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By Jennifer Liu In her article, "The Japanese Revolution in Paris Fashion," Yuniya Kawamura focuses on the occupation of designer as the focal point of the fashion system, under the argument that France offers the model of the fashion system that legitimizes designers on a worldwide platform. The author analyzes the entry of Japanese designers into the French fashion system from 1970 to 2003. She discusses three different relationships that designers have with the system: a complete assimilation with the French system and style ("frenchification"), the exoticism of the avant-garde, and the infusion tradition japanese designs with haute couture. Japanese Avant-Garde Fashion Beginning of the 1980s was when a new generation of Japanese designers became key players in the Paris fashion scene. Issey Miyake (considered the founding father of avant-garde fashion), Rei Kawakubo, and Yohji Yamamoto, known as "The Big Three," brought in a new style that Europe hadn...

by Rebecca Ann Wong In his article “Subculture: The Unnatural Break”, Dick Hebdige addresses how the post-war British youth subcultures (which he defines as spectacular subcultures) disturbed and challenged orderly social systems, making them ‘unnatural’ (153). Hebdige uses the example of punk to outline his theories, and in particular, he addresses the Sex Pistols as the band that brought the punk subculture towards the public eye. It just so happened that one of their television appearances coincided with the time in which the punk style was in its beginning stages of being discovered by the media. Hebdige then goes on to discuss how society attempts to accommodate these subcultures through two different forms of incorporation: the commodity form and the ideological form. Hebdige describes these forms of incorporations as a mode of ‘recuperation’ (154) that society takes on, since subcultures are seen as movements deviating from the norm, creating ‘a wave of hysteria’(153) and there...

Stuart Cosgrove's "The Zoot Suit and Style Warfare" by Sydney Kipen In his article “The Zoot Suit and Style Warfare,” Stuart Cosgrove confronts the importance of the zoot suit in the 1940s as an iconic symbol that arose in a time of conflict. He investigates the evolvement of the zoot suit from something associated with urban jazz culture to a symbol of revolt for young rebels, predominately African and Mexican Americans wanting to be heard. Coordinate with the rise of the zoot suit, were the “zoot suit riots;” the conflict that the suit caused with its rebellious connotations. Cosgrove asserts that the zoot suit was “an emblem of ethnicity and a way of negotiating an identity” (137). He explores the social and political importance of the suit especially during the year of 1943 when the zoot suit riots began to erupt. The zoot suit, as Cosgrove describes, became the “uniform” of young rioters and a symbol of rebellion and delinquency. ...

Debora Silverman's "Selling Culture in Reagan's America" by Sydney Kipen In her article “Selling Culture: Bloomingdale’s, Diana Vreeland, and the New Aristocracy of Taste in Reagan’s America,” Debora Silverman begins with a description of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Yves Saint-Laurent exhibit organized by Diana Vreeland. Silverman explains the success of Vreeland’s show as an advertising campaign for French haute couture in America and “as a glorification of woman as and objet d’art,” for whom life consists of displaying different extravagant outfits (305). Silverman asserts that the Saint-Laurent show was part of an important movement of “aristocratic posturing” in America, leading (maybe “pushing” high society individuals, engrossed in cultural and political aspects of life, to care about how they look. Silverman contends that the movement held direct links to the epicenter of power in the White House; Ronald and Nancy Reagan initiated a new regime of aristo...

by Emily Mann From the moment we're born, our clothing and accessories thrust us into a hegemonic expression of gender. Baby girls wear pink; boys wear blue. Our clothing defines to the rest of the world who we physically are. As we grow older and make conscious fashion decisions, we have the opportunity to solidify or redefine these gender stereotypes. Androgynous fashion subtly transcends these established societal gender codes by combining both genders' characteristics into one overall look. In the early 1920s, Coco Chanel introduced her signature suit in an early form of androgynous fashion. It was made from jersey fabric with a knee-high skirt and wool-woven jacket that bore striking resemblance to a man's suit. It represented gender power for females, as its functionality hinted at the woman's newfound place as a working woman in society. Yves Saint Laurent's invention of "le smoking" in 1966 also came at a time of woman's rise in social standin...

by Zo-Ee Chee Donna Karan and Diane Von Furstenberg are two contemporary American designers who possess Status and Power. However, it is the difference between what kind of power and status that they have that determines how they empower women. For example, Donna Karan came from a working class family and is known for dressing the Executive Woman. She gained status and power through becoming an influential CEO of a multi-million dollar company. Conversely, Diane von Furstenberg married into aristocracy at the age of 23 and instead represents the Woman of Leisure as someone with a noble title and money. Through their different styles, Karan and Von Furstenberg redefined the connotations of power and adapted them for women including a transformation from the woman as Thorstein Veblen’s “vicarious consumer” to a “conspicuous consumer”. Additionally, the appropriation of a man’s role and dress is considered with Karan’s tailored menswear. What are the connotations of wearing such a trad...

by Tamara Tucci Think about the uniforms you see on your flights with Continental Airlines, United, and American. Today the woman’s flight attendant uniform is quite standard—usually a navy blue skirt paired with a white blouse—but there was once a time when the uniform was anything but ordinary. The 1960s was the peak of the glamour of air travel. Flying was for the elite. Passengers and crew members dressed their best. Airplane meals were prepared by gourmet chefs and served by stewardesses wearing haute couture uniforms. Airlines called upon fashion designers such as Pucci and Dior to create uniforms for the flight attendant that made her attractive and alluring. In my research, I was interested in the uniform as an instrument of power; it helped the designer gain global notoriety, it boosted the flight attendant’s image, and the airline used her image to succeed in a competitive market. Uniform changes and design adjustments reflect power struggles within the designer-flight atten...

By Jessica Noone The metrosexual man was first defined by Mark Simpson in 1994. In his article “Here Come the Mirror Men”, Simpson defines the “metrosexual man is a commodity fetishist: a collector of fantasies about the male sold to him by advertising.” (Mirror Men) The metrosexual was created through capitalism and its need for more markets. Simpson tells us that “metrosexuality is one of the most flagrant symptoms of a media-tized world: the male body was the last frontier and it’s now being thoroughly explored and mapped.” (Metrodaddy Speaks) The men’s fashion press, including GQ and Esquire, promoted this ideal from the start. In capitalist societies, even the discourse of masculinity has become mediated and commoditized. Designer Paul Smith uses a brilliant advertising campaign called "Maximizing Britishness," which focuses on transforming a man into the “True Brit”. (Bruzzi 32) This campaign gives men an attachment to national identity through their clothing, ...