- 206 pages
- English
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The International Politics of Fashion
About This Book
This book seeks to address and fill a puzzling omission in contemporary critical IR scholarship. Following on from the aesthetic turn in IR, critical and 'postmodern' IR has produced an impressive array of studies into movies, literature, music and art and the way these media produce, mediate, and represent international politics. By contrast, the proponents of the aesthetic turn have overlooked fashion as a source of knowledge about global politics.
Yet stories about the political role of fashion abound in the news media. Margaret Thatcher used dress to define her political image, and more recently the fascination with Michelle Obama, Carla Bruni and other women in similar positions, and the discussions about the appropriateness of their wardrobes, regularly makes the news. In Sudan, a female writer and activist successfully challenged the government over her right to wear trousers in public and in Europe, the debate on women's headscarves has politicised a garment item and turned it into a symbol of fundamentalism and oppression. In response, the contributors to this book investigate the politics of fashion from a variety of perspectives, addressing theoretical as well as empirical issues, establishing the critical study of fashion and its protagonists as a central contribution to the aesthetic turn in international politics.
The politics of fashion go beyond these examples of the uses and abuses of textiles and fabrics for political purposes, extending into its very 'grammar' and vocabulary. This book will be a unique contribution to the field and will be of interest to students and scholars of international relations, critical IR theory and popular culture and world politics.
Frequently asked questions
Information
Index
- abaya 14, 102, 151, 158
- Abbas, Ackbar 190–191
- Abe, Shinzō 87–88, 135
- Abercrombie & Fitch 191
- absurdism 81n20
- Abu Ghraib prisoners 6–7, 30, 32, 37n5
- adornment 3, 6, 7, 23, 112, 193
- African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights 109
- Agamben, Giorgio 7
- ahimsa (non-violence) 31
- Ahlia University 109
- Aideed, Mohamed Farrah 153
- Alexeev, Leonid 2, 3
- aliindi 149, 150
- al-Qaeda 72, 90n8
- Al-Shabaab 156
- Ang Lee 76
- anti-colonialism 46 see also colonialism
- anti-veil dressing laws 41, 43, 45–47, 61, 63
- see also ‘burqa ban’ legislation
- anti-Western hostility 72
- Aquascutum 166, 176, 177, 179–180, 183n2
- Arab Spring 11, 44, 56
- artists’ perspectives 52–55
- Asprey 176, 178, 183n2
- al-Assad, Asma 133–134, 141n13
- ‘Aura/Burqa’ (Lady Gaga) 62
- Bangladesh, Rana plaza factory 192, 197
- Ban Ki Moon 99
- Barre, Mohamed Siad 149, 151, 153
- Bartelson, Jens 117
- Barthes, Roland 7, 187, 189
- al-Bashir, Omar 101
- Baudrillard, Jean 8–9, 16n7
- Beckett, Margaret 162–163
- Belasescu, Alexandru 44, 59
- Belgium_ veil dressing in 46
- anti-veil dressing laws in 41, 47, 55, 110
- Bertin, Rose 127
- Bertolucci, Bernardo 76
- bin Laden, Osama 72
- Blair, Tony 130
- Blei...
Table of contents
- Cover Page
- Half Title Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Table of Contents
- List of figures
- List of contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- This is not a mannequin: enfashioning bodies of resistance
- The art of (un)dressing dangerously: the veil and/as fashion
- Orientalism refashioned: 'Eastern moon' in 'Western waters' reflecting back on the East China Sea
- Fashion statements: wearing trousers in Sudan
- (Un)dressing the sovereign: fashion as symbolic form
- The evolution of Somali women's fashion during changing security contexts
- Margaret Thatcher, dress and the politics of fashion
- Fashion studies takes on politics
- Index