Togetherness

Togetherness Cooperation oils the machinery of getting things done, and sharing with others can make up for what we may individually lack. Cooperation is embedded in our genes, but it cannot remain stuck in routine behaviour; it needs to be developed and deepened.

Richard Sennett, Together, 2012

These are the words used to open the book Together (2012) by writer Richard Sennett. As part of a trilogy of books aiming to explore the ways we shape and craft our inner and external environment, the book comes as a reflection on responsiveness, empathy and the centrality of active listening in a community. Sennett’s path through the different ingredients of the importance of being together resonates in our current situation. More than a year after the beginning of the pandemic, we find ourselves with the detritus of individual memories and stories. We all have been connected to individual and collective losses. We all have been listening to personal and shared troubles. The pandemic has strangely highlighted the need to be connected while we have been enduring exaggerated forms of solitude and individualism. We all have experienced together and alone the pandemic.

Our work on the MA has not gone unaffected by this situation and this publication remains a testimony of our common and individual efforts, struggles and successes.

The following pages provide a glimpse into the work of our graduating class of 2021, the first group of students graduating who have lived the majority of their academic experience in these exceptional times. The students have lived the pandemic on their skin and experienced not only the public trauma but also the institutional one.

Our MA Program, similar to many other academic programs, had to change, adapt to the current situation, transforming pedagogical methodologies, teaching outcomes, ongoing projects, ways of interacting on a daily basis. Students and their experience of the MA drastically changed. What was supposed to be a path towards the making of a real, physical exhibition became preparation for a hypothetical project, group discussions became fragmented moments regulated by mute/unmuted microphones and unstable internet connections. All of this did not foster collaboration but rather individual reflection. It did not foster aggregation but rather isolation. This is true also for Faculty who had to completely rework their syllabi, understand new rhythms of teaching, invent new techniques of interaction, compromise with the absurdity of speaking in front of their screens with many black squares with names, wondering whether anyone was actually listening.

These challenges are amplified when you deal with a topic like fashion, a phenomenon that strives through embodied practice, personal and collective interaction.

The impossibility of being physically together did not only show how the pandemic economically affected an industry but, I believe, showed even more so the importance and potential of fashion as a humanistic force. The advent of Covid-19 highlighted the social role of clothing, our daily engagement with it, its agency in making, affecting and transforming our bodies. It stressed the potential of fashion in all its multiform meanings, emphasizing the importance of reflecting, deepening our knowledge about it.

And this is exactly what our students have done and what we show in the pages of this publication. By reading their theses’ abstracts and extracts, we invite you to see how they responded to isolation and struggle, reminding us of the multifaceted nature of fashion. The theses move through a wide range of topics and show us different ways of thinking about fashion. They explore identity formation, investigating issues of race in the modelling industry and techniques of self-fashioning and personification in these digital times. They highlight alternative and inclusive ways of teaching fashion or ways to think of fashion as both an economic and social source of resilience in times of political crises in Lebanon. They explore the importance of alternative systems and peripheries of fashion systems and fashion weeks in modest fashion. They investigate the effects of mediating fashion in the aesthetic construction of labour and workers like les petites mains. They look at magazines as spaces of dialectics and dialogical relationships between art and fashion systems; or even spaces for national identity construction as in the case of Vogue Taiwan. Finally, they navigate the forum of Twitter as a space of resistance and criticism; or the new territories of Tik Tok as a realm of transformation of fashion media practices. In all these fashion interpretations, our students combat and problematize a traditional understanding of fashion as exclusive and individual, reminding us of the importance of fashion as a collective endeavor.

This publication gathers their work and stands as a reminder of our cooperative effort and attempt to combat our current struggles. It reminds us that, although we were physically separated, we shared solitude, anxieties and difficulties, and overcame them. It is a pleasure to present this publication in our final year exhibition and symbolically celebrate our coming back together in person. The publication puts our students’ work together and celebrates the importance of that being together that Sennett sees as the only path towards an understanding how “social relations” are not only action for self-sustaining but also moments of self-teaching that, as he says, “promote an ethical life in which we recognize and honour what lies beyond us”.

Congratulations Class of 2021!

Dr Marco Pecorari Director of the MA in Fashion Studies The New School Parsons Paris

A huge thank you to all the Faculty, Géraldine Blanche, Antoine Bucher, Morna Laing, Jana Melkumova-Reynolds, Justin Morin, Laurent Cotta, and all the people involved in the education and support of our MA students. A particular merci to Morna Laing for her incredible editing work for this publication and calm strength, to Antoine for his unlimited generosity, to Monica Fraile Morisson who crafted this publication and always indulges our ideas; to Justin who worked to present this publication in our exhibition; and our Dean, Florence Leclerc-Dickler who always finds ways to support our students’ projects.

1 Modest Fashion: A Case Study on Paris Oriental Fashion Show (2020-2021)

by Amani Abdallah

ABSTRACT The rise of modest fashion in fashion weeks over the past few years has led to a wider consciousness across different cultures within the fashion industry. Big brands such as Burberry, Gucci and Dior started introducing modest clothing in their collections during fashion weeks. Diversity played an important role which led to the beginning of modest dressing inclusivity in the West. With the controversy of modest fashion garments such as the headscarf or the face covering scarf that has been taking place in France since 2004, this thesis explores Paris’ fashion system and the representation of modest clothing during Paris Fashion Week.

The Oriental Fashion Show, the case study of this thesis, has become the hub of Eastern and Western fashion in the capital of fashion, Paris. Showcased during Paris Fashion Week since 2004, the show promotes Oriental fashion by exhibiting modest dressing representing the East while keeping the French identity, the Western identity.

It is through the key players of the event, the models, the garments, and the space, that the identity of the Oriental Fashion show is studied. With the Covid-19 pandemic that occurred in the beginning of 2020, many debates have arisen around face coverings and its controversy in France, especially after setting the law of the obligatory face masks in public spaces as a protection against the virus. Thus, this thesis further explores the way the pandemic has affected the controversy of the face coverings vis-à-vis Western representations and perceptions and it shifted the show into the digital world.

EXCERPT In a look from the FW 2020 collection of Saad Ouadrassi, the model appears wearing a full black look composed of a skinny tight short black dress that is open between the breasts, long black gloves, high black heels, and shimmery black tights. The model has simple features that could represent the typical ‘Parisian’ woman: straight, light hair; light skin; skinny body; and neutral makeup. This representation reminds the viewer of the Parisian woman in black that is usually featured in brands such as

1

Sandro or Armani; a figure that Rocamora calls ‘La Parisienne’ which she explores in depth in her book Fashioning the City. The term ‘La Parisienne’ connotes the typical nineteenth-century Parisian fashion doll which Rocamora explains does not only represent an incarnation of Paris, but an “outcome of a process: a categorization.”1 According to her, ‘La Parisienne’ is constructed as a multiple figure able to range from ideas to creativity to those of seduction and freedom. The term is in fact singular, but has multiple figures: it “stands as the material embodiment and personification of the French capital, of its esprit, and, in the same way that the spirit of Paris has been celebrated.”2 So, although this outfit is exposed at the Oriental Fashion Show which is considered as an event that celebrates the East, it also incorporates the idea of Paris, a Western city. The Oriental Fashion Show could then be described as a hybrid space; a term explored by Edward Said in his book Culture and Imperialism (1993). According to Said, the opposition between the East and the West results in a heterogenic culture; a culture in which he locates hybridity. Thus, the concept of hybridity describes well the Eastern and Western incorporation of the Oriental Fashion Show since it represents “all cultures [that] are involved in one another”3 as it is reflected in the aforementioned look by Saad Ouadrassi; an image representing the involvement of both Oriental and Parisian cultures, the Eastern and Western cultures.

Accordingly, in this heterogenic atmosphere where Said locates hybridity, he defines the term ‘hybridity’ as a “dynamic diversity” which “ultimately characterizes every culture.”4 This hybrid space could in fact be linked to the concept of the ‘Third Space’ because of the Oriental Fashion Show’s uniqueness. Thus, Homi K. Bhabha defines the ‘Third Space’ as “the theoretical recognition of the split-space of enunciation [that opens] the way to conceptualizing an international culture, based not on the exoticism of multiculturalism or the diversity of cultures, but on the inscription and articulation of culture’s hybridity.”5 So, the Oriental Fashion Show could therefore be considered as a ‘Third Space’ because it somehow conceptualizes an international culture by having an Eastern name, a Western institution, and a mix of Eastern and Western actors and style of garments: a hybrid space.

However, in terms of ‘modesty’ and ‘not showing’ the body, the fact that the model in the Saad Ouadrassi show is walking down the runway explains that she is already under the spotlight. This puts in question the concept of male gaze and female gaze within the context of modest fashion and covering the body to prevent gazing. The term ‘gaze’ was introduced by Laura Mulvey as mentioned previously in the theoretical framework where she claims that women are always portrayed as an object of gaze in Hollywood films and not as possessors of the gaze 6 . She assumes that the control of the camera, the gaze, is set to target the male audience reflecting the concept of how men look at women. Regardless of whether the look is decent or not, the main aim is to attract the male’s attention, the male’s gaze. Hence, after analyzing the model’s clothes in the look by Saad Ouadrassi and linking it to ‘La Parisienne,’ it is important to add the fact that her chest and arms are uncovered and that her body is well defined due to the tightness of the dress; the opposite description to what modesty is. Nonetheless, by taking into consideration Mulvey’s research, gazing at the look by Saad Ouadrassi is somehow challenging in the sense where it portrays the complete opposite of “modesty” and “modest clothing”.

The spectators might be expecting modest looks to be presented whereas immodest looks appeared too. So, this raises the question of how Eastern spectators such as Arabs or veiled women portray immodest dressing in an Oriental/Eastern event.

Do they consider it as part of the Oriental culture? Do they consider it ironic? The answers to these questions remain open since they need further investigation.

Henceforth, moving to a look by Samira Hadouchi, it represents a full body coverage design that differs from what was exposed in the look by Saad Ouadrassi in terms of modest fashion. It represents a model wearing a long white caftan with gold and dark green embroideries, green, red, and yellow long earrings, and a dark green belt embroidered in gold, noting that the feet are not showing because of the caftan’s length. The caftan is “a simple T shaped garment with gored shaped at the sides and fronts.”7 What is interesting in the T shape emphasized by the belted waist is that it looks like the Christian cross which represents the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in the Christian religion. Accordingly, another aspect that is eye-catching in this caftan is that it is open on the neckline in a way that emphasizes the model’s breasts and low neckline. So, the paradox between the cross shape belonging to a religion and the revealed breasts and low neckline questions whether this caftan is considered to be modest or not in terms of body coverage.

