|
 |
THE GLOBAL TERRITORY OF FASHION INTRODUCTION TO THE RESEARCH APPROACH "Clothes are part of the various signifying practices that our post modern Global Village offers its citizens or consumers", Diana Crane states. What kinds of things do fashion and clothing say about us? What does it mean to wear Gap or Gaultier, Millet or Moschino? Are there any real differences between Hip Hop styles and Punk anti styles? In Fashion, Clothing and Post-modernity, Malcolm Barnard introduces fashion and clothing as ways of communicating and challenging class, gender, sexual and social identities. Drawing on a range of theoretical approaches from Barthes and Baudrillard to Marxist, psychoanalytic, and feminist theories, Barnard looks at the producers, consumers and critics of fashion asking how meanings are generated and by whom. Examining concepts such as culture, meaning, class, gender, reproduction and resistance, Barnard demonstrates that fashion is not an innocent form of communication and uncovers the ways in which clothing can be used both to create and critique identities. Dress is clearly neither culturally nor politically neutral. It is loaded with significance. In the 19th century societies, social class was the most salient aspect of social identity signified in clothing. In the late 20th century Western world, lifestyle, gender, sexual orientation, age, and ethnicity are more meaningful than social class to individuals constructing their wardrobes. The post-modern anthropologist Appadurai emphasizes the need of a production of locality in a world that has become de-territoralized, diasporic and trans-national. Both locality and identity are imagined and performed. Our leading theme will be whether and when fashion becomes a tool in this production of locality. For example, how can the "Asian dress fashion" become an expression of resistance against Western encroachment? How does dress reflect state ideals and gender roles in nations struggling to construct new identities informed by modern, Western impulses? We will look at the ongoing generation of identity via clothes and fashion. Another theme is how, in various sub-cultural settings, consumers and designers interact and enter into negotiation with global branding through tribal influences and "ethnic elements" in fashion design. In today's multi code societies, clothes inhibit as well as facilitate communication between highly fragmented social groups. Trans-national movements of people, cultural objects, images, and identities play a vital role in creating an informal global network for non branded fashion, says L.W. Rabine. Rabine traces the modification of meanings, aesthetics and histories of the thriving, informal, African fashion network through the multicultural crossroads of Los Angeles, Kenya and Senegal. From adapting Western fashion magazines to combining "ethnic" designs with dramatic new colours and techniques, artisans weave a variety of borrowed influences into their traditional practices. But also the other way round: fashion designers of global brands use tribal details to create new looks and to bridge cultures. These are the perspectives that form the starting point for the Master course in Fashion Design with a strong focus on globalisation and clothes, consumer culture, marketing, branding and economy of globalisation in post modernity, and identity politics and fashion. |
|
 Graduation Programme All Fashion Names Intro  Nora van den Berge Manon Giljam Anke Jongejan Wing-Yi Kong Anna Lindeman Judith van Valen Kim van de Veerdonk Anna Wonder |
