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How has the fashion industry responded to turn-of-the-millennium non-binary identities? Do they have a supportive or exploitative relationship with queer, trans and ageing subjects?
Fashion, Identity, Image unpacks these questions and many more in relation to clothing and representation, identity and body politics in British, European and American culture between 1990 and 2020.
Jobling, Nesbitt and Wong explore issues of intersectionality and inclusivity through groundbreaking shows, including Maria Grazia Chiuri's 'We Should All Be Feminists' catwalk show for Dior (Spring-Summer 2017), Alexander McQueen's 'The Widows of Culloden' collection (Fall-Winter 2006), and the role of transgender models such as Oslo Grace since 2015. Looking to the future of our relationship with fashion, there's also an investigation of the android as a redemptive figure in Alessandro Michele's cross-cultural cyborg collection for Gucci (Autumn-Winter 2018/2019) and the impact of the ageing population with analysis of age and memory in work such as Magali Nougarède's Crossing the Line (2002), and pleasure and morality in fashion publicity since the 1990s for the likes of Calvin Klein, D&G and American Apparel.
List of contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Authoring Fashion, Intersecting Sex and Gender
Introduction
Maria Grazia Chiuri’s ‘We Should All Be Feminists’ T-Shirt for Christian Dior: Branding, identity and authorship
Between the womb and the gay parade: Alexander McQueen’s ‘The Widows of Culloden’ as poetic text
Subverting the symbolic order: McQueen’s abject woman
Conclusion: Squaring up to the phallic mother
Notes
2. Written on the body: Fashion, clothing and age
Introduction
‘Active ageing’, youthfulness and fashion
‘Fashion For All Ages’ and the new old model army
Race and reversing convention
Conclusion: From idiotic methods to the realities of time and place
Notes
3. (Un)Gendering the runway
Introduction
Forerunners of transgender and non-binary identities in fashion
The advent of transgendered models
The abject trans-model
Between abjection and acceptance
‘Come into the (trans)garden’: The heterotopia of fashion
The authentic self
Other models: Intersectionality and wider diversity in the fashion industry
Tokenism versus activism
Conclusion: Between tokenism and authenticity
Notes
4. Loving the alien: Fashion and cyborg identities
Introduction
Andrea Giacobbe and ‘Simplex Concordia’
Alessandro Michele and the Gucci Cyborg
Compromising race and diversity
A ‘genuine cyborg manifesto’?
Conclusion: Towards emancipatory possibilities
Notes
Epilogue
About the author
Paul Jobling is Visiting Professor, MA Fashion Studies, Parsons New School, Paris, France. He is the author of Man Appeal (Berg, 2005).Philippa Nesbitt is a PhD candidate in Communication and Culture at Toronto Metropolitan University, and holds an MA in Fashion Studies from The New School, Parsons Paris. Her research explores the representations and experiences of multiply-marginalized people within the contemporary global fashion industry and evaluates fashion as a tool for social change.Angelene Wong is a doctoral candidate at the School of Art, Design and Media at Nanyang Technological University and holds the MA in Fashion Studies from The New School, Parsons Paris. Her research interest is in the intersection of fashion and performance. Angelene is also a part-time lecturer at the School of Fashion at Lasalle College of the Arts. She is the co-author of Fashion, Identity, Image (Bloomsbury 2022).
Summary
How has the fashion industry responded to turn-of-the-millennium non-binary identities? Do they have a supportive or exploitative relationship with queer, trans and ageing subjects? Fashion, Identity, Image unpacks these questions and many more in relation to clothing and representation, identity and body politics in British, European and American culture between 1990 and 2020.
Jobling, Nesbitt and Wong explore issues of intersectionality and inclusivity through groundbreaking shows, including Maria Grazia Chiuri’s ‘We Should All Be Feminists’ catwalk show for Dior (Spring-Summer 2017), Alexander McQueen’s ‘The Widows of Culloden’ collection (Fall-Winter 2006), and the role of transgender models such as Oslo Grace since 2015. Looking to the future of our relationship with fashion, there's also an investigation of the android as a redemptive figure in Alessandro Michele’s cross-cultural cyborg collection for Gucci (Autumn-Winter 2018/2019) and the impact of the ageing population with analysis of age and memory in work such as Magali Nougarède’s Crossing the Line (2002), and pleasure and morality in fashion publicity since the 1990s for the likes of Calvin Klein, D&G and American Apparel.
Foreword
Uses influential fashion collections and shows to explore the huge shifts in identity, body politics, representation and authenticity in relation to clothing in Britain, Europe and America over the last 30 years.
Additional text
Utilizing recent and historic examples, the authors offer a robust account of the role of the fashion industry in creating age, race, gender, and posthuman identities, both actual and fantastic. I finished this book with inspiration for my teaching and research.