Hence, another interesting aspect to stress is the aura of fantasy revealed by the caftan: an aura that might remind the viewer of the famous One Thousand and One Nights, known as the Arabian Nights. Arabian Nights are folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age where Scheherazade tells her husband Shahryar different stories for one thousand and one nights;8 a story that inspired both the East and the West: “the East, confected from Western desire and imagination, offered a sumptuous wardrobe – clothing to enchant 1,001 nights.”9 In fact, the fascination of the East has always existed in fashion and the representation of the caftan in Paris, a garment mostly known in Morocco, honored the French couturier Paul Poiret who re-interpreted Orientalism in fashion back at the beginning of the 1900s: “he launched harem pants and tunics as the new fashion, while designing several hundred costumes for a three-act play by Jacques Richepin, Le Minaret, in 1913.”10 So, the link between Paris and the East has always existed where Said describes the East as “wonderfully, ingeniously connected to exoticism, glamour, mystery, and promise.”11 Therefore, although the Oriental Fashion Show is both an Eastern and Western institution, it has exoticized the East in some of its garments while showcasing it in a Western city; an idea that keeps coming back. However, it is true that it exoticized the East, but it also exoticized the West with the idea of Frenchness and La Parisienne discussed previously: “it was not only the West to have fallen in love with the exotic East. On the contrary, East and West maintained to some extent a dialectical relationship, so that also the opposite phenomenon to “Orientalism”, what we might call “Occidentalism”, took place.”12 Consequently, the Oriental Fashion Show became a space of mutual exoticism of both the East and the West; a space welcoming at a time Orientalism and Occidentalism as seen in ‘La Parisienne’ in the look by Saad Ouadrassi, previously. In fact, the show showcased both Western and Eastern looks varying from ‘La Parisienne’ to a complete modest dressing.

2 Fashion in times of crisis: An Exploration of the Role of Education, Social and Cultural Institutions and Designers in Contemporary Lebanese Fashion Industry

by Tatiana Akl

ABSTRACT This research is led at a time where fashion institutions in Lebanon are struggling to survive, in a country facing constant crisis beginning with a revolution, a pandemic and then a massive explosion that shattered the capital. My work will be focused on key fashion institutions such as Creative Space Beirut, a non-profit organization dedicated to establishing a free school in fashion design, and other establishments such as Fashion Trust Arabia, Starch foundation and The Slow Factory, three non-profit associations that aim to provide financial and business support to fashion designers in the MENA region, as well as established and emerging brands that play an important social role in the Lebanese fashion system. Through this analysis, the study aims to demonstrate the role of key players that constitute the Lebanese fashion system.

There is a lack of academic literature regarding the field of fashion in Lebanon and an important factor of change regarding the different aspects of the Lebanese fashion industry that has still not been recognized. It is thus important to use ethnographic methods such as interviews, field notes and participatory observation as primary sources, in order to provide a complete analysis. Through this, I seek to uncover the importance of education and social innovation, the different impacts the field of fashion creates in a country in crisis and to come up with an action plan for the future of these institutions.

2

EXCERPT Lebanon is a small country situated on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean. Prior to 1920 Lebanon had been under Ottoman rule and influence for four hundred years and following World War I it became part of the French Mandate, until its independence in 1943. During the nineteenth century, Beirut and Tripoli were commercially important cities that attracted more and more French and English traders. The Lebanese scholar Nada Sehnaoui has noted that in this period, Christian women, who used to cover themselves in the streets, removed their veils and began to wear Western clothes, in contrast to the Muslim community who were much slower to change their habits.

Fashion has played an important role in the French historical narrative, and Paris was given the title of “Fashion Capital” (La Capitale de la Mode). It is a key place for the production and consumption of fashion. With the introduction of new French fashions at the end of the nineteenth century, the traditional dress for women in Beirut started to disappear. Within Lebanon, the cities evolved towards modernity at different paces because of religious and political differences. The dress of women, based on the same conceptual elements, evolved faster in Beirut than in Tripoli due to trends set by mercantile Christian communities, which leaned toward the West.13 Today, national identity is represented by passports, anthems, flags, and national dress. But in the case of a country like Lebanon, in which national dress has been eliminated and replaced by Western, more specifically French-influenced clothing, national dress cannot represent nationalism without understanding histories of colonialism.

Once described as the Paris of the Middle East, Lebanon has differentiated itself from other countries from the Arab world in terms of a liberal way of life. Beirut, Lebanon’s capital, was considered a powerful cultural and economic hub in the 60s; it has since then been incarnating a perfect mix of culture and tradition between the East and the West and specifically in terms of fashion and clothing. Beirut is home to several international universities. It englobes the most secular, diverse and cosmopolitan areas in Lebanon gathering all of the country’s creatives. Areas such as Gemayze, Mar Mikhael, Hamra, Achrafieh and Down Town Beirut have an urban setting that invites lively exchanges among people of diverse backgrounds and identities.

Internationally renowned universities such as the Lebanese American University, The American University of Beirut, ES Mode and The Académie Libanaise des Beaux Arts are all based in Beirut. These institutions and the Lebanese capital’s professional and youthful population produce a dynamic public culture of cinemas, clubs, cafes, theatres, bookstores, ateliers and shops, thus creating the country’s cultural hub. In the 1960s and 1970s Beirut attracted a large number of tourists, intellectuals, designers, writers, and artists from across the Middle East.

In a country that falls behind in almost everything, fashion seems to thrive.14 With no government support and no accessible education, and with the recent events that have been happening since October 2019 the fashion industry in Lebanon is very much lacking. The Middle East is a region with a thirteen-billion-euro luxury market according to Bain Capital, that did not have a single fashion school until this decade and the very first institute was born in Beirut.15 Across Lebanon, there are only four universities capable of offering their students a full, well-rounded education in fashion design: The Elie Saab School of Fashion Design at the Lebanese American

University (LAU), ESMOD Beirut, and the Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts (ALBA).

Another option exists for forthcoming fashion students in Lebanon which is Creative Space Beirut: The Middle East’s only free fashion design school based in Beirut.

Universities play an increasingly essential role in managing and overseeing the existent fashion field.16

In an article for Forbes, journalist Stephan Rabimov discusses Lebanon’s local fashion scene and the country’s struggle to keep its domestic talent from shifting focus elsewhere. In his article, he highlights the ever-growing prevalence of fashion education in the country: “The young aspiring designers have more choices and chances to learn from diverse global faculty and stay on top of latest trends. ESMOD Beirut, the pillar of Lebanese fashion industry, is adding new courses to keep up with the times. The Lebanese American University offers its own competitive BA in Fashion Design. The international success of local designers brings awareness to this fashion haven. A local proverb claims a person with one plan gets it done while a person with two plans gets confused. The common goal of the Lebanese design community and its diaspora is clear: put Beirut firmly on the world’s fashion map.”17

Unlike fifteen years ago, today students who want to study fashion have different options and institutions to choose from. Lebanese designer Rabih Kayrouz, who is based between Paris and Beirut explained in his interview: “When I wanted to study fashion, I had no choice, I only had the option to come and study in Paris. As I said, Fashion education is very young in Lebanon, it’s only in the last fifteen years that there have been fashion schools in our country”. He continues clarifying that ESMod Beirut was the first institution which offered a fashion design program to open in the region.

Initially, ESMod Beirut’s founder wanted to create a fashion school in the country and due to the lack of resources within the fashion education field and the absence of local educators, had no choice but to appropriate a European, more specifically French structure. This lack of educators in fashion institutions is very common in Lebanon and has been an issue that most of the institutions are dealing with. Kayrouz highlights this problem saying that the Académie Libanaise des Beaux Arts might close its fashion design program because of this: “We had to renew a contract with teachers at Alba and foreign teachers can no longer work in the country because of deflation of the local currency and we do not have people in our country who have the experience to be educators”.

Lebanese fashion schools offer an international approach to fashion education, in the sense where the curriculum follows a Western and American system. These establishments are all affiliated to European or American schools: ESMOD is a French school, Alba is affiliated to La Cambre in Brussels, LAU is in partnership with The London college of Fashion (UAL), and so on. For the last thirty years, internationalization in the sphere of higher education has become an objective trend.18 When asked about this Westernized approach appropriated to the Lebanese institutions, Rabih Kayrouz replied that: “Everything in Lebanon is like that, not just fashion. Today there is great globalization in all trades. And the idea is that a person that is taught in Lebanon, in Paris or in London has the same education so that they can have the choice to travel and

work wherever they want. So, it’s not a question of Westernized, it’s a question of globalization. But then we talk about structure and know-how, especially since fashion education is young in our country. In Lebanon, students and professionals are not trained to be educators, we have extremely well-trained craftsmen who are excellent in making patterns, or in sewing in fashion houses or possibly draw but do not have not enough tools to transmit this knowledge and know-how.”

Fashion education is a learning system that educates fashion designers, producers, tailors and pattern makers. It emerged when the industry was growing and when there was a need for new teaching figures. At first fashion education was provided by the creators and the brands and was taught in-house which was a very functional system and the idea of culture was embedded in these institutions.

What is interesting in Lebanon is that the Lebanese students are taught by international teachers and at the same time are exposed to the local craftsmen.

Education and industry are always intertwined in the fashion system which made it very difficult to differentiate both. Kayrouz argues that “Passing on is quite an art, it’s not just because you know how to make a pattern that you can educate. It’s a completely different approach.”. Today, fashion education is one of the ultimate states of the way in which education has become an industry itself with a purpose of creating critical and innovative minds, as well as, sadly, generating capital.

3 Western Luxury Commodities in Asian Media Identity: The Glocalization Strategies of Transnational Media in the Evolution of Cultural Identity

by Celine Hsu

ABSTRACT With the growing Asian market and the increasing consciousness of the value of diversity and the importance of recognizing local culture, it is a vital task for international brands to approach regional consumers with tailored communication methods.

