-lasting changes in the fashion industry. Such behavioural shifts during global crises should be considered for sustainability-related marketing concepts and the way marketers promote sustainable clothing consumption during and after the crisis. This study explores the determinants of a shift in consumer values towards minimalistic clothing consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic in the under-researched country context of Iran. First, a literature review was conducted on topics including sustainable fashion consumption and the COVID-19 pandemic, the status of sustainable fashion consumption in Iran, as well as the influence of demographic characteristics on sustainable consumption behaviour. Second, a quantitative survey was administered to a sample of Iranian consumers (N = 382). The results reveal a value shift towards more minimalism and sufficiency in clothing consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic in the country context of Iran. Moreover, the findings highlight that age and gender significantly influenced the extent of this shift in values, while surprisingly no significant value shift was found because of employment or income changes. This article makes a unique contribution by exploring the value shifts towards minimalistic clothing consumption during global crises. Furthermore, the results of the study shed some light on consumption behaviour in an under-researched middle eastern area.
-
-
-
DEI representation on Instagram: An analysis of two fast fashion retailers
Authors: Sarah A. Zumbrock, Jihyun Sung and Ian R. MullAvailable online: 07 September 2023More LessAs fashion retailers have started to emphasize their responsibility in society, the significance of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the fashion industry has increased. This study explores the DEI commitments made by two fast fashion retailers (i.e. H&M and Zara) to examine whether they uphold and portray their DEI commitments through their Instagram postings by focusing on the following four DEI subcategories: people of colour, size inclusivity, LGBTQIA+ and physical disabilities. The study first analysed each retailer’s DEI statement to determine what claims each retailer makes regarding DEI. The data collection process comprised an examination of Instagram posts during the first week of every month from February 2021 to January 2022 utilizing the National Retail Federation (NRF) 4-5-4 calendar. Researchers collected qualitative/quantitative data and used content/comparative analysis to analyse the data. The findings indicated that representation might not be as equitable as their claims state. Based on the findings of this research, the study provides practical implications for enhancing DEI representation in retailers’ Instagram posts and marketing to facilitate more effective communication. Further, this study contributes to the existing literature on DEI commitments in the fashion industry by highlighting the practices of fast fashion retailers in their Instagram posts and marketing.
-
-
-
Historical Perspectives on Sustainable Fashion: Inspiration for Change, 2nd ed., Amy Twigger Holyroyd, Jennifer Farley Gordon and Colleen Hill (2023)
By Joy SperlingAvailable online: 05 September 2023More LessReview of: Historical Perspectives on Sustainable Fashion: Inspiration for Change, 2nd ed., Amy Twigger Holyroyd, Jennifer Farley Gordon and Colleen Hill (2023)
London, New York, New Delhi and Sydney: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 198 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-35016-044-6, h/bk, $100
ISBN 978-1-35016-043-9, p/bk, $34.95
ISBN 978-1-35016-043-9, e-PDF, $31.45
ISBN 978-1-35016-047-7, e-Pub, $31.45
-
-
-
Crafting Luxury: Craftsmanship, Manufacture, Technology and the Retail Environment, Mark Bloomfield, Shaun Borstrock, Silvio Carta and Veronica Manlow (2022)
Available online: 10 August 2023More LessReview of: Crafting Luxury: Craftsmanship, Manufacture, Technology and the Retail Environment, Mark Bloomfield, Shaun Borstrock, Silvio Carta and Veronica Manlow (2022)
Bristol: Intellect Ltd., 187 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-78938-580-9, p/bk, $45.00
-
-
-
Fashioning the Afropolis: Histories, Materialities and Aesthetic Practices, Kerstin Pinther, Kristin Kastner and Basile Ndjio (eds) (2022)
Available online: 10 August 2023More LessReview of: Fashioning the Afropolis: Histories, Materialities and Aesthetic Practices, Kerstin Pinther, Kristin Kastner and Basile Ndjio (eds) (2022)
London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 240 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-35017-952-3, h/bk, $103.50
-
-
-
Why We Can’t Have Nice Things: Social Media’s Influence on Fashion, Ethics, and Property, Minh-Ha T. Pham (2022)
By Amy DorieAvailable online: 10 August 2023More LessReview of: Why We Can’t Have Nice Things: Social Media’s Influence on Fashion, Ethics, and Property, Minh-Ha T. Pham (2022)
Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 176 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-47801-861-2, p/bk, $23.95
-
-
-
Textiles and Fashion, 3rd ed., Jenny Udale (2023)
Available online: 10 August 2023More LessReview of: Textiles and Fashion, 3rd ed., Jenny Udale (2023)
London: Bloomsbury, 216 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-35009-489-5, p/bk, $29.95
-
-
-
Costume design in film: Telling the story and creating Malcolm X’s character in Spike Lee’s Malcolm X (1992)
Authors: Marta Torregrosa, María Noguera and Natalia Luque-ZequeiraAvailable online: 09 August 2023More LessCostume designers collaborate with film directors to bring the characters in the script to life. Film costumes are a visual tool of a narrative nature with which costume designers meet the diegetic needs of each story. Through clothing, they make internal aspects of the characters visible, such as their transformations, their nature and styles, their passions, aspirations and suffering, as well as aspects of the spatial, temporal and social context in which the stories take place. This study explores costume design by Ruth E. Carter as a dramatic tool in the biopic Malcolm X (1992), directed by Spike Lee. To that end, the function of film costumes is assessed both as a visual and narrative tool that exceeds the aesthetic dimension and is essential to give meaning to any film production.
