We would like to encourage dress and fashion scholars to consider editing a special issue of Fashion Theory. Established scholars with a wide network of colleagues are well-positioned to take on this task, perhaps in collaboration with an exceptional Ph.D. student or a younger scholar. Editing a special issue involves selecting about six knowledgeable authors and asking them to write on related topics. Some editors solicit articles which were first given as conference papers. Many will rely on existing networks, but open calls are also very useful and effective. Each article will need to be peer reviewed by two anonymous reviewers, so up to twelve reviewers will also need to be identified and contacted by the editors.
Peer reviewers should assess whether the article is historically and theoretically grounded. It should present an original and critical analysis of the theme; the text should be structured logically and written clearly. Appropriate illustrations may be necessary. Peer reviewers typically recommend either major or minor revisions. Authors will need to make their revisions within the time frame that the editors have previously allotted for this. The authors will also need to obtain relevant images and permissions, and pay for the right to publish these images, including on-line.
The editors of a special issue are responsible for making sure that all articles are well-researched, well-written, and theoretically-informed – and that the entire issue stays on schedule. The subjects chosen for special issues have included African Fashion, Blogs, Cross-Dressing, Curation, Eco-fashion, Gender, Hair, Latin American Fashion, Masculinity, Methodology, Photography, Tattoos, and Vogue. We look forward to receiving your proposals! Meanwhile, we welcome readers to issue 27.3, which consists of five articles on very different topics, along with two exhibition reviews.
“‘My Cherished Garment’: Rethinking Fashion, Attachment and Durability” by Tomás Errázuriz and Emilia Müller explores why we value some garments for a long time, while we quickly dispose of many others. After surveying “sartorial practices under the regime of fast fashion,” the authors try to understand “dress attachment.” To explore the motives for cherishing certain garments, they analyzed more than 600 “short stories” written in Chile “that justify those garments that remain in their closets for any seasons and reasons.” The difficulty comes in analyzing the “reasons” given, which are not always clearly articulated.
“Artful Decoloniality: The Politics of Fashion as Art in 20th and 21st Century Vietnam” by Martina Thucnhi Nguyen and Ann Marie Leshkowich draws on two case studies of designers, whose work centers on the Vietnamese aó dài to investigate the politics of fashion, art, gender, national costume, and decoloniality. Under certain circumstances, in the 1930s, for example, might it be a decolonial strategy for a Vietnamese designer trained in Paris to assert that his fashion is art? What does it mean when a contemporary Vietnamese designer draws on “national costume” while working in the context of a global fashion industry? How does the concept of a “national costume” fit into the “modernity/coloniality framework”? This is a dense but fascinating and rewarding article.
“The Fashion System as Sign Itself: Surprise, Seduction and the Wit of Viktor & Rolf” by Dita Svelte begins by exploring the idea of the “fashion system,” focusing on Barthes’ famous text, and then analyzes how the work of Dutch couturiers Viktor & Rolf might critique or complement this system. Whereas most observers have described the design duo in terms of their relationship with art, Svelte quotes several fashion writers who draw attention to their wit. The article forms part of Svelte’s wider investigation into the significance of “wit” (defined in terms of surprise and seduction) in the appeal of fashion.
It is well understood that the musical form of North American jazz relies on the ability of the human body to create sound with little resources – perhaps just the voice – just as home sewing allowed people with few material things to craft their own looks. Khaya Mchunu argues persuasively for the relationship of fashion and music in an essay exploring the “Boubou and Post-Colonial African Musical Performances.” The author uses very close semiotic and socio-historical readings to read the robe worn in three live female vocal performances in three different African countries. Issues of gender, modesty, power, precarity, ritual, facility, visibility, tradition, innovation, post-colonial independence and national identity building come to the fore.
Yeong-Hyeon Choi and Sarah Ham highlight the complexity of working with the concept of “vegan fashion.” The economic or sociological frame of “dilemmas” is used to test “conflicts between animal and environmental ethics in veganism.” Vegan textiles are often made from synthetic materials, and hence are bad for the environment, although bio-materials such as those made from mushrooms, carrot, madder or cork are gaining attention. Game Theory, used by mathematicians since the 1950s, is proposed as a model to test various ethical and vegan fashion-brand strategies. “It was confirmed that animal-friendly brands were being developed mainly in the United States and Canada.” Northeast Asia and West Europe are catching up. This is a very useful article connecting fashion research with issues of exchange, efficacy and morality.
Johanna Zanon provided a thoughtful and intelligent review of Samlingen (The Collection), a “permanent” fashion display that opened June 11, 2022 at the National Museum in Oslo, Norway. The installation, which consolidates dress from four other institutions, features significant new purchases. As a result, “fashion figures prominently” in this important Nordic museum. “The display of the garments is technically impeccable and visually striking,” observes Zanon. However, she points out that contextual information is lacking in the gallery devoted to the dress of two Norwegian queens, while no time frame is provided for another gallery “designed to accommodate rotating displays of contemporary fashion.” The first display focuses on Norwegian fashion designers, Per Spook (who “became famous” showing in Paris) and Peter Dundas (“mostly London and Milan”). If this display “reinforces the traditional hierarchy of fashion capitals,” another display of “two outfits inspired by Sámi culture” is “more successful.” Anyone wishing to learn how to write an effective exhibition review would do well to read this one.
Renée Robinson ostensibly reviewed The 2022 Venice Biennale: The Milk of Dreams, the famous international art exhibition, which focused last year on “the human body and metamorphosis.” In reality, Robinson considered how “two pavilions, Uruguay and Austria, demonstrated the presence of fashion as a mode of expression in their exhibits.” Moving beyond the familiar “discourse of fashion and art,” she argues that the question “Is fashion art?” should be reversed. Her essay then explores “to what extent art engages and embodies fashion,” using as case studies Gerardo Goldwasser’s installation, Persona, for Uruguay, and Jakob Lena Knebl and Ashley Hans Scheirl’s Invitation of the Soft Machine and Her Angry Parts for Austria. “While Uruguay’s pavilion was black, white and ominous, Austria’s was a pink and orange explosion.” Uruguay featured huge rolls of black cloth, while Austria’s “included clothed mannequins, textile works, and the inside of a fashion magazine.” Robinson only hinted at an interpretation of the two exhibits, however, leaving it unclear why “the inclusion of fashion… in the biennial… not only…break[s] away from the mould of frivolity, but also generates a new paradigm of the relationship between art and fashion.”
Valerie Steele and Peter McNeil