This research focuses on the representation of Western luxury commodities in Asian fashion media using the ‘glocalization’ concept, analyzing how Western products are integrated within Asian media identities and Asian cultural environments to effectively adapt to local taste. This thesis examines Vogue Taiwan’s relaunch strategies in 2020 as a case study, particularly the issues from March 2020 to October 2020, when the magazine modified its strategies with new aesthetics, content structure, production team and an accentuated Taiwanese identity. Combining visual and textual analysis, this part of the thesis dissects the establishment of the magazine’s identity and its mode of symbolic production. At the same time, this paper reveals Vogue Taiwan’s approach to representations that mingle Asian cultural identity and placements of Western luxury commodities. The case study demonstrates the integration of Western products and Asian production, and the balance between global perspectives and local implementation that adapts the representation of products to the cultural situation they inhabit.

3

Moreover, the case study explores how Vogue Taiwan employs heightened local identity as an instrument to promote Western luxury commodities, mediating foreign material through a native mind and language.

As I argue, the retargeting decision of Vogue Taiwan is not only an approach to elevating its status in competition with other Taiwanese fashion magazines but also, with the rest of Vogue editions in Asia, it is critical to expanding the dialogue to examine the Asian market as a whole. In my research, I will bring in two other Vogue editions in Asia – Vogue Japan, and Vogue China – to serve as a comparison in a further exploration of the coordination between Western products and Asian representations in current times. This part of the research will not only illuminate the power dynamics in the fashion industry within Asian countries but also the ones between the poles of the West and the East. By bringing the two power players’ glocalization strategies into the discussion, this thesis explores the constructions of fashion magazine identities in a more encompassing way, taking into consideration the influence of economic strength, cultural advantages, and the historical context that shapes the relationship between Asian media and Western luxury.

EXCERPT In the March 2020 issue, instead of using celebrities, four Taiwanese models were invited to interpret the first cover of the relaunch issue. Gia Tang, Hilda Lee, Chin Chin Hsu, Giwa Huang, who based their modeling career abroad, were assembled in Taiwan, and the issue was named ‘homecoming’. Vogue Taiwan invited an American photographer, Dan Martensen, to conduct a five-day shooting that encompassed three versions of the cover and thirty-eight inside pages. The images were taken in various spaces, from city streets to the countryside, from traditional markets to restaurants. I argue that the three covers together strongly demonstrate the relaunching intention and aspiration, particularly in terms of the choice of set scenes and model image. Two of the versions more clearly indicate ‘Taiwan’, with one presenting nature scenery and one showing city sites. Moreover, both Tang and Hsu do not have the typical appearance of the ‘cover face’ that I mentioned previously: big eyes, double eyelids, fair skin and so on. Especially with Hsu’s solo cover, her freckles are naturally shown, and she kept her nose ring; both are not the ‘ideal beauty look’ that the magazine likely displayed in the past. The choice of the two models exhibits a turning point in the gender discourse of the magazine, which is marching toward a more diverse prospect.

Nevertheless, it should be noted that, even though the local identity is intensified in some ways, the clothing that the two models wore is all from Louis Vuitton. The luxury brand’s clothing with varied patterns were heavily used to reproduce looks that resemble the retro fashion styles in Taiwan. Besides Louis Vuitton, Saint Laurent’s embroidered dress and Marc Jacobs’s printed dress recall the fashion elements in early Taiwanese fashion. The practice of utilizing Western material to reconstruct the impression of local culture demonstrates the hybrid essence in the act of glocalization implemented in the magazine. Also, it shows the dominant role of Western luxury commodities.

The editor’s letter is followed by a one-page introduction, “On the Cover”, written by the senior fashion managing editor, Yvonne Tsai. Tsai used the concept of ‘outset’

to explain the project of ‘homecoming’: “In the East, we have a very philosophical explanation toward the idea of ‘an outset.’ It represents zero but also one. It seems empty but filled with everything… Taiwan is our outset. Through this project, it makes us realize that: the reason why sometimes we think we are not affluent, is because we are not conscious of how much that we have’.19 Within the thirty-eight pages, locations of the scenes are specifically noted and some are accompanied with a paragraph of introduction, presenting the context of the places. For example, in the picture that Tang and Hsu, dressing in two Balenciaga black suits, posed in the area of Ximending, the location of the rainbow and its meaning were pointed out: “After Taiwan legalized same-sex marriage as the first Asian country, this rainbow street becomes a new attraction embellished with historical significance, symbolizing the advancement of gender equality in Taiwanese society”.20

Moreover, the project includes not only the images of models walking down the streets and squeezing through crowds, but it also encompasses snapshots of street scenes and landscapes. The combination of the text and image presentation makes the project resemble a tourist guide of Taipei. Instead of traveling abroad for exotic ambiance, this time Vogue Taiwan travels back home. The March issue functions as the relaunch pad, bringing the focus back to the local identity. The following issues then succeeded in such a spirit and explored the definition and the value of Taiwanese fashion in various subjects and perspectives.

I argue that this mode of representation implies a sense of auto-exoticism, exhibiting an urge to introduce the local heritage and culture. Winter explains that the act of auto-exoticizing suggests the desire to claim heritage as inalienable, using elements like architecture and displays of material culture to typify the country, culture and people, which demonstrates a nation’s dependence on positioning itself, and being positioned by modernity.21 In the Taiwanese mediascape, the term ‘Taiwan’s glory’ has been heavily used to describe the people or the events that are being paid attention internationally. The use of this word allows the individual achievement to become collective pride. Yang indicates that the term is a way of establishing national consciousness, constructed in the background of complicated political identity and narrowed international space of ‘Taiwanese’.22 The phenomenon of ‘Taiwan’s glory’ is an attempt to build up confidence in the Taiwanese toward their nation, and it also demonstrates the desire to be situated under an international gaze.

Bartlett applies the idea of auto-exoticism in the article investigating Moscow as a periphery in fashion geography. She referred to a quote from Vogue Russia presenting collections of John Galliano and implying the Russian inspiration, saying “We should look at our country with their eyes.” Bartlett then proposes the concept of ‘returning gaze’ to describe Vogue Russia’s practices on deliberately showing ethnic motifs and traditional scenes to highlight the exoticism in the Western gaze.23 As the project was shot by Martensen, there is also a sense of a returning gaze in the image: the readers are invited to look at Taiwan with Martensen’s eyes. In the March issue, the elements used for auto-exoticism do not simply include tradition and history, but also Taiwan’s natural resource and cultural atmosphere. However, unlike the typical case of auto-exoticism foregrounding traditional elements that communicate the exotic sense contrasting to the West, ‘modernity’ is also used as an asset in Vogue Taiwan.

The LGBTQ rainbow scene that highlights the progress of gender equality and human rights demonstrates the pride of democracy development, which is often regarded as the essence of a ‘modern country’. In fact, it is a recurrent phenomenon of propagandizing the freedom and democracy of the country in the Taiwanese media landscape. For example, since 2017, Taiwanese media has regularly reported the results of ‘Freedom in the world’, a survey conducted annually by the American NGO organization Freedom House, as Taiwan has been evaluated as one of the most liberal countries. The news tends to emphasize the progress that the county has made in recent years and also, importantly, how China’s score is far behind. 24 It shows the urgency and eagerness to have the civilization’s progress told. The implication is that Taiwan is winning the game of modernity, being the leader in Asia, and significantly surpassing China. As modernity is often considered a Western product, 25 the practice in the March issue aims to promote both of the values– the local tradition and the international quality. It is worth noting the target audience of this collection of images and introduction. I argue it is appealing to the Taiwanese people to be aware of the diverse values of their country, but also exhibiting them to the international world. The idea of ‘Taiwan’s glory’ is embedded in all the images, and embodied in the visualization of fashion.

4 A Handmade Affair: Exploring the Value of Handmade through French Media Representation of Les Petites Mains (1932-1940)

by Sheri Klak

ABSTRACT This thesis explores how the symbolic value of ‘handmade’ is both conveyed and constructed within the Parisian fashion system, examining representation of les petites mains as a case study. This research evolved from an observation in the resurgence of hand-making values at times of political and economic insecurity. As public awareness for environmental and ethical concerns in the fashion industry continue to rise, values of handmade such as craftsmanship and heirloom-worthy longevity, are being re-evaluated and communicated through visual imagery. By conducting a visual and textual analysis of media discourse in the Parisian fashion system, the concept of handmade is explored as a tool used to communicate intangible values including time, distinction and quality. This thesis will critically analyse the representation of handmade through the makers of the epitome of ‘fashion’, Parisian haute couture. By looking at earlier moments of hand labour representation, a better understanding of the current crisis in production is sought. How has the aesthetic of labour in ateliers been constructed/represented? How was it used at important moments of political and economic insecurity to characterize a valuation of labour?

Haute couture plays an integral role in the rise of the French fashion system, with ongoing social and economic influence. This research will examine two sources of French media representation, in which depictions of les petites mains at work in ateliers are visually and textually analyzed.

4

First, a 1932 volume from a series of books documenting labour in industries across France, La France Travaille, is examined. Second, a 1940 editorial from a popular French fashion magazine, L’Art et la Mode, is analyzed. These two sources characterize a critical time period of political and economic instability, during the interwar years, the Great Depression and widespread labour unrest.

With its inherent qualities of traditional handcrafts and small scale production, how can haute couture’s representation of labour affect ideas of fashion consumption and production practices? As calls for systemic change in the fashion industry towards sustainable fashion practices continue, this thesis argues that luxury brands can, through values of creativity, community and ‘women’s work’, unite the ideals of fashion with those of environmental sustainability.

EXCERPT In his theory of dramaturgy, sociologist Erving Goffman presents the idea that conditions of a stage performance can be applied to social settings and working environments, with publicly viewed ‘front’ regions and ‘back’ regions which are typically out of bounds to an audience. 26 Goffman explains performances as ‘socialised’, or made to fit certain understandings and expectations, and that present an idealized view of a situation. 27 Such perspective resonates in pages of L’Art et La Mode which can be seen as a stage for a story about luxury and labour, presented in the style of a behind the scenes documentary but depicting a subjective point of view. The participatory role of the viewer is as the audience and also positions them in the group of ‘luxe’, having been welcomed into the scene as a sort of personal employer of the hand workers, in the introductory text. As the reader turns through the editorial, over twenty pages compared to two or three, layered images depict the ‘front’ and ‘back’ regions associated with the glamour of a couture salon and the ‘behind the scenes’ labour that produces it. 28

In the first two pages, photographs of women are seen modelling finished haute couture are in the forefront. (fig.12, fig.13) Mannequins dressed in formal wear with luxurious fabrics such as fur, gloves and lavish accessories, are set with ornate furnishings.