-
-
-
Food & Fashion, Melissa Marra-Alvarez and Elizabeth Way (eds) (2022)
Available online: 26 July 2023More LessReview of: Food & Fashion, Melissa Marra-Alvarez and Elizabeth Way (eds) (2022)
New York: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 320 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-35016-434-5, h/bk, $45.00
-
-
-
The ‘look’! Aesthetic labour, aesthetic norms and appearance-based recruitment in the runway modelling industry
Authors: Iva Jestratijevic and Nancy A. RuddAvailable online: 25 July 2023More LessAesthetic labour in the runway modelling industry refers to the practice of recruitment of models-workers on the basis of desired corporeal and facial dispositions. Aesthetic labour theory foregrounds embodiment, which situates the value of physical appearance and aesthetic norms in the workplace context showcasing how the models-workers get recruited and stratified based on their looks. The study employs an explanatory sequential mixed-method design to investigate aesthetic norms including the desired corporeal and facial dispositions that are expected from models-workers in the runway modelling industry. The study included two phases, a quantitative phase and a qualitative phase. The main objective of the first, quantitative research phase, was to investigate the aesthetic norms among 609 international runway models who were recruited to perform in designer exclusive fashion shows during seven consecutive annual fashion week seasons from 2013 to 2020 in New York, Paris, London and/or Milan. The main objective of the second qualitative research phase was to qualify aesthetic norms through a visual content analysis, and in-depth exploration of 40 unretouched professional modelling snapshots (photographs of face and body) for the top new model talents in the 2019–20 fashion season. Model photos were extracted from the popular industry website, Models.com. The rationale for collecting both quantitative and qualitative data was to form a robust and comprehensive assessment of aesthetic norms in the runway modelling industry. The same level of comprehensiveness would not be obtained by using either type of data individually. This article advances academic research on aesthetic labour in the fashion and modelling industry by showcasing why appearance-based recruitment in this sector represents the practice of occupational segregation that creates social inequalities and negatively impacts the labour market.
-
-
-
Thailand Fashion Week
By Ali KhanAvailable online: 20 July 2023More LessReview of: Thailand Fashion Week, Spring/Summer 2023, Bangkok, 29–30 November 2022
-
-
-
Transformative live-action roleplay and Dagorhir costumes: Regulation, consumption and power dynamics, 1977 to the present
Authors: Sarah West Hixson and Kelly L. Reddy-BestAvailable online: 20 July 2023More LessDagorhir is one of the largest and oldest documented live-action roleplay groups. Dagorhir organizers have published multiple game regulations via handbooks with much emphasis on costumes since the 1970s. Dagorhir facilitates community building, identity negotiation and creative storytelling that expands beyond the game through transformative play. In our research, we examine how these costume regulations have influenced fantasy character and real-world identities, how the regulations have influenced perceived costume authenticity over time and how the handbook regulations have engaged with power dynamics related to intersectional identities. We analysed costume-related content in the three handbooks while drawing upon content analysis and historical methods. We found that as the regulations evolved since the 1970s, the rules increasingly centred costumes, indicating the prominence of costume in this escapist community. However, while these spaces centred on the costumed body, Dagorhir regulations reinforced oppressive intersectional norms. Our work has implications for society and business, that is, our findings can help individuals understand why people participate in live-action roleplay, which may reduce stigma surrounding this activity. Additionally, costume producers and retailers can make informed business decisions based upon our findings. Last, live-action roleplay communities can utilize our findings to reject oppressive written and unwritten regulations.
