Contemporary Fashion Research Articles

Knitting masculinities: How men are challenging masculinity and needlework in a post-pandemic age

The JW Anderson patchwork cardigan from the spring/summer 2020 menswear collection has become an iconic fashion item during the COVID-19 pandemic. Worn by Harry Styles, the cardigan inspired a worldwide TikTok trend of crafting and DIY-ing a replica at home with over 90 million views to date. In response, JW Anderson published the pattern online and the V&A museum acquired the knitwear for its permanent collection. One year later, Olympic gold medallist Tom Daley was pictured knitting in the stands at the 2020 Olympic games – a craft he had picked up during the lockdowns. Both instances are challenging the notion of knitting and needlework as a feminine craft. In the past, men who embroidered, knitted or sewed their clothes were designated as infantile, effeminate and deviant from the hetero masculine norm. In today’s post-pandemic climate, these associations are being challenged. Taking the cardigan and the resurgence of needlework as a case study, this article investigates the ways the COVID-19 pandemic influenced contemporary fashion consumption and re-stitched the meaning of male knitting. Focusing on the transformative aspects of slow fashion and gender fluidity in contemporary society, this article draws on a theoretical framework deriving from queer theory and sustainable fashion. Coined by Kate Fletcher, slow fashion encompasses a recalibration towards a focus on high-quality items over quantity and a slower production that does not exploit natural and human resources. Judith Butler’s notion of gender performativity exposes gender as a social construct produced and maintained by a stylized repetition of acts, such as commonplace speech or nonverbal communication. Analysing the resurgence of male needlework through this critical lens, this article argues that it is the result of seismographic shifts within the contemporary fashion and popular culture that have been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Disrupting the fashion industry profoundly on a global scale, this article discusses how the pandemic can be seen as a catalyst for fashion in renegotiating masculinities.

Analyzing genderless fashion trends of consumers\u2019 perceptions on social media: using unstructured big data analysis through Latent Dirichlet Allocation-based topic modeling

After the development of Web 2.0 and social networks, analyzing consumers’ responses and opinions in real-time became profoundly important to gain business insights. This study aims to identify consumers’ preferences and perceptions of genderless fashion trends by text-mining, Latent Dirichlet Allocation-based topic modeling, and time-series linear regression analysis. Unstructured text data from consumer-posted sources, such as blogs and online communities, were collected from January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2020. We examined 9722 posts that included the keyword “genderless fashion” with Python 3.7 software. Results showed that consumers were interested in fragrances, fashion, and beauty brands and products. In particular, 18 topics were extracted: 13 were classified as fashion categories and 5 were derived from beauty and fragrance sectors. Examining the genderless fashion trend development among consumers from 2018 to 2020, “perfume and scent” was revealed as the hot topic, whereas “bags,” “all-in-one skin care,” and “set-up suit” were cold topics, declining in popularity among consumers. The findings contribute to contemporary fashion trends and provide in-depth knowledge about consumers’ perceptions using big data analysis methods and offer insights into product development strategies.

“Reptiles are Here for Good”1

Reptile skins have been sought-after materials for fashionable accessories for the last two centuries at least. This article traces the trend from its historical roots to the present day, with a special focus on the 1920s and 1930s, when “exotic leather” was in particularly high demand for ladies’ shoes, bags, belts etc. Dependent on technical innovations and economic conditions, the development of “reptile fashion” was determined by complex cultural phenomena where orientalism played a significant part. The perception of the material, often connoted as “strange” or “different”, was deeply ambivalent: it oscillated between attraction and rejection, between allure and disgust, between seduction and indignation. Accessories made from the skins of snakes, crocodiles, lizards and other exotic species have been imbued with the ambivalence that surrounded the living animals — an ambivalence shaped by ancient mythology and superstition. On the one hand they are appealing, tempting and attractive, on the other they are repulsive, offensive or even menacing. Aesthetics, ethics and symbolics all combine in shaping our perceptions of these animals and their skins — then just as now. Today’s discussions on the topic seem very much dominated by contemporary ethical considerations centered on the question of cruelty to animals, environmental destruction and ideological as well as economic colonialism. These aspects however were already present in earlier considerations. Despite long standing debates and criticisms the enduring fascination for reptile skins and their associated exoticism, rarity and sensuality still exists today as we can see in contemporary fashion shows.By means of a material culture approach — using images, written sources and extant objects — the article sketches several interdependent layers of perception within the field of aesthetics and ethics. Touching on current issues of sustainability, animal well-being and colonialism, the article highlights subjects such as orientalism, exotism and gender constructions within the realm of fashion history.