The styling, along with the positioning of images, serves to reinforce the hierarchy of product over process.

“The encounters with fashion happen within a space at a given place and do not simply function as backdrops but are pivotal to the meaning and vitality that the experiences of fashion trace.”29

As this quote from Potvin demonstrates, symbolic value is created through the use of atelier spaces in the backdrop of les petites mains at work. Though Potvin is referring to store spaces and backdrops used in physical spaces, the pages of L’Art et La Mode magazine also provide a place for an ‘encounter with fashion’. The reader is consuming a spectacle of fashion, and the workers can be seen as performers, contributing to the symbolic value of fashion through intangible notions of their skilled hand work that separates haute couture from mass production. Positioned behind the mannequin photos, full page images of les petites mains are depicted, in various positions of work and provides many juxtapositions. On the left (img12), women are shown bent over their handwork in the foreground, in contrast to the idle, gloved hands

of the mannequin. The atelier is crowded, with workers both seated and standing, and large industrial lights hanging low from the ceiling. The mannequin appears alone, with dramatic lighting and a single ornate mirror, leaning on the floor and reflecting the aesthetic shapes of the couture details. The backdrops in each of the photos provide distinct experiences for the viewer, highlighting the contrast between the luxury of wearing haute couture and the labour of making it.

Rocamora also refers to Goffman in examining how media and physical locations can overlap to create delineations between ‘luxe et travail’. Parisian neighbourhoods where fashion is sold are luxurious areas, promoted in media and popular with tourists, while production sites represent the ‘hidden face of Paris fashion’, confined to back rooms or less glamorous neighbourhoods.30 By showing the working rooms in a fashion magazine editorial, L’Art et La Mode seems to be presenting this ‘other’ side of fashion.

The narrative, though, is subjective, and the magazine can be seen as constructing juxtapositions with the finished products worn by mannequins- through layout, cropping, lighting, and layering of photographs- in an attempt to show labour whilst actually using it to produce value. These are specifically chosen and shown spaces of haute couture, and serve in a performance to signify the backstage and allow access. Just as front regions are those where ‘finished, polished, and packaged’ end products are presented, here the back region of production is also made to be a product.31

Another aspect of this space construction, using geographical places to make connections with luxury and elevate labour, can be seen in the use of the couturiers’ names. Rocamora refers to a French sociologist’s term ‘griffe spaciale’ as used in relation to a prestigious area in Paris. Just as the space of Paris creates symbolic value for a designer who is associated with it, so too are the spaces of Parisian fashion magazines.

The label indicates a group of stores, business and services encompassing a symbol of prestige and these spaces use this recognizable label to create symbolic value, similar to the signature of an artist.32 In this way the labeling of each page with the couturier’s name can be seen in the same way. The mannequin’s photo overlaps the white border on the bottom of the page, creating the prominent ‘front’ of the house. (img13) Unlike a typical advertisement, the couturier’s name is positioned in the border in large black lettering, and an address in a smaller, lighter font is to the right. The address indicates a Parisian space where the couturier can be found, rather than merely a store. This suggests that the background image, the workroom, can be found at the address, and les petites mains shown in the photo can be seen, their spectacle consumed. Referring to the relationship of fashion and space, ‘griffe spaciale’ can be seen by the use of the couturier’s name showcased like the signature of an artist on a painting, fixing their name and to a product and positioning it in a desirable ‘front’ of Paris- here the pages of a Parisian Fashion magazine.

5 Dialogic and Dialectic Interpretations of Fashion in the Magazine L’Officiel and L’Officiel Art

by Piper McDonald

ABSTRACT The fashion system and the art world have traditionally been viewed in somewhat reductive, binary terms which are rooted in perspectives that overlook the complexity of the relationship as it has evolved throughout history. The dynamics of this relationship often transform when examined through the lens of the magazine, where their respective discourses can be both challenged and reinterpreted through strategies of representation and context. The multipurpose objectives of this thesis begin by tracing a trajectory of moments where the fashion system and the art world have interacted in the space of historical and contemporary magazines like La Dernière Mode, La Gazette du Bon Ton, Artforum, Purple Prose and more. In so doing, this research aims to unpack and question the layers and hierarchies of values which have been presupposed as inherent to their relationship with one another.

A deeper analysis of case studies from the fashion magazine L’Officiel and the art magazine L’Officiel Art, are then used as evidence to reveal the dialogic and dialectic forces at work in the construction of this relationship. This analysis demonstrates that as opposed to functioning within a strict binary, their interactions, elements and actors most often oscillate between the fashion system and the art world, conveying the complexities of this ever-evolving relationship. Although the dynamics between these two fields have already generated a substantial amount of academic literature within fashion studies, this thesis attempts to uncover the strategies that transform them through the magazine.

EXCERPT Fashion editorials remain a prominent feature in the art magazine, and while they retain many of the same characteristics of fashion editorials in the fashion magazine, there are still discrepancies in how they are discursively presented...Whereas in the space of the fashion magazine fashion editorials are most often viewed as being influenced by elements of the art world, in the art magazine they are meant to be viewed as an expression of the artist, thus shifting how they are perceived by the reader.

But removed from their original contexts, the photographs are essentially the same: images which feature garments and/or accessories from the latest runway collections, generally on models which meet typical Western beauty standards, and which credit the designers. The difference therefore lies in how the magazine chooses to integrate these concepts. In the fashion magazine these juxtapositions and referential qualities are often perceived as contrived, whereas in the art magazine they are perceived as being built into the fabric of its pages. Much like Lucien Vogel and Paul Poiret in the early twentieth century, L’Officiel Art commissioned these contemporary artists to produce fashion images for the art magazine.

The very first issue of L’Officiel Art includes a twelve-page spread of photographs by the Iranian visual artist Shirin Aliabiadi entitled “Insoumission Silencieuses: Modernes Rebelles.” Appearing halfway through the magazine, the piece is prefaced as being the first in a recurring series which aims to “show today’s society through the prism of fashion...”33 It continues to communicate that in this first iteration, Aliabadi will apply the principles of her series “Miss Hybrid,” which “[represents] Iranian women in all their modernity, by bringing the exuberance of their coquetry to the limit,” to the fashion-based series. In the images of her original work, “Miss Hybrid”, Aliabadi photographs Iranian women wearing their headscarves meanwhile revealing bits of bleached blonde hair, a bandaged nose (a sign of plastic surgery, which in Iran is viewed as a status symbol), fake tans, earbuds or bubble gum.34 According to the New York Times’ obituary of Aliabadi, who passed in 2018, “Miss Hybrid” was one of her best-known works and “illuminated how young Iranian women adapted mandatory codes of dress and behavior to reflect their own individuality rather than be confined by them.”35

The photographs from the original work, when compared to the photographs produced for L’Officiel Art, reveal an interesting dynamic about the transformation of an artist’s point of view. In the magazine, the photos feature mostly caucasian women with Eurocentric features in high fashion garments, accessories and headscarves. The brands credited in small print are mostly major industry names like Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Prada, Chanel, Miumiu, Cartier, John Galliano, Alexander McQueen, Ralph Lauren, Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Valentino, Cavalli, Christian Dior and more. One of the reasons for the extensive list of credits is the many headscarves and accessories worn by the models, which are significant elements of Aliabadi’s original work. While Aliabadi’s “Miss Hybrid” takes on a different dimension through its materialization in the art magazine as a fashion feature, many of its significant visual characteristics remain the same. Like her original work, each woman photographed in the series sits in front of a black background, portrait style, with their gaze either going past or looking directly at the camera, with all of them wearing headscarves and nose bandages. However, there remains significant differences between the original work and the photographs in the magazine. In one image from the magazine, a young blonde woman wears a multi-color headscarf by Faliero Sarti, a bright yellow Louis Vuitton eyelet jacket, a pink Fendi purse, and white Tom Ford sunglasses atop her headscarf. She looks off to the right of the camera with a blank, somewhat expressionless stare. Comparing this with an image from “Miss Hybrid”, the subject is an Iranian woman whose headscarf and clothing remains uncredited.

5

In most of the images for the magazine, the Iranian women are replaced by caucasian models, with a clear privileging of what is considered to be typically caucasian features: blue eyes, small noses, and lighter skin tones. In the magazine, all of the designer garments and accessories are credited and in close proximity to the image.

The pedestrian clothing of the original works are transformed into ornate, bright, and well-constructed designer pieces. There is an emphasis on the accessories of the models in the magazine images as well, with all of them wearing noticeable bracelets and necklaces from brands like Swarovski and Cartier, which is atypical of the original works. In the original images all of the Iranian women wear very obvious, blonde wigs. In the magazine, many of them wear their natural hair, or wigs in bright colors like pink and blue.All of these contrasting elements between the original work and the images in the art magazine point to the differences of representation between the fashion system and the art world. Compared to her original works, this casting of mostly caucasian models becomes an example of transformation in the space of the magazine, with models being a crucial aspect of the fashion system. Furthermore, Aliabadi’s gaze in the image must be redirected to highlight these garments and accessories over the women themselves, transforming a typical, everyday scarf into its more luxurious version, reminding the viewer of the image’s intent to sell.

Based on their familiarity with Aliabadi’s original work, many readers of this image would have seen this image out of context. This comparison is intended to show how the artist’s point of view works in conjunction with the fashion system and is indicative of the contrapositions between fashion and art. Although the style of the photos is essentially replicated in the pages of L’Officiel Art, they are nevertheless transformed by appearing in this context through the commercial interests they serve when featured in the magazine.

