Sartorial excess in Mary Sibande's ‘Sophie’

Abstract

Mary Sibande has evolved the Sophie character that has defined her art practice – the domestic worker-cum-Victorian garment associated with her has grown in scale, becoming excessive. These exaggerated style codes or adaptations work at liberating the domestic worker from her lowly position in society. Empowerment, or the fantasy of what that may entail, is therefore enacted through dress and the ‘excess’ attached to it that visualises a desire for social mobility. This article presents a critical analysis of the notion of ‘sartorial excess’, employing dandyism as a theoretical tool to access the mechanics of dress as an art form that feeds off and challenges fashion and consumerism. Drawing from fashion theories advanced by Thorstein Veblen and Jean Baudrillard, the article demonstrates how democratising forces allowed fashion to become a tool of mobility – and the illusion of it. This will contribute towards a multifarious definition of sartorial excess that is both inherent to fashion, but as in Sibande's practice, is also a form of asserting difference and dislocating from the status quo.

Keywords:

• consumption
• dandyism
• excess
• fashion
• luxury identity
• social mobility

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mary Corrigall

Mary Corrigall is Research Associate, University of Johannesburg. [email protected]