Przywołania i deskrypcje ruin w dzienniku podróży Walerii Tarnowskiej do Italii

The main part of this study is preceded by information on the subject of dynamically increasing, since the beginning of the 18th century, participation of Polish women from wealthy houses in social life. It can be confirmed by, among others, their travels abroad to e.g. Italy with its rich resources in the form of works of art including those preserved from ancient times being of great interest then. In the main stream of investigation the author focuses on the preserved French travel journal (“Mes voyages”) of the journey that Waleria from the Stroynowskis Tarnowska undertook to Italy in years 1803–1804 with her husband Jan Feliks and her father Walerian. The analytical and interpretational considerations refer to the fragments concerning the buildings observed by the countess during her Italian journey, which were to a various degree damaged by the power of time or human activity and that was indicated by singled out synonymous terms used for ruins. The crucial aspect of this reflection is concretisation of Tarnowska’s impressions depicted in descriptions from close contact with antique and modern edifices, not too rarely preserved in a remnant form. According to the author of this study references to and descriptions of ruins in the analysed journal are the expression of not a genuine passion but rather of the influence of contemporary fashion for ancient times and great curiosity for the world during the first journey abroad and the will to see and then record in writing all that was required to see during this Italian trip. They also prove psychologically conditioned perception of wors of art.

The fashion production Sirogojno Style: Adaptation of the narrative about the past to the context of contemporary fashion

Fashion, by definition, implies (and requires) constant changes and innovations. This paper, using the example of the fashion production Sirogojno Style, follows the process of the adaptation of the narrative about the past, by which the fashion production Sirogojno Style was recognizable for many years in the Yugoslavian and international fashion scene, to the context of contemporary fashion. The focus, on this occasion, is George Styler's collection NetWork, presented in 2014 at London Fashion Week; more specifically, the part of the collection that was made in collaboration with the ?Sirogojno Company?. The study of the new narrative function of Sirogojno knitwear in the context of contemporary fashion was based on written and visual sources as well as on data gathered during a semi-structured interview done in April 2021 with the fashion creator George Styler. The aim of this study is to contribute to contemporary anthropological studies of fashion and clothing.

Zpráva z výstavy Móda v modré

The article details the preparation and run of the exhibition “Fashion in Blue. Tradition and Present of Indigo in Japanese and Czech Textiles”, which took place at the turn of the years 2021 and 2022 in the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague. The exhibition presented the rich tradition and the present of Japanese aizome, the patterning and dyeing of textiles using indigo, as well as the blue print production connected to our territory, from folk costumes, through the work of the Center for Folk Art Production to the reinterpretation of the blue print by contemporary fashion designers. The article describes the concept of the exhibition, individual parts of the exhibition as well as some specific exhibits and their creators.

Planety v rocaillové architektuře ze zámku ve Lnářích a Johann Georg Hertel

The article deals with the analysis of paintings of planets in the château at Lnáře from the period after the middle of the 18th century, which were created according to graphics from the rich Augsburg output of Johann Georg Hertel (1700–1775). The Lnáře remnants of the cycle of planetary gods show a symbiosis of two principles. On the one hand, a long tradition, dating from late antiquity and maintained through late medieval and early modern graphic series; on the other hand, the impulses of progressive astronomical observations. The more or less receptive character of Hertel' series thus shows above all the emphasis on the contemporary fashion Rococo mode in which the figural compositions are embedded.