Most of Aliabadi’s work was meant to engage with the paradoxes that modern Iranian women lived with on a daily basis.36 Regarding the garments and accessories used in her photographs, Aliabadi said that while she did not believe that wearing an Hermès scarf constituted a rebellion, it did allow Iranian women to engage in a sort of passive rebellion, where their “concern is not to overthrow the government but to have fun.”37 Aliabadi’s criticism of the fashion industry views these luxury headscarves as a neutralizer to the importance of actual rebellion and socio-political upheaval. This negative perspective is at odds with how they are represented in the magazine, as the rebellious nature of the young women is supposed to be reflected in the bright, colorful garments and accessories which are used to amplify their equally flamboyant headscarves. This levity, and “fun” which Aliabadi speaks about implicates fashion as an alienating factor in these social and political ideologies, and yet she still agreed to create fashion images for L’Officiel Art. This view of fashion as frivolous or secondary, however, ignores its ability to create wider social and cultural change. According to the professor of Humanities and and Communication Arts Karen de Perthuis, the kinds of fashion editorials could elicit ‘an engagement with broader social and cultural issues, work that interrogates the psychological implications of its subject matter, or turns a critical eye upon itself and the industry in which it operates.”38

“Insoumission Silencieuses: Modernes Rebelles” is characteristic of the hybridized nature of the art magazine as an alternative space of representation. This hybridity is an element which has become part of the curatorial paradigm of art magazines and may be considered a strategy by the producers of a magazine….The use of hybridity in rethinking binaries can be applied to the fashion-art binary as well. It is particularly present in “Insoumission Silencieuses,” where various elements of fashion, art, global politics, and feminism all intersect to say something larger about modern culture and society. This feature in particular brings into question how the context of a magazine alters the purpose of an artwork, as well as representing the multiple hybridities present in the art magazine through the models, fashion garments and accessories and the text.

This strategy is articulated in this particular case through the transformation of models, garments, and a text that does not necessarily relate to the images. Through the transformation or adaptation of these characteristics, these editorials evoke this strategy of fashion art.

6 MindLines®: The Ontology of the Croquis in Fashion Illustration Education

by Arianna PadfieldSeleman

a sociological perspective to explore the phenomenology of drawing as an embodied action within fashion illustration, interconnected with mindfulness practice.

In response to the educational tools available, I have created MindLines®: the 21st century fashion plate. The first ‘diverse’ digital fashion illustration manual can be found at www.mindlines.net .

EXCERPT Among a variety of educational products, Fashionary has a more detailed product of fashion figures that exhibits 100 Essential figure template cards for designers. Out of 100 figures, figure 81 is the only croquis that differs in size from their standardized template. Figure 81 is labeled their plus size template. Judging by the scale of figure 81 in comparison to the rest of the standardized croquis templates, it is true to state that the plus size figure is indeed not much larger at all. The diversity surrounding plus size figures is limited in its field as plus size has been categorized again to a ‘standardized’ form of ‘plus size’. There is not a variation of plus size rather just an alternative to ‘thin’ being ‘plus’. The hips appear ‘average’ in size relative to the human form. The breasts have been enlarged and the hips have been enlarged. The plus size croquis appears as the minority in the collective of croquis templates.

Focusing on the face, it is evident that we can assume the croquis is alluding to ABSTRACT a Caucasian ethnicity. Although the croquis is an animated illusion to a human, its The mindful effects on the self mediated through fashion illustration is what I define characteristics mimic a thin, young western doll similar to Barbie illustrations. The as ontological fashioning. Within this term, the activity of drawing the croquis is a imagery pertains to the merchandising of commodified displays of the western female reflection and refraction of the self which inevitably acts within the social construct of body. In relation to models, the “models sell commodities by using their bodies to identity forming practices adjacent to self-fashioning. To appear is to exist, to appear produce commercialized affect in relationship to specific goods: glamour, elegance, in fashion is to exist fashionably, to see appearances informs how we appear our- cool”39, hence the vast array of poses that allude to a complexity of attitudes and selves. The croquis (French for ‘quick sketch’) is the catalyst for all fashion designers; forms of identity for exhibitionism. In Entwistle and Wissinger’s Fashioning Models: it is the rudimentary sketch. The croquis is a fusion between the mannequin and the Image, Text and Industry the definition of ‘American’ beauty was white and Anglohuman emphasizing attitude and narrative silhouette. The fundamentals of fashion Saxon established through the usage of such models repetitively on the runways.40 design education begin with instruction on how to draw the croquis. Despite attention The usage of black female models was established in John Robert Power’s modeling in the media from models, designers, and the public’s scrutiny against one figure agency which sexualized the black female model as ‘other’ to then interject white size within fashion advertisements and campaigns, the industry’s lack of inclusivity female models as a sanitzed version of cleaned up sex appeal for modern consumer stretches as far as educational tools as well. While a traditional croquis in fine arts culture.41 The tokenism of this imagery “...manufactured an appeal that calls out to the is 8-heads in height measuring the proportion of the figure vertically, the fashion viewer, yet remains nonetheless inaccessible.”42 croquis is 9-heads to appear exaggerated, representing a tall slender model. The The research and discussions surrounding the body in fashion illustration, the body in fashion education pertains to only one standardized physique; tall in height croquis, inclusivity, the fashion education market and mindfulness helped to draw and outlandishly slender in form. The market for manuals and tools to instruct how to perspectives evaluating from a critical point of view. The experience of my students draw the body is limited in terms of inclusionary narratives. Surprisingly, the literature and participants helped to bring the analogy between mindfulness and MindLines®. surrounding the croquis in Fashion Studies is underexplored. As a practicing fashion MindLines® is an online educational platform that addresses mindfulness and diverillustrator and educator this finding stems from a personal observation over years sity in body image through fashion illustration tutorials. MindLines® is the first digital of instructing the ‘traditional’ fashion figure. I find that every individual who picks manual that addresses the body of the croquis in a multitude of physiques for fashion up a pencil to draw the human figure tends to mirror themselves. Contrary to the education and learning. fashion illustration template instructed, the figure drawn appears to resemble a direct Currently nine different croquis physiques have been developed. The nature of reflection of the individual’s physique. My aim is to address how fashion illustration these croquis is subject to change as the development of their variety will depend is a representational medium of the self and how the educational industry fails to on MindLines® ongoing subject based research. portray diversity in fashion illustration. Seeking to critically engage, my research takes

6

7 High Fashion Twitter: The Social Media Community Transforming Fashion Criticism

by Katherine Sinner

ABSTRACT The overarching goal of this thesis is to explore a Twitter community self-titled ‘High Fashion Twitter’, or ‘HF Twitter’. I will be studying this group through a fashion criticism lens while observing the differences and similarities with other forms of media. By discussing the history of fashion criticism, I will begin to unravel the layers, perspectives, and goals of this Twitter community. The thesis will discuss some of the historical events within fashion criticism leading up to use of Twitter as a platform for fashion discourse in order to situate a context for the analyses.

Following this history, the thesis will analyze interviews conducted with several prominent members of the HF Twitter community, and then continue with another analysis of the online book they published. This examination of HF Twitter from a historical and critical perspective will contribute a new discussion to the fashion studies field. Additionally, I will discuss the notion of democratization through the words and actions of HF Twitter community members, while also analysing the concept of authenticity. Hierarchical relationships will be studied through the use of Pierre Boudieu’s field theory. This specific theory will allow me to further study HF Twitter in relation to its fashion criticism counterparts (i.e. magazines and blogs).

EXCERPT The second chapter of this thesis will consist of the interview analyses. I conducted interviews with several prominent members of the HF Twitter community. My basis for recognising their prominence is that they are curators of the Temporal Conflation publication. This publication gained recognition from mainstream media outlets such as Vogue, which has led to higher Twitter exposure for the curators. I asked each interviewee a set of questions, and this chapter will attempt to analyze the responses with a focus on theoretical frameworks such as Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory, and concepts discussed by Agnès Rocamora. Depending on the interviewee’s preferences, the interview method was either via email or a Zoom video meeting.

7

The first interview that I conducted as a part of my methodology is with prominent HF Twitter member Chloe Kennedy (@LeoInLaurent). It was conducted via email. She is from Houston, Texas and is twenty years old. She is studying English and education at Texas A&M University. A HF Met Gala coordinator, she discusses some of the aspects and inner workings of the HF Twitter realm. In discussing the requirements for becoming a HF Twitter member, Kennedy stated, “There are not any formal requirements to be a member of high fashion twitter. So, as long as you enjoy fashion and engage with the community I would consider you a member.” In analyzing this interview, Bourdieu’s ‘field of cultural production’ theory will come into play. Kennedy’s account of gatekeeping within HF Twitter can be connected to the hierarchization of societies, as articulated by Bourdieu: The science of the literary field is a form of analysis situs which establishes that each position - e.g. the one which corresponds to a genre such as the novel, or within this, to a sub-category such as the society novel or the ‘popular novel’ - is subjectively defined by the system of distinctive properties by which it can be situated relative to other positions; that every position, even the dominant one, depends for its very existence, and for the determinations it imposes on its occupants, on other positions constituting the field; and that the structure of the field, i.e. the space of positions, is nothing other than the structure of the distribution of the capital of specific properties which governs success in the field and the winning of external or specific profits (such as literary prestige) which are at stake in the field. 43

Bourdieu is stating that there is a hierarchy within these communities, each member judged by a more dominant member. If Kennedy is considered a prominent member, being that she is a member of the Temporal Conflation44 team, then Kennedy’s acceptance of somebody could therefore grant them membership of the community.

That said, acceptance into HF Twitter by one of these more established members is not necessary. According to several interviewee responses, somebody need only post about fashion to be considered a HF Twitter member. It is the mere interest in fashion that is able to qualify somebody. However, recognition by a prominent member can elevate the status of other members - which is relevant to the hierarchies discussed previously. She values engagement with other members and overall enjoyment of fashion. Although in the quote above Bourdieu speaks specifically of novels, his theory can be applied to social media platforms such as Twitter. As blogs became popular forms of writing, they later progressed to include Twitter as a form of microblogging.

Twitter possesses a similar sense of the field mentioned by Bourdieu. This field constitutes players (or the members of the community) who engage with each other in a discourse - specifically a fashion discourse, here. These established members typically hold a sense of power or authority - however intentional or not. The newcomers will often need their validation in order to ascend through the hierarchy. Validation can be expressed when a popular member of the community shows attention to the other user by either following their profile, liking/retweeting their tweet, or addressing them directly with a response. The acceptance of a member by the dominant players is how one crosses the imaginary boundary into the community. This could be a form of gatekeeping, which Kennedy has witnessed within the HF Twitter community.

