Critical Studies in Fashion & Beauty - Current Issue
Volume 15, Issue 2, 2024
- Introduction
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Fashion, beauty and media
Authors: Susan B. Kaiser and Anneke SmelikThis introduction considers how the four research articles in this issue address the relation of fashion and/or beauty with media: specifically, the ‘older’ media of journalism and film, and ‘new’ media such as video blogs and TikTok. All of these venues have the capacity to communicate various visual and verbal concepts, with different relations to their audiences. The emergence of newer, digital platforms has disrupted the extent to which media can dictate visual codes and narratives, opening up fragmented and decentralized spaces where multiple, often conflicting, discourses of fashion and beauty coexist. These platforms also potentially articulate alternative beauty ideals and subcultural fashion trends that challenge the hegemonic standards of older media. At the same time, the responsibility of older media to foster ethical journalistic standards and social justice awareness to their audiences becomes intensified. The articles in this volume represent these potentialities for both older and newer media.
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- Articles
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Fashion journalism ethics and the pursuit of a responsible fashion system
Authors: Katie Baker Jones and Joseph P. JonesWhat are the ethical obligations of a fashion journalist? We argue fashion journalists have a central role to play in addressing the industry’s most pressing issues, including but not limited to environmental degradation, worker exploitation and social justice. Moreover, we argue fashion journalists are in a unique position to help co-constitute the ‘good life’ as it pertains to our fashionable selves and societies. However, without a clearly articulated ethic of fashion journalism, we cannot hope to have an ethical and responsible fashion industry with which to build such a life. We contend that this must be done not through prioritizing a consumer identity for readership – the default subject position in lifestyle journalism – but through the readership’s subject position as citizen and moral agent. In the broadest critique we offer here, we posit that fashion journalism and journalists have been exempted from the traditional ethical obligation of a press responsible to a public, and we seek to recentre the fashion journalist as a key agent in the work towards a more just and caring society.
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Mannequins, muses and maids: Redressing the objectified woman in Phantom Thread and Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris
More LessDresses in the films Phantom Thread (2017) and Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (2022) are powerful objects. Designed by the fictional Reynolds Woodcock and a fictionalized Christian Dior, the gowns are treasured by most consumers for their beauty and social cachet. But for the working-class heroines who emerge from the shadows to demystify the ‘fashionable’ bodies that produce and consume haute couture, the dresses are ‘ghostly matter’ that not only manifest creative genius and superb workmanship but function as wearable ‘actants’ that transform their lives. Informed by Sartrean existentialism and affect studies, this article examines the gendered dimensions of mid-twentieth-century haute couture production and consumption as they are represented in the two films. Woodcock’s troublesome muse exposes the techniques through which his collectively produced designs are ‘personalized’, while the Dior-desiring charwoman of Mrs. Harris demonstrates her own ‘complex personhood’ as well as that of the instrumentalized ‘hands’ who labour in his name.
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Blind and partially sighted women’s make-up: A narrative of practice, perseverance and empowerment
Authors: Gabriela Daniels and Ameerah KhadarooSocial disabilities such as visual impairment hinder full participation in daily activities and society. This study uses a qualitative analysis of YouTube make-up tutorials to examine the practices and motivations of blind and partially sighted (BPS) vloggers. Although make-up has been used over centuries specifically to support personal and social goals, its usage has grown in strength with the advent of social media influencers. Thematic analysis reveals that for BPS vloggers, make-up application involves iterative learning through product familiarization, routines and practice. The experience brings them enjoyment, fun and increased confidence. Their motivation to engage with make-up and share vlogs appears at least partially driven by the desire to support others with similar disabilities and to challenge public misconceptions about disability. Amidst rising aesthetic standards and omnipresent social media, the BPS make-up vloggers’ presence signifies their agency as influencers, whilst also pointing to the equally powerful shadow of social disability still present today.
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PunkTok: Identity and dressing the part
Authors: Kendal Cano and Monica SklarPunk is a subcultural community and lifestyle whose dress and aesthetics have been incorporated into the mainstream fashion industry and popularized beyond self-identified punks. However, punk styles maintain their anti-hegemonic design symbolism and still act as cues for punks. ‘PunkTok’ formed as the result of individuals using the social media platform TikTok as a self-presentation and communication vehicle to showcase the complexities of their punk identity. With the application of general themes from Goffman’s dramaturgical analysis, this research aims to understand how dress and TikTok technical capabilities are used to communicate personal identity, community identity and authenticity in the US punk community on TikTok. The findings reveal that contextual information, such as hashtags, and the demonstration of knowledge and experience are integral to identifying and authenticating PunkTok dress and identity. Intersectionality revealed itself to be a key theme in the research and impacted the choices made by the PunkTokers.
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- Exhibition Reviews
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Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses, curated by Cloé Pitiot and Louise Curtis, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, 29 November 2023–28 April 2024
More LessReview of: Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses, curated by Cloé Pitiot and Louise Curtis, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, 29 November 2023–28 April 2024
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Dialogues: Fashion beyond the Wearable, curated by Andrea Hasselrot Gothenburg Museum of Art, Gothenburg, 12 May 2023–7 January 2024
More LessReview of: Dialogues: Fashion beyond the Wearable, curated by Andrea Hasselrot Gothenburg Museum of Art, Gothenburg, 12 May 2023–7 January 2024
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Food & Fashion, curated by Melissa Marra-Alvarez and Elizabeth Way, The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), New York, 13 September–26 November 2023
More LessReview of: Food & Fashion, curated by Melissa Marra-Alvarez and Elizabeth Way, The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), New York, 13 September–26 November 2023
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Soul of a Woman, Payal Jain, curated by Sunil Sethi National Crafts Museum and Hastkala Academy, Delhi, August–October 2024
More LessReview of: Soul of a Woman, Payal Jain, curated by Sunil Sethi National Crafts Museum and Hastkala Academy, Delhi, August–October 2024
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- Book Reviews
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Fashion in Altermodern China, Feng Jie (2022)
By Juanjuan WuReview of: Fashion in Altermodern China, Feng Jie (2022)
London: Bloomsbury, 168 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-35020-006-7, h/bk, $90
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Memories of Dress: Recollections of Material Identities, Alison Slater, Susan Atkin and Elizabeth Kealy-Morris (eds) (2023)
More LessReview of: Memories of Dress: Recollections of Material Identities, Alison Slater, Susan Atkin and Elizabeth Kealy-Morris (eds) (2023)
London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 258 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-35015-379-0, h/bk, £85.00
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