몸 인식의 확장에 따른 패션화된 몸에 나타난 미적 특성 연구

The purpose of this study is to examine of in contemporary fashion through the characteristics of post-structuralism and pragmatic body aesthetics. The research method examines philosophical and aesthetic perceptions of the body, focusing on post-structuralist philosophers Maurice Merleau Ponty, Michelle Foucault, and Jean Baudrillard and the pragmatic philosopher Richard Schustermann. This study analyzes the data from domestic and foreign monographs and previous studies. After based on an aesthetic characteristic derived from an optimized art work related to body aesthetics, the aesthetic characteristics of the body that are popular in modern fashion were analyzed. The research results are as follows: First, body aesthetics derived from body discourse are divided into “experienced body,” “controlled body,” “derived body,” and “practiced body.” Second, the aesthetic characteristics derived from related to the aesthetics of the body were the deconstruction of the body and the otherness of the body. Third, contemporary fashion were “abstract of geometric space,” “resistance reality,” and “fetishistic playfulness.” Additionally, the otherness of the body appeared as “human pluralism.” Finally, the phenomenon of the “soma,” in which the body and mind are integrated as a new mechanism of the fashioned body in contemporary fashion, as discussed above, will expand the aesthetic extension of fashion with a positive perception of the alienated body in the post-human era.

A study on the cultural sustainability of contemporary fashion brands based on traditional fashion

A study on the cultural sustainability of contemporary fashion brands based on traditional fashion

Dress and Dress Fasteners from the Pagan Norse Graves of Scotland: Origins and Identity

The pagan Norse graves of Scotland provide a tantalising glimpse of what the interred were wearing at the time of burial. However, the survival of actual clothing, frequently in a mineralised state, is rare. Yet dress accessories—typically brooches, cloak pins and belt fittings—help to create a more comprehensive picture of the dress worn, and of contemporary fashion. The origins of these fittings can be identified by their form, ornament and metallic composition. Some, such as the paired oval brooches found in female burials, are typically Scandinavian and indicative of the wearing of a pinafore-like dress, corroborated on occasion by surviving textile loops mineralised within their shells. However, others, including penannular brooches, ringed pins and bossed belt fittings, are of Insular origin and illustrate an emerging Hiberno-Scandinavian identity. Such evidence for cultural interaction through dress provides a fascinating insight into contemporary perceptions of identity, just prior to the abandonment of the pagan ritual with the subsequent loss of this rich source of evidence.

تصمیمات معاصرة للجمبسوت(( Jumpsuit تصلح للفتاة الجامعیة مستلهمة من دائرة الأبراج السماویة (زودیاک دندرة)

يهتم هذا البحث بإلقاء الضوء علي دائرة الأبراج السماوية (زودياک دندرة) والاستفادة منها کمصدر خصب للتصميمات والموضات المعاصرة والفريدة للفتاة في المرحلة الجامعية والمستمدة من التراث الأصيل المميز للحضارة الفرعونية القديمة، ولتحقيق هدف البحث تم الاستعانة ببرنامج أدوب فوتوشوب لاعداد مجموعة من التصميمات الملبسية المقترحة، وأسفرت الدراسة عن إعداد (20) تصميما ملبسيا مختلفا للجمبسوت بتوليفات جذابة تواکب الموضة المعاصرة، کما تم عمل استمارتی استبيان إحداهما عرضت على عينة قوامها (16) من الأساتذة المتخصصين في مجال الملابس والنسيج، والثانية عرضت على عينة قوامها (84) من المستهلکات للتأکد من تحقق أهداف البحث، وبعد معالجة النتائج إحصائيا تبين نجاح التصميمات المنفذة، وحصولها علي درجات قبول عام مرتفعة (معامل جودة إجمالي) تراوحت نسبتها المئوية بين (80.8: 89.0 %)؛ مما يشير الى تحقق هدف البحث ووجود قبول عام من المتخصصين بالاضافة الي توافقها مع متطلبات ورغبات جمهور المستهلکات و إمکانية تطبيقها وتنفيذها. Designing Contemporary Fashion For Jumpsuit Fit Girls In The University Inspired From Dendera Zodiac Abstract: This research aims designing Contemporary fashion for jumpsuit fit girls in the university inspired from Dendera Zodiac as a source of rich inspiration. To achieve the objective of the research, Adobe Photoshop was used to prepare (20) designs. A descriptive and analytical approach was used, and (2) evaluation forms were prepared for the proposed designs, one of which was presented to a sample of (18) professors specializing in clothing and textiles academics, while the other samples were presented to a sample of (84) consumers. After treating the results statistically, it was found that the designs obtained high overall acceptance scores ranging between (80.8: 89.0%), indicating a general acceptance by academics and consumers of the proposed designs, and the research goal was reached by achieving The possibility of designing girls' clothing in universities inspired by Zodiac Dandera.