8

8 Silent Values of the South African Fashion System: Apartheid, Race, and Inclusion

by Tiffany Van Boom

Additionally, Kennedy explains that the point of the HF Met Gala in 2020 was to democratize fashion, making luxury garments and exclusive events such as the Met Gala more available to people. The idea of democratization parallels that of Bourdieu’s field theory because we return to a discussion of the field. The celebrity history behind the Met Gala demonstrates the significance of social capital to the event. It is an exclusive event which can only be attended via invitation. And those who receive invitations are typically celebrities, models, or wealthy socialites. Similarly, fashion is historically a highly hierarchical community composed of the social and economic elite - often those who can afford to buy luxury products. Even in instances of ‘bubble-up’ when street styles and subcultural styles are adapted by the fashion industry, those adaptations are often sold by big brands at higher price points. One example of this is Marc Jacobs’ S/S 1993 grunge collection for Perry Ellis, which led to the explosion of the grunge trend. “He was later followed by such designers as Calvin Klein, Christian Francis Roth, Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Anna Sui, and Versace who all came out with layered and vintage looks made out of luxury fabrics.”45 In this way, trends originating on the streets are often absorbed by high fashion brands and integrated into luxury fashion. The presence of bloggers at fashion week also exemplifies this concept.46

This discussion of the hierarchical nature of fashion, correlates to Joanne Entwistle and Agnès Rocamora’s study of London Fashion Week using Bourdieu’s theory in “The Field of Fashion Materialized: A Study of London Fashion Week.”47 This essay presents ABSTRACT a materialization of field theory in motion. They describe the people attending London This research evolved from the observation of the need for more diversity with respect Fashion Week as, “quite literally in spatial terms, all the key agents and institutions to models in fashion and the media in 2020. The year has been recognised by journalists within the field of fashion. These key people include designers, models, journalists and and prominent figures in the fashion industry as one in which the voices of the marbuyers from stores around the world, fashion stylists and celebrities, as well as less ginalised called for significant change. As the discussion around the need for more important figures, such as fashion students, who exist on the margins of the field”48 diversity continues in popular media, I will critically analyse how the complex legacies The hierarchy present within fashion is visible. of apartheid are shaping the contemporary modelling industry in South Africa, and how the experiences of models of colour, with a particular focus on coloured identity, adds to this narrative within the industry. Does the conversation about race and inequality in the modelling industry enable more inclusivity with respect to women of colour? Ultimately, this research will investigate how marginalised and tokenized models working in the industry experience the business of modelling and whether the industry’s underlying silent values affect the modelling process within South Africa.

My research will include interviews with models of colour, who recount their experiences of working in the fashion industry. The media representation of these models will be examined through a post-apartheid lens to create a visual and textual analysis. Lastly, it will include an account of my personal experience as a coloured model in the South African fashion industry. Through this research, I seek to ascertain whether the fashion system in South Africa operates in a way that limits the success of non-white models. I will also highlight the fleeting conversations that address the issue of diversity and inclusion but only result in minimal change and the industry continuing to capitalize on the tokenized model.

EXCERPT This research analyses the experiences of models in the South African Modelling industry, and more specifically explores the experience of being on set for modelling shoots, campaigns, editorials and behind the scenes.

Here I will analyse the Instagram pages of the models chosen to participate in this research to investigate the ways models represent themselves on social media, the ways they control the reciprocation, and how their audience engages with them. The analysis of Instagram pages will be explored in combination with the interpretation of interviews with the fashion model participants, allowing the participants to reflect on their Instagram posts for a new interpretation for myself and the reader. The aesthetic and emotional labour required of these models is highlighted, showcasing the particular aspects these models attain to create a successful online presence and build a successful career in today’s industry, which is constantly shifting.

Entwistle and Wissinger state that “the successful models are the ones who take on the responsibility of managing their bodies, becoming ‘enterprising’ with respect to all aspects of their embodied self”49. Being responsible for managing themselves involves dedication through exercise, style choices, makeup looks, skincare and the manner in which they present themselves online. Models appear as both an index and distortion of reality, like a contradictory medium in the fashion world by being in a constant state of transformation but remaining themselves.50 Each model is signed to an agency and keeps up a certain level of aesthetic labour to appeal to more followers, clients and bookers. When it comes to jobs, this entails each individual showing certain capacities, qualities and attributes that enable them to “look good and sound right” for the job.51 Interview respondent, Ruth Jantjies, mentioned in her experience during a conversation on set, an individual had assumed she was not from Cape Town because of her accent and could not place her as a coloured person. 52 The manner in which one speaks and carries oneself shows a certain amount of professionalism to clients, but it entails an enormous amount of emotional labour in order to consistently remain invested in one’s ‘brand’ (which is oneself) on social media platforms. The coloured identity in itself is mixed but leaves individuals in bilingual households which affects speech, slang and mixing of languages. Depending on the area one was brought up in or the first language in the household, accents can differ and these usually make an impact with clients because the white accent has been considered the proper manner of speaking until now where individuals have rejected being outcast based on language. As a fashion model I invest a lot of time and effort in making my social media platforms look presentable, eye-catching and aesthetically pleasing while trying to remain true to who I am. Online presence can impact your opportunities to receive jobs and today, the more interaction, quality content and recent work seen, the better the chances of being booked for a job. With the world having no choice but to shift to online because multiple castings cannot be hosted due to the pandemic, social media presence appears to be one of the biggest influences besides the portfolio.

Ruth Jantjies is a very interesting candidate in this research because of her ethnic background and her place in the modelling industry. She identifies as a coloured woman, is twenty-two years old from Cape Town, South Africa and is represented by Topco Models as a curve model. During the interview, Jantjies called herself a ‘cape coloured’ which is slang for being part of the coloured community but also extends to show how coloureds differentiate what ‘type’ of coloured they claim to be.53 She discussed that her heritage extends to the indigenous Khoisan who are historically known to be the real owners of the country before colonialism invaded the land,54 thus giving her a different look.

Khoisan populations were enslaved and cast to the margins of society before the arrival of the European settlers in the seventeenth century, and these groups eventually became classified as ‘coloured’.55 Having this as part of her heritage explains why she has been mistaken for black many times, but it is something she finds herself constantly correcting because even when being casted she is not asked whether she is coloured but is just assumed to be black.56 After correcting directors, stylists, make-up artists and other models, stating that she is coloured, does it really make a difference once she has been cast for the identity they had assumed her to be?

Jantjies’ Instagram page highlights are an immediate display of the work and campaigns she has been a part of which illustrates the success she has had in the business thus far. By showcasing brands one has worked with, it shows that the model is highly sought after by brands because their role in commodification and branding is multifaceted.57 The online presence displays a way of commodifying themselves, appearing as if they live the life, producing the most fashionable look through clothing worn, parties/events attended58 . Wissinger discussed that self-commodification is a way of promoting a lifestyle and particular pattern of consumption. Jantjies’ different consumption interests are displayed such as her personal beliefs and her background as a medical student and a self-taught make-up artist and photographer. She also self-commodifies by displaying PR drops from companies, attending important events.

These aspects display a certain pattern of consumption being influenced on her followers as well, because by displaying this lifestyle she is selling it to her followers.

Entwistle and Wissinger explain that the model becomes a brand and the “model brand is enacted through specific objects, actions and signs”. Through this the model becomes a combination of all these aspects, becoming something the models perform and is performed by them.59 In Jantjies bio it recently changed to ‘baberutth the brand’, labelling herself as a brand in a literal sense for her followers, indicating she sees herself as an entity comprising more than just her look and body. A brand immediately relates to being some sort of object but is also a mark of origin and identity;60 by branding herself, in a sense she is creating an object of herself. As Entwistle and Wissinger state, a brand is also a “largely semiotic construction” which indicates it has meanings within language codes that secure a deeper ideology.61 This allows the viewer to interpret the content and the person in whatever way they please and relate to it in their own way. Models are usually told to separate their personal life from their work life and to showcase both differently, insinuating that these are completely different people. When asked why this sudden change to making herself a brand, Jantjies stated that a brand is just someone portraying themselves in a certain way but standing for something as well: “A lot of the times you see Adidas as a brand or whatever, Nike as a brand but at the end of the day, a brand is just something that, or someone that, is portraying themselves in a specific way but also stands for something you know? And I didn’t realize that people are so inspired by what I do and by the things that I’ve accomplished. I realized that I… and it clicked for me the other day, that I need to… because I think for me it also was such a big thing that I didn’t realize that actually ‘Ruth you’re doing so well for yourself, people are inspired by you’ and I don’t like the concept of me being an influencer but if people see me as a brand and know that I stand for something.”

9 Constructed Identities: The Role of Tastemakers in the Early Twenty-First Century Fashion Industry

by Svita Sobolyeva

ABSTRACT This thesis explores the role of a contemporary tastemaker and what it takes to become one, specifically in the fashion industry today. With the increased popularity of PR agencies offering to refine and glamorize clients’ identity, it has become more complicated than ever to define who is behind the profile of a public persona. To understand and explain the increased interest in the notion of self-branding, which has rapidly gained popularity over the last decade, I will explore Paris-based public relations agency AVEC and interview two members of the team, discussing their perception of tastemakers and the importance of one’s social media performance in the fashion industry. This thesis further explores the idea of tastemaker through the persona of a contemporary tastemaker, Olivier Zahm, who is editor-in-chief of Purple Magazine, one of the most influential fashion publications, and who has successfully constructed his ‘self’ solely based on personal expertise.

This thesis will also analyse the differentiation between a tastemaker and an influencer and what function the figure of a tastemaker plays in today’s digital landscape. The rationale of this thesis begins with the observation of today’s social media and the ways in which it has encouraged users to establish ‘fake’ identities in pursuit of attention and personal recognition. Attempts to belong to specific communities and ways of constructing the self within these circles is another important issue. In this research I seek to reveal who is actually a tastemaker today and to what extent one may mediate one’s ‘self’ to correspond to the global community’s ‘needs’, while maintaining one’s uniqueness when performing selective self-representation.

EXCERPT A real tastemaker is not an influencer: it’s an artist who is able to change the way we feel, we see the world, and we want to move forwards. He gives us direction for the immediate future and for several generations to come. An example would be: Francis Bacon. He has changed the way we see ourselves, created a color palette and forced us to accept the torture of being a human, or yourself. To me a good

9

artist changes culture, which as a consequence – changes ‘taste’. In other words, there are no tastemakers per se, there are only artists. Another example would be Ricardo Boffil, a Spanish architect, who has changed the way we see classicism and fiction in urban space. He has changed our urban taste.62 – Olivier Zahm

In an interview with editor-in-chief of Purple magazine, photographer, art critic and curator, Olivier Zahm, I discussed his attitudes towards social media and the ways he understands the role of a contemporary tastemaker. Information extracted from the interview will be assessed through a close textual analysis of his answers, in connection to journalistic articles, which have been written on him in the past.

