Victims of Style: Critical Cases on the Violence of Fashion - Softcover

Von Busch, Otto; Boyer, Axelle; Branker, Rachel; Corretjer, Gabriela; Donnellier, Margaux; Firzli, Joelle; Galindo, Mariza; Mahdavi, Julie; Moore, Lachaun; Morifi-Winslow, Keneilwe

Softcover

ISBN 10: 9198038842 ISBN 13: 9789198038842

Publisher: Selfpassage, 2015

Synopsis

Violent forms of harassment and exclusion seem inherent to fashion. How come we accept them? A dominant paradigm in the exegesis of fashion has been the perspective of desire and sexuality, seeing clothing as a symbolic interface for attraction and communication. However, within the realm of nature as well as culture, sexuality is only one real motivation for action, the other predominant force would be the establishment of territories and rivalry between peers. Social life may be about seduction, but it is also closely intertwined with dominion, power and popularity. From such perspective, fashion is no longer merely a matter of attraction and sexual selection, instead it becomes a matter of violent natural competition: fashion as the rule of the strong, the law of beauty as a matter of power, exploitation and popularity. Adoration is indeed a powerful social instrument for power, and to be fashionable means to be a ruler in the realm of appearances. This perspective on fashion would mean we have to look more closely at the mechanisms of aesthetic stratification, examining fashion from the perspective of violent social competition, and how it intersects with domination, rather than peaceful communication. Here, fashion is a matter of Realpolitik rather than idealism. To be fashionable means to be attractive at the cost of someone else. Fashion is not a realm of peace and attraction, but a violent force of systemic and individual rivalry. A game, red in tooth and claw. This book is a collection of cases that engage with the violence of fashion, from the course “Critical Fashion and Social Justice” at Parsons School of Design. The cases explore some of the intrinsic violence perpetuated throughout the fashion system as a form of fashion supremacy, which manifests and legitimizes aesthetic segregation, stigmatization, exclusion, and bullying.

About this edition

• Publisher: Selfpassage
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 9198038842
• ISBN 13: 9789198038842
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 186