Evolving ‘places’: The paradigmatic shift in the role of the fashion designer

This study examines the concept of ‘place’ in the design process and the evolving role of the fashion designer. The contemporary fashion marketplace has reached unprecedented levels of abundance. This is altering society’s relationship with design. Consumers’ basic needs are being over-met and have moved well beyond the material realm; consumers are increasingly driven by their search for meaning and emotional fulfilment through design. The result of this process is the altering of their perception of design ‘value’ from the tangible to the intangible. While the traditional values of aesthetics and function remain essential components to design, a product’s ability to deliver ‘emotional value’ to the user must increasingly become the focus for designers. To succeed, a designer must shift his/her sense of ‘place’ – namely, the figurative ‘place’ from which he/she designs. Rather than creating fashion from myopic, personal biases, future designers must enter the ‘place’ of the design process by rigorously researching their consumers’ psychographics and emotional needs to ‘design emotion’. The new role of the fashion designer – the ‘Designer-As-Social-Scientist’ – takes a much broader view of the consumers’ needs. The evolution of the ‘place’ of the design process will result in products having greater meaning and emotional value; designers standing out in the oversaturated market; and businesses increasing consumer loyalty and resultant sales by offering only those products that are truly desired by their target audience.

Sustainable practice: The future mode of temporality in fashion

Fashion is indicative of time and, serving as the interpretive and representational forms of a society, is measured against the cyclical rhythms of trend diffusion and style adoption. This article examines the function of time within the framework of historical research, reviewing the construction and translation of contemporary fashion. The temporality of material objects is further probed by an analysis of the sociocultural development of current sustainable practices to grasp the affective nature of time and its relationship to the fashion system. With an overview of emerging sustainable design practices, the relationship between time and meaning creation is critically examined, analysed and discussed. The social production of design and its utilization of the body-as-space are presented in relation to the social construction of time, explicated as part of a subjective, embodied experience. This article presents a new modality of time in how it is articulated, imitated, reproduced and reinterpreted through material culture and future sustainable practices.

BLOWING UP THE FASHION BUBBLE, OR NINE THINGS WRONG WITH FASHION: AN OUTSIDER’S COMMENT. A CRITICAL ESSAY ON FASHION AS A CREATIVE INDUSTRY

The world of fashion has lived in a bubble long before the concept found its way into social networks. Well before the social networks themselves, in fact. The very emergence of fashion as an idea occurred within the bubble of the social life at Palace of Versailles, France, where the notorious Louis XIV sported great interest in the looks of his court in addition to those of his own. The article is an outsider’s attempt to have a sober look at the fashion industry that until recently seemed to have maintained the “structure of feeling” of the 17th century Palace of Versailles. Today’s social realities, however, put fashion in the state of a shock that probably equals that of the Storming of the Bastille in 1789, even though it is presumably much less sudden. Written in the manner of the most popular contemporary fashion media format – a bullet list, the text presents a conceptual analysis of the world’s second most wasteful yet poisonously attractive industry, critically reflecting on such characteristic values of the fashion field as concept and features, hierarchy, arrogance, resources and philosophy.