Zahm’s description of a tastemaker builds a strong contrast with AVEC’s idea of one, helping to define the role of an ‘authentic’ tastemaker. Zahm describes a tastemaker as a cultural driving force and to a certain extent even a visionary. “It’s an artist who is able to change the way we feel, we see the world, and we want to move forward. He gives us direction for the immediate future and for several generations to come.”63 Such a description outlines a person who is highly influential, not just to his followers but also to his generation on a global scale. This characterization of a tastemaker cannot be applied to a user who performs in the digital space for the purposes of self-promotion and participates in the cycle of the ‘attention economy’, but an individual who may be seen as a cultural driving force, providing long-term heritage for his ‘community’, on- and most importantly offline.64 To discuss whether one is able to have such a significant footprint in the digital space today, I will also look at contemporary artists such as Cindy Sherman, Jeff Koons, Richard Prince and others – to assess their online engagement in relation to their actual positioning in the art world.

Olivier Zahm numerously refers to tastemakers as artists in his interview: “There are no tastemakers per se, there are only artists. To me a good artist changes culture, which as a consequence – changes ‘taste’.”65 Earlier in the paper, tastemakers were described as ‘cultural mediators’66 and ‘micro celebrities’,67 people who refine and distribute culture. Drawing a parallel between a tastemaker and an artist, underpins an idea of social media being perceived as an art space of its own, where a regular user can be considered as an artist. As discussed by Paula Uimonen in ‘Visual Identity in Facebook’, while one is constructing his identity online, he may be perceived as a sort of a modern visual artist.68 He does not just share his life online, but he refines his ‘self’, according to his vision and aesthetics. Applying Turner’s theory of ‘cultural mode of framing’, when one mediates his ‘self’ in the digital space, it can be described as a highly reflexive and introspective mode of framing. Users who digitally curate expressions of their selfhood, place themselves in the context of a global, interconnected society, performing their ‘identity’ as a form of art.

Later, users can be divided into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ artists, depending on their ability to share their vision clearly, consistency, distinctiveness and the value they are bringing to the online community. Such distinction can be also explained by one’s social, economic, geographical capital, and so on.

If one suggests that every user can potentially be perceived as an artist – does it dissolve distinctions between fine and digital art, or makes art less of a privileged concept if it is accessible for anyone?

As Olivier Zahm shares in the interview, one’s ability to transmit himself online is as important for him as the model of the shoes they wear and the way the haircut is done: “There is no difference between their online identity with the kind of shoes they wear, or hair cut, or words they use. This (meaning one’s social media profile) is a clear indication of their level of culture and sophistication.”69 Every small fragment of a persona is a part of his identity puzzle, which in aggregate becomes the art of being a human being.

I may suggest that according to the answers collected from Zahm, he looks at existence as a whole form of art on its own, but it is not possible to say that every user registered on Instagram has the same approach, which questions the relatability of his definition of a tastemaker. A large number of people might use social media for various other purposes, rather than transmitting their vision of the world. Which is why it is important to mention that in this thesis, I am mostly focusing on creative industry individuals.

In this research, I will look at a few of the most influential artists today and the extent to which their power varies from on and off the screen. Figures such as Cindy Sherman (339k followers), Richard Prince (53.2k followers), Damien Hirst (744k followers) and Jeff Koons (431k followers) are considered some of the top 30 most influential artists in the world today, according to Artland.70 However, their Instagram following is far from that of world-leading influencers such as Kim Kardashian West (208 million), Chiara Ferragni (22.7 million), Bella Hadid (39,1 million) and so on.71 Such contrasting numbers question if one’s digital power can be equally comparative to that in real life. In other words, does for example Bella Hadid have something that Cindy Sherman does not, or possibly is it something that Sherman does not require to maintain her influence? I believe that if one contains a strong digital power today on Instagram, it does not necessarily mean it will be as durable and solid as one’s generated power through the works of art, which for example are displayed and will remain on site in the leading museums of the world, even when the artists will leave. The number of followers does not legitimize one’s influence off the screen and often works to the contrary, where well-established figures in the creative world have created their agency long before social media was a common space for self-representation.

10 The Future of Fashion Magazines in China: From Print to Douyin

by Jingxin Wang ABSTRACT This thesis explores how fashion publication companies shift weight from printed magazines to digital and social media in China. The research arises from the increased use of TikTok/Douyin, one of the fastest growing short video apps in fashion and media since 2018, the year TikTok had its global release. As fashion magazines could not solely rely on print for their revenue, they gradually had to adopt social media platforms as their new pathways to their consumers. This research will examine how this shift was generated, in order to understand the differences between printed fashion magazines and digital media in terms of business models and content.

Although discussion around the emergence of social media like TikTok (Douyin) in the fashion industry has come to be widely addressed, there remains a lack of academic literature that analyzes the integration from printed publications to social media content within the fashion industry. I will firstly define traditional fashion magazines and ‘new media’, and then distinguish fashion journalism and advertisements, while exploring how advertising works in different platforms. The research will comprise case studies of L’Officiel China, as I have interned at the company; interviews with my former colleagues; and a series of discursive analyses of media studies. Through this research, I seek to reveal how the distinction between fashion journalism and advertising has been further dissolved by the rise of new media. By using new media platforms like Douyin/TikTok, fashion magazines are able to provide more possibilities and exposure for young talents to reach more audiences. It is a challenge that fashion publications are facing — balancing the quality of production while adopting this new mechanism.

EXCERPT Angelababy is a Chinese model and actress who has a net worth of 40 million dollars.72 While she has achieved success in leading and supporting roles in films and TV shows, she is also known for her online presence on Chinese social media, as she has more than 103 million followers on Weibo. Like Jennifer Lawrence and Natalie Portman, Yang was appointed as the brand ambassador for Dior in 2017, quickly after Maria Grazia Chiuri joined the House of Dior.73 Because the cover shoot of Angelababy was sponsored by

10

Dior, most of the outfits featured in the shoot were picked from Dior’s Fall/Winter 2020 collection. Senior Fashion Editor, Guo Chao was in charge of Angelababy’s cover shoot, and he decided to use Chen Man as the photographer for this shoot. Chen Man is a wellknown Chinese female photographer, and she has previously worked with Angelababy.

During the shooting, there was also a video team, taking footage of the photo shoot and video recording the interview with Angelababy. As soon as the New Media department received the footage, they edited the video along with texts and images produced by the editorial team, and posted it on L’Officiel China’s social media accounts on the same day the printed magazine was released.

For the printed magazine, the cover story includes a cover photo and twelve pages of photo and interview with six looks. In the twelve pages of Angelababy, there are ten pages of eight photos and two pages of interview. On the cover, Angelababy is positioned in the center of the image, styled with a brown long sleeve dress and a black leather belt, and long metal and pearl earring, from Dior Fall/Winter 2020 collection. The photo presents the illusion brought by mirroring, using light and shadow to make the portrait as if in a multidimensional space. Though the photographer created the sense of illusion, products of Dior are shown clearly in the center of the image. The blue and gold color blocks and the brown skirt are fused, distorted, and stretched to form an image of the wheel of time. Angelababy’s hair was blown by the wind, her skirts spread out, and her posture was made to mimic Venus from The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli, echoing Dior’s brand aesthetics of elegance and femininity. The theme of the issue “抽象-探索美的本质,” (Abstract, Exploring the Essence of Beauty) is placed on the bottom left of the image, and the sub-title “Angelababy 时间之握” (Angelababy The Grip of Time) is placed on the top right of the image. The interview with Angleababy shares some stories behind her new film and her thoughts on her personal life.

On the other hand, the Douyin video shows a dynamic Angelababy along with her voice. The video shows the shooting through montage, accompanied by music and her words. Audiences are able to get a glimpse of the process of the shoot, and to hear her own voice, which gives the audience the sense of “behind the scenes.” In the video, she said, “I am a person who will try to let go of the pressure, because I think it will be more difficult to move forward if the pressure is too heavy. To live your own life with a light heart. I think that for every person you seem to be strong, he or she must have experienced something to make him or her strong now”.74

The audio content was not included in the text in the printed magazine, though it highlights the key message she wanted to demonstrate in the interview. The intention behind the “encoding”of the image, in other words, “behind the scenes” footage, communicates the authorial intention. The printed magazine has a larger layout, in addition to pictures, there is also text that tells her completed story. Due to the limited timespan of a Douyin video, it is difficult to present all the information conveyed by the interview. Although the model, garments and venues were exactly the same, through different shooting teams and shooting methods, Douyin and the printed magazines eventually presented different content. The printed magazine is only able to show each look in one page, while the video shows how the clothes look when they are in motion, and it also shows the details of the clothing more closely.

The video is able to show the texture, cut, front and back of the garment. Eugenie Shinkle argues that digital technology changes the way users view fashion and the body. Differences between virtual and physical bodies, haptic associations and optic visuality, and augmented reality are ways in which the viewer can interact with fashion in a digital world and draw pleasure from it. However, Shinkle argues these are nothing other than innovative forms of advertising that “use visual spectacle as a portal through which to shape, normalize and commodify the body.” Wearable computing, according to Shinkle, is instead challenging digital transformations of the materiality of the body, as it invites users to actively transform the body and thus challenge normative ideals of the body imposed by the fashion industry. In the magazine, each photo will be marked with the brand appearing in the look, which helps the brands to promote their products. However, there is no brand mentioned in the Douyin video, and due to the software settings, after watching the video readers usually quickly swipe to the next one.

Endnotes 1

Agnès Rocamora, Fashioning the City: Paris, Fashion and the Media (New York: I.B. Tauris, 2009), 125.

2 Ibid., 118.

3 Peter Burke, Cultural Hybridity (Polity Press, 2009), 51.

4 Michaela Wolf, “The Third Space in Postcolonial Representation,” Changing the Terms: Translating the Postcolonial Era (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2000).

5 Homi K. Bhabha, The Location of Culture (New York: Routledge, 1994), 56.

6 Laura Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”, Screen 16, no.3 (Autumn 1975): 6–18.

7 Janet Arnold, “The Pattern of a Caftan,” Costume 2, no.1 (June 1968), 49.

8 Muhsin Mahdi, The Arabian Nights (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1990).

9 Richard Martin and Harold Koda, Orientalism: Visions of the East in Western Dress (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994), 9.

