International Journal of Fashion Studies - Volume 2, Issue 1, 2015

This article problematizes the lack of interest among fashion scholars in Cambodia, despite the fact that Cambodia is rapidly maturing into an important player in the global fashion industry. However, the primary focus of the article is a case study of the indigenous textile/fashion production of Project Wisdom from the Forest (PWF). It demonstrates that the PWF is a pioneer and exemplar of the cultural, social, economic and environmental revitalization of textile/fashion production in Cambodia. The PWF merits attention not only because it has been successful in reviving traditional Cambodian weaving practices that had been on the verge of extinction as a result of the brutality of the Khmer Rouge regime, but also because it has instinctively employed a holistic approach to sustainable production. The study details the practices at the PWF that embrace the principles of social development, equity, ecological stability and economic viability and suggests that the PWF might represent the first step in creating fashion that is genuinely Cambodian, as fashion always references the past to create new styles. It is proposed that similar holistic models of sustainable fashion production might be adopted in other fashion peripheries to provide local solutions for the development of indigenous fashion production.

The fashion system in New Zealand has strong ties to its northern hemispheric roots, largely due to its colonial past. As a result, local understandings of fashion and design have been derived from predominant British influences in terms of garment design, aesthetics, construction and manufacturing systems. This article examines the appropriateness of continuing these traditional systems as opposed to exploring more dynamic methods suited to the local environment and culture. A global fashion economy and the disconnection of design from geography in the virtual marketplace is discussed through an examination of practice-based enquiry and historical fashion contexts. The authors propose that there is a significant refocus which needs to happen for New Zealand fashion to reinvent itself as a dynamic and international industry. The rethinking of traditional methods of manufacturing and the way we use existing technology offer the best opportunity to drive innovative design both in terms of process and aesthetics. New Zealand does not need to manufacture more clothing but instead should focus on producing high end, distinctive products for an international niche market, a strategy that has proven successful for other New Zealand industries, particularly the premium wine and tourism industries.

One of the key debates in contemporary fashion marketing is the local–global binary; the twenty-first-century fashion industry is increasingly international, both in terms of production and consumption, yet there is no consensus on whether globalization inevitably homogenizes cultural experiences or allows for heterogeneity. The authors argue that the historical concept of chinoiserie has informed Chinese fashion identities, and seek to challenge this perception by presenting alternative perspectives on the importance of Chinese heritage and culture to those currently working in fashion. The disrupted nature of China’s fashion history, the persistence of orientalist imaginings of her past, and the strength of China’s manufacturing industry are all factors that contribute to the complexities in defining contemporary Chinese fashion. This article is written to provide an introduction to modern Chinese fashion through an exploration of how contemporary fashion creatives understand the influence of culture on their work, and how their understandings of Chineseness and the East–West binary impact their work. Whilst this is necessarily a snapshot view of the Chinese fashion industry, the article confirms a belief in the importance of cultural identity on creative practices and shows how contemporary Chinese fashion can escape prescribed and restricted fashion identities.

In China, Shanghai’s nascent fashion system seeks to emulate the Eurocentric system of fashion weeks and industry support groups. It promises designers a platform for global competition, yet there are tensions from within. Interaction with a fashion system inevitably means becoming validated or legitimized. Legitimization in turn depends upon gatekeepers who make aesthetic judgments about the status, quality and cultural value of a designer’s work. This article offers a new perspective on legitimization. I argue that some Chinese fashion designers are on the path to becoming global fashion designers because they have embraced a global aesthetic that resonates with the human condition, rather than the manufactured authenticity of a Eurocentric fashion system that perpetuates endless consumption. In this way, they are able to ‘self-legitimize’. I contend these designers are ‘designers for humans’, because they are able to explore the tensions of man, culture and environment in their practice. Furthermore, their design ethos pursues beauty, truth and harmony in the Chinese philosophical sense, as well as incorporating financial return in a process that is still enacted through a fashion system. Accordingly, cultural tradition, heritage and modernity, while still valuable have less impact on their practice.

In this article, we position ethnicity at the heart of the marketplace in contributing to a more complex and multifaceted understanding of identity formation and commodification. We approach the commodification of ethnicity on two, interconnected levels in a globalizing world of fashion. We unravel the designs and discourses of the corporate company and textile producer Vlisco, based in the Netherlands, as well as the practices and ideas of fashion designers in Ghana who make abundant use of wax cloth fabrics. Of central concern in this article is how a corporate company and fashion designers in their designs and narratives unite an understanding of (fashion) identity as both ‘African’ and cosmopolitan, as an individual and collective expression. It is clearly not our intention to applaud these processes of commodification uncritically, fuelled as they are by global capitalism. Yet we do want to approach them as creative processes in all their complexity.

Ade Bakare’s designs show his use of historic Yoruba textiles and textile design techniques to complement gowns and dresses, less African in style than western. Bakare was born and educated in the United Kingdom, and his early career was firmly based in European fashion. After graduating from Salford University College in 1990, Bakare worked in London’s fashion industry, establishing his own label in 1991. However, the first reference to Africa in his timeline does not occur until 2002, over ten years into his career. Since then he has developed an active relationship with the Nigerian world of high fashion. He became the official designer for First Lady Stella Obasanjo in 2004, opened his Lagos boutique in 2006, and established the Young Designers Creative Competition in 2007. In this article, I propose to look at Ade Bakare in both his London and Lagos fashion worlds to explore the broadening of his fashion identity in the last decade to reference not only his Nigerian family background but also his own Yoruba ethnicity. This article draws on Bakare’s archive of materials as well as an in-depth discussion with him on his work.

Western discourse over the Muslim veil generated different discursive outcomes. It generalized the different practices of veiling used in the Muslim world, turned it into a symbol of women’s oppression, and remained indifferent to practices of veiling outside of the Muslim world. Research regarding this phenomenon focuses particularly on the political role Muslim practices of veiling play in the western world. In that light, I look at the overt meaning minor acts of covering up have in Israel, ignored in most western countries and argue that it originates in Israel’s self-image as a western country. As such, analyses can serve as a new perspective for thinking of the relation of the West with covertness in general, i.e. beyond a specific garment. The first part of this article describes my personal experiences as a secular woman who is identified as a Jewish religious woman in Israel. The second part discusses Jacqueline Kahanoff’s gaze on Palestinian women. After this, I discuss my work with Comme Il Faut, a local fashion house based in Tel Aviv. After stitching these three points together, the status of Israel as a western or non-western country is discussed, as well as future research.

In this article we reflect on the timely dialogue which took place to address how economic growth and the expanding middle-class youth population in South Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) influences sartorial identities. This working note is based on an ongoing research project: ‘South Asian Youth Cultures and Fashion’ and the related symposium at the London College of Fashion, which explores how South Asian sartorial identities have been previously classified and how they are changing in the face of an increasingly globalized world. The conversations which took place reiterated the very reason why the symposium was organized. Whilst there has been some study of South Asian fashion and dressing cultures within history, anthropology and its diaspora, little work has looked at the transnational implication of the changing cultural, economic and fashion education environments on dress cultures on youth.

Love Objects: Emotion, Design and Material Culture, Anna Moran and Sorcha O’Brien (eds) (2014, First Edition) London/New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 166 pp., ISBN: 9781472517197, Paperback, $39.99

Fashion on Television: Identity and Celebrity Culture, Helen Warner (2014, first edition) London/New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 200 pp., ISBN: 9780857854414, Paperback, $39.99