-
-
-
Women’s dress and success in the Icelandic banking system
Authors: Linda Björg Árnadóttir and Thamar M. HeijstraAvailable online: 08 June 2023More LessIn this study on the power of dress in the Icelandic banking sector, we build on Nentwich and colleagues’ (2015) theoretical framework of change agency. We show that the framework bears relevance to changes occurring after the collapse of the Icelandic banking system in 2008. Our aim is to examine the role of dress in the process of change. The data are derived from ten semi-structured interviews with female bank employees, a group that has historically been marginalized within the Icelandic banking sector. Our findings reveal that visible changes in dress have signalled changes in societal norms and attitudes during and after the economic crisis. The disruption has created a window of opportunity for female bank employees to alter dressing norms. This alteration has subsequently increased their agency and visibility, thereby facilitating their upward mobility, mirroring with clients and representing confidence and trustworthiness. We find that changes in dress occur when ideas in society change, and that windows of opportunity are necessary for marginalized groups to expand their agency. Once these windows are created, dress can underline and bolster their agency.
-
-
-
Deplorable by proxy: Sartorial semiosis and the rendering of an underclass
Available online: 08 June 2023More LessIn 2016, Donald Trump’s slogan ‘Make America Great Again’ (MAGA) – often displayed on a red cap – prompted myriad interpretations and reactions regarding the message itself and the hat it was displayed upon. Despite the hat’s polysemy, there has been no shortage of institutional attempts to codify the hat and, by extension, the wearers of the hat as racist or otherwise ‘deplorable’ (Clinton 2016). By tracing the functional lineage of the MAGA hat alongside a case study of the 2019 Covington Catholic incident, this article uses media discourse analysis to investigate dress as a factional sociopolitical player while interrogating how cultural institutions contribute to social meaning-making, which in turn can leverage dress’s power and unduly malign constituent wearers. Employing theories of sartorial embodiment, the MAGA hat’s enthymematic reading and a critical linguistic frame, this article critiques the pathology of marginal myopia and locates how pejorative ascriptions by proxy of the MAGA hat render Trumpian conservatives, primarily of the White male ilk, as marginal subjects.
-
-
-
Self-perception and body image among cancer survivors
Authors: Jeong-Ju Yoo and Lisa VanHooseAvailable online: 08 June 2023More LessThe goal of this study is to identify the self-perception of cancer survivors’ body image distress and to illustrate fashion-oriented consumption as a coping mechanism. Retail therapy (RT) may be a promising intervention for cancer survivors to mitigate body image distress and promote positive health outcomes. The impact of cancer treatments on each survivor should be considered based on their body investment, cancer type, diagnosis, body weight and other demographic characteristics. Developing mitigation strategies using RT for cancer survivors with visible physical changes is crucial. Fashion-oriented shopping can give cancer survivors a sense of control and boost a positive self-image. Cancer survivors who are highly conscious of societally prescribed definitions of normal appearance may benefit significantly from RT.
-
-
-
Factors determining fashion clothing interest and purchase intention: A study of Generation Z consumers in India
Authors: Neetu Singh, Niketa Chakrabarti and Rajesh TripathiAvailable online: 08 June 2023More LessThis research provides a framework of factors determining clothing interest and subsequent purchase motivation of Generation Z consumers in India. The predictors of young consumers’ clothing interest are uniqueness, self-concept, brand image, word of mouth and perceived quality, with price consciousness moderating the interaction between clothing interest and purchase intention. The study employed structural equation modelling to analyse data collected via a self-administered questionnaire from 211 consumers across India aged 18–24. The resultant model established the role of uniqueness, self-concept and brand image as significant predictors of clothing interest, which influenced consumers’ purchase intention positively. Both word of mouth and perceived quality have a low impact on the fashion clothing consumption of young consumers. The moderating role of price consciousness was also not established indicating that young consumers would go ahead with their clothing purchase if they develop an interest in it, regardless of the price. As the results confirmed the role of uniqueness, self-concept and brand image on clothing interest, which in turn influence consumers’ purchase motivation, this study throws significant insight on factors, which determine young consumers’ clothing interest. The research will hence enable clothing brands to develop strategies, which fit the young consumers’ values and appeal to their aspirational lifestyle, influencing their purchase motivation and brand loyalty in return.
-
-
-
Breaking the cycle: A sustainable fashion paradigm
Authors: Alyson Rae Demirdjian and Belinda T. OrzadaAvailable online: 09 March 2023More LessThe fashion system fundamentally changed during the Industrial Revolution when the industry pivoted away from traditional craft-based production and towards mechanization and mass production. The design process, manufacturing operations, retail practices and marketing tactics of mass production contributed over time to the current climate crisis. Globally, the fashion system is acknowledged as an environmental and social emergency. Thus, the fashion system needs to get with the times. Fashion as a reflection of modernity needs to align with globally recognized social and environmental goals. Societal attachment to materialism and fashion consumption should be reconsidered. In this article we consider these challenges to propose a paradigm that breaks the fashion cycle and provides a framework for the role fashion producers and consumers should play in the twenty-first century.