10 Barbara Pozzo, “Fashion between Inspiration and Appropriation”, Laws 9, no.1 (February 2020), 4.

11 Edward Said, Orientalism (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1987), 340.

12 Pozzo, “Fashion between Inspiration and Appropriation,” 4.

13 Nour Majdalany Hakim, "Lebanese Women’s Dress," Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion: Central and Southwest Asia, edited by Gillian VogelsangEastwood, 205–208. (Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2010).

14 Lynn Sheikh Moussa, “Undressing the Lebanese Fashion Design Industry: Education, Support, and Misconceptions,” Beirut Today, 6 May 2019. https://beirut-today.com/2019/05/06/ lebanese-fashion-design-industry/ 15 Godfrey Deeny, “Beirut’s latest Renaissance: a proper fashion school,” Fashion Network, 14 November 2018. https://uk.fashionnetwork.com/news/Beirut-s-latestrenaissance-a-proper-fashion-school,1035540.html 16 Moussa, “Undressing the Lebanese Fashion Design Industry: Education, Support, and Misconceptions”.

17 Stephan Rabimov, “Haute Beirut: Lebanon Reinvents Itself As A Fashion Destination,” Forbes, 6 May 2019. https:// www.forbes.com/sites/stephanrabimov/2019/05/06/ haute-beirut-lebanon-reinvents-itself-as-a-fashion-de stination/?sh=5e278e2177d4#133cf25777d4 18 Anna A. Muravyeva and Alexander Gorylev, “International Joint Educational Programmes as a Tool for Internationalisation of Higher Education,” Integration of Education 3, no. 20 (2016): 310–319.

19 Vogue Taiwan, March 2020 20 Ibid.

21 Tim Winter, “Auto-Exoticism: Cultural Display at the Shanghai Expo,” Journal of Material Culture 18, no.1 (March 2013): 69–90.

22 Wen-Rui Yang, The Construction of Nationalism in the Usage of ‘Taiwan’s Glory’ on Taiwanese Media, 2017.

23 Djurdja Bartlett, “Moscow on the fashion map: between periphery and centre,” Studies in East European Thought 63, (2011): 111–121.

24 Shiou-Huei Lee, “Taiwan’s score of freedom exceeds the U.S, jumping to the most freedom place in the world for the first time in ten years,” The News Lens. 1 February 2017; “The Report of Freedom in the World: Taiwan 93 points, China 11 points,” Radio Taiwan International. 5 February 2019; Lin, Shu-Jia, “Freedom in the World: Taiwan 94 points, the second in Asia. China only 9 points, one of the last in the world,” The Newtalk. 4 March 2021.

25 Eric R. Wolf, Europe and the people without history (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982).

26 Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, (Garden City, N.Y. : Doubleday, 1959).

27 Erving Goffman, "The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life," Urban Life, (1956) 15:1,.22-23.

28 Agnès Rocamora, Fashioning the City: Paris, Fashion and the Media, (London: I. B. Tauris & Company, 2009), 51-52 29 John Potvin, Inserting Fashion Into Space. The Places and Spaces of Fashion,1800-2007, (London: Routledge, 2008), 1.

30 Agnès Rocamora, Fashioning the City, (I. B. Tauris & Company, 2009), 50.

31 Agnès Rocamora, Fashioning the City, (I. B. Tauris & Company, 2009), 52.

32 Agnès Rocamora, Fashioning the City, (I. B. Tauris & Company, 2009), 50.

33 “Insoumission Silencieuses: Modernes Rebelles” in L’Officiel Art, Issue 01, 188.

34 Ibid.

35 Katherine Seelye, “Shirin Aliabadi, Iranian Artist With a Focus on Women, Dies at 45” in The New York Times, October 19, 2018, https://www.nytimes. com/2018/10/19/obituaries/shirin-aliabadi-dead.html 36 Ibid.

37 Ibid.

38 Karen de Perhuis, “People in fashionable clothes: Street style blogs and the ontology of the fashion photograph,” in Fashion Theory 20:5, 2016, 529.

39 Joanne Entwistle and Elizabeth Wissinger, Fashioning Models: Image, Text and Industry (London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2013), 37.

40 Ibid.

41 Ibid., 38.

42 Ibid.

43 Pierre Bourdieu, The Field of Cultural Production (Cambridge: Polity, 1993), 30 44 Temporal Conflation is the name of the publication produced by members of the HF Twitter community, in tandem with the Met Gala in 2020.

45 Shannon Bell Price, “Grunge’s Influence on Fashion,” Love to Know, 2021. https://fashion-history.lovetoknow.com/fashionhistory-eras/grunges-influence-fashion 46 Brent Luvaas. Street Style: An Ethnography of Fashion Blogging. (London: Bloomsbury Publishing. 2016).

47 Joanne Entwistle and Agnès Rocamora, “The Field of Fashion Materialized: A Study of London Fashion Week.” Sociology 40, no.4. (2006): 735-751.

48 Ibid.

49 Joanne Entwistle and Elizabeth Wissinger, “Keeping up Appearances: Aesthetic Labour in the Fashion Modelling Industries of London and New York,” The Sociological Review (Keele) 54, no.4 (January 2017): 774.

50 Stephanie Neda Sabdre-Orafai, “Developing Images: Race, Language and Perception in Fashion-model Casting,” in Fashion As Photograph: Viewing and Reviewing Images of Fashion (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), 144.

51 Ibid., 775.

52 Ruth Jantjies Interview.

53 Ruth Jantjites Interview.

54 Giuliana Iannaccaro, Sudafricani, coloured, griqua: i cerchi concentrici di David’s Story, Other Modernities (Milan: Universita degli Studi di Milano), 123.

55 Ibid., 122.

56 Ruth Jantjites Interview.

57 Elizabeth Wissinger, “Modeling Consumption: Fashion modelling work in contemporary Society,” Journal of Consumer Culture 9, no.2 (July 2009): 274.

58 Ibid., 274.

59 Joanne Entwistle and Don Slater, “Models as Brands: Critical Thinking About Bodies and Images” in Fashioning Models: Image, Text and Industry, 17.

60 Ibid., 23.

61 Ibid., 23.

62 Svitlana Sobolyeva, “Interview With Olivier Zahm,” no. 1 (2020).

63 Ibid.

64 Susie Khamis, Lawrence Ang, and Raymond Welling, "Self-Branding, ‘Micro-Celebrity’ and The Rise Of Social Media Influencers," Celebrity Studies 8, no.2 (2016): 191–208.

65 Ibid.

66 Joanne Entwistle, The Aesthetic Economy Of Fashion. 2nd ed. (Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2009).

67 Brent Luvaas, "What Does A Fashion Influencer Look Like? Portraits Of The Instafamous," Fashion, Style and Popular Culture 4, no.3 (2017): 341–363.

68 Paula Uimonen, "Visual Identity In Facebook," Visual Studies 28, no.2 (2013): 122–135.

69 Svitlana Sobolyeva, Interview With Olivier Zahm, no. 1 (2020) 70 Shira Y. Wolfe, "30 Modern & Contemporary Artists | Artland Magazine," Artland Magazine, 2017. https://magazine.artland. com/30-popular-contemporary-artists/.

71 Ibid.

72 Lisa Cam, “5 things you should know about Angelababy,” South China Morning Post, 28 February 2020. https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/ celebrity/article/3052609/5-things-you-shouldknow-about-angelababy-chinas-weibo 73 Yiling Pan, “Dior's Controversial New Ambassador Notably Absent from Cruise Collection Show,” Jing Daily, 18 May 2017. https://jingdaily.com/angelababycontroversy-escalates-dior-cruise-show/ 74 我是一个会尽量放下压力的人。因为我觉得就是如果 压力过重的话，就会更难向前走。用一颗平常的心去 过自己的生活，我觉得就是每一个你看似坚强的人，他 一定是经历过一些什么才会让他变成现在的坚强。

MA Fashion Studies The New School Parsons Paris The MA in Fashion Studies at The New School Parsons Paris is the first master’s program in its field in France and one of only a handful worldwide. By situating fashion as a manifold phenomenon, the program casts light on the relationship between practice and theory as students explore the interdisciplinary theories and methodologies that have shaped the field of fashion studies while also discussing their applications within the fashion industry. The program investigates the different segments and meanings of fashion as creative and multifaceted industry from haute couture to fast fashion; from representation to dissemination; as a phenomenon dealing with identity, race, and gender; as an everyday act of consumption; as a material object; as an image; and as an artistic practice. The program also challenges students to engage with contemporary concerns such as sustainability, fashion curatorial practice, globalization, technological innovation, and digital fashion futures.

Parsons Paris Established in 1921 as the first American art and design school in Paris, Parsons Paris today is an international community of students and distinguished faculty committed to tackling the challenges of an evolving world with creativity and intellectual rigor. Parsons Paris offers innovative English language bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in fashion, strategic design management, and art, media, and technology. Curricula bring together the globally renowned pedagogy of Parsons School of Design and the unique resources of Paris, with its heritage brands, forward-looking entrepreneurial culture, and access to Europe and beyond. Together with Parsons in New York and The New School — Parsons’ parent university — Parsons Paris maintains a network of local and global universities, cultural institutions, and organizations and businesses. Inspired by this dynamic city and a collaborative, interdisciplinary culture, graduates go on to pioneer new industries and pursue creative careers in Paris and worldwide.

Colophon Coordination & Concept: Marco Pecorari Art Direction & Graphic Design: Monica Fraile Morisson Editing: Morna Laing Assistants: Jun Chen, Renata Hernandez, Ilaria Trame Communication: Lisa Sarma with Jun Chen, Renata Hernandez, Ilaria Trame Printer: Printnewspaper, Paris 2021 A special thanks to: Allison Brown, Karen Deckter, Virginie Grillet, Justin Morin, Antoine Bucher, Arnaud Hedin, Ruthie Kroah, Yune Jung, Fabienne Maitre, Edward Mills, Peutisha, Loren Ringer, Ivan Twohig All rights reserved.

The images in this catalogue may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form. We attempt to clear all copyrights but if anyone needs to claim the copyrights, please contact: Marco Pecorari, Director MA Fashion Studies, pecorarm@newschool.com © MA Fashion Studies Parsons Paris 2021