-
-
-
Foraging for fashion’s future: The use of mycelium materials and fungi intelligence in fashion design
Available online: 18 February 2023More LessIn reaction to the climate crisis, we have seen the emergence of environmental fashion trends that seek to limit energy use and cut emissions, with the aim of building sustainability. The provocation to design in concert with our biosphere is driving fashion designers to renegotiate our relationship with living systems in the quest for innovative ecological design models. This article explores the transformative coupling of fungi fabric and fashion. It considers how fashion brands and designers might develop new languages by bringing fungi’s root intelligence into wearable forms. A body of remarkable experiments has shown that fungi engage in decision-making, are capable of learning and possess short-term memory. The intelligence of the fungal ecosystem and its ability to repair damage in its own structure brings new possibilities to the idea of a ‘smart’ textile. Preserving these active qualities in a textile raises challenges for fashion brands and consumers about how to store the garments and whether we would need to feed our wardrobe of the future to keep it alive. If use of mycelium in fashion is to progress beyond the Petri dish or catwalk novelty, challenges of consistency and scale need to be addressed. Far from the ‘perfect cure’, fungi materials raise questions about their eco-credentials, finishing treatments and disposability, and the ethics of working with living organisms. With a rising experimentation in bio-fabrics, I suggest the need for a critical discourse of materials that aims to promote new questions and scholarship on the intersections between body and botany, decomposition and drapery, and engineering and ecosystems.
-
-
-
Structural relationship of Ankara and lace fabrics in Nigeria
Available online: 08 February 2023More LessAnkara and lace fabrics have been in use for some years by many tribes in Nigeria. These two local fabrics are dynamic and unique to Africa in general. Despite the uniqueness of these two fabrics, there is a dearth of in-depth study on them. This study presents a comparative analysis of the physical structures of lace and Ankara fabrics through direct field research using a qualitative method to analyse the data with random sampling. This study was conducted with the aim of giving insight into the growth of the arts so as to preserve the designs and styles for future development through the understanding of the two fabrics. The study reveals that the fabrics are texturally good in the body and therefore widely used by the low, middle and high-class personalities in Nigeria.
-
-
-
Ukrainian designers’ market: Consumers’ behaviour caused by the COVID-19 pandemic
Authors: Antonina Ivashchuk, Olena Ryzhko and Olena KutsanAvailable online: 08 February 2023More LessThe COVID-19 pandemic has led to a crisis that has affected various aspects of life, including the consciousness of consumers in the fashion market. This article studies the synergies between the pandemic crisis and behaviour of consumers towards Ukrainian high fashion brands. The research aims to study the issue of the impact of the global pandemic crisis on such market segments as Ukrainian high fashion brands, reveal key drivers of consumers of these brands during the unstable economic situation and define the main models of promotion of designers’ brands. Uniqueness, materialism and the influence of a social group are considered three primary motivators for the consumption of Ukrainian high fashion brands. The authors of this article identified the modern hybrid model for promoting brands of Ukrainian designers as a set of communication tools that would restore the interest of the consumers.
-
-
-
The ‘roaring’ twenties and African wildlife in fashionable dress: Part 1: Zebra fur patterns and femininity
Available online: 18 January 2023More LessThe fur and fur patterns of African animals were part of the fashion industry’s exoticization of Africa during the 1920s. Avant-garde interest in African sculpture, African textiles and African jewellery blended with the popularity of jazz music played by African Americans to create a market for fashionable clothing inspired by Africa. Using fur from African animals, and textile prints and embroideries imitating fur patterns, reflected the most consistent interest in Africa. African safaris, world fairs and colonial expositions displaying African animals contributed to African exoticism. Books for children, textile designs illustrating African elephants and examples of fabric dyed colours called ‘lioness’ were some of the resulting consumer products. The graphic fur patterns of leopards, giraffes and zebras perfectly suited the bold geometric aesthetics of the Arts Modernes design style, while the fringe-like quality of monkey fur met the trend requirements for fringed evening wear. Zebra fur and patterns played a feminizing role in mediating the increasingly masculine dress and activities for women. The graphic black-and-white stripes linked the wearer to the exotics and adventure of Africa, while also reflecting contemporary design aesthetics and the hard-edged, chaotic American city. Because the zebra stripe originates on the fur of a peaceful prey animal, the pattern was perceived as graceful and feminine. For the modern women who wanted to participate in the adventures of the era, wearing zebra stripes tempered the interpretation of her wild life in the American urban jungle without compromising her femininity.
-
Most Read This Month Most Read RSS feed
Most Cited Most Cited RSS feed
-
-
Fashion and Appropriation
Authors: Denise Nicole Green and Susan B. Kaiser
-
- More Less