PERFORMING LIFESTYLE POLITICS: EXPLORING THE SLOW FASHION COMMUNITY ON INSTAGRAM

This paper explores the unique discursive register being created by slow fashion practitioners on Instagram. The slow fashion movement includes people, practices, ideas, and things from all over the world and online - all of which are broadly connected through a shared effort to resist and transform the waste-driven, profit-seeking, inequitable and unjust system(s) which produce and sustain contemporary fashion. In this paper I analyze three key performable roles which slow fashion practitioners are embodying on Instagram as a way to perform the politics of the movement: (1) Outfit of the Day Posts (OOTD), (2) wardrobe tracking, and (3) knowledge-sharing posts. In discussing each of these instances of popular slow fashion performances, I will examine what each example is “saying” and “doing” within the slow fashion community and analyze how these performances are positioned within the community’s broader ethical and political goals. By exploring the kinds of performances most commonly posted on Instagram I draw attention to the ways slow fashion practitioners’ performances are both assembling individual practitioner identity (or ‘self’) to the wider slow fashion community as well as producing a wider register of lifestyle politics in the slow fashion movement.

An investigative study to style reading: The style of Cristobal Balenciaga interpreted by contemporary fashion designers

Aim: Historical fashions are re-created repeatedly and put into the new fashion cycle. It is a constant activity. Haute couture or high-end designers’ masterpieces are subjected to study by many contemporary fashion designers as a granary of design concepts. Cristobal Balenciaga (1895- 1972), also known as the king of haute couture, has made many revolutionary fashions in his design career. The combination of his technical brilliance and aesthetic taste gifted many extraordinary innovations to the fashion world. His works remain undying and more influential to every designer in the fashion industry. The study aims to identify characteristics of Balenciaga’s designs and investigate the contemporary interpretations of them, analyzing Greth Pugh (1981) and Demna Gvasalia (1981); the contemporary fashion designers .Methodology: The research is a qualitative approach. This research is carried out by investigating masterpieces of the designers, the scholar’s works, photographs, fashion, museum websites and web articles, books, video documentaries as well as informative videos from the YouTube channels such as Met and V&A and a few runway shows have watched (Balenciaga Fall winter 16, Gareth Pugh A/W 17) to get more understanding about the contemporary designers’ work. Relevant information is gathered and analyzed systematically and observed to filter the relevant data for the research.Findings: When comparing the works of these 1950’s Master and contemporary designers, it is visible that the foundation of the contemporaries has developed and established with Cristobal Balenciaga’s ideology. It was found that the selected designers have taken direct inspiration from master Balenciaga. The ideation of Cristobal Balenciaga’s masterpieces has become the roots of these two contemporary designers’ works, and they have rejuvenated these ideologies according to modern times by combining the new technologies and concepts. However, the superiority of Balenciaga remains the same.Implications/Novel Contribution: This research links and changes between Cristobal Balenciaga and contemporary designers have analyzed to conclude different perceptions of how the same style can be reinterpreted over time.

Fashion Design Education and Sustainability: Towards an Equilibrium between Craftsmanship and Artistic and Business Skills?

Fashion designers can have a key role to play in making fashion more sustainable, as they are able to influence and contribute to all dimensions of fashion impact (economic, environmental, social, and cultural), both positive and negative. Fashion design education should be seen as a chance to make aspiring designers aware of the challenges and potential of design for sustainability and equip them with the knowledge and skills necessary to implement sustainable fashion approaches. Starting from this premise, the approach to various sustainability themes was examined in the particular national context of post-secondary schools offering fashion majors in Poland, one which so far has not been researched in any depth. The authors conducted interviews and analysed the publications, documents, web pages, and Facebook profiles of such schools. Their activities were examined and classified in respect of the main dimensions of comprehensive fashion education: art, craftsmanship, and business. The analysis provides a picture of the current situation and a review of the specific features of sustainable fashion education in both the global and Polish contexts. Contemporary fashion education requires multidimensional adjustments to curricula, reflecting the complex nature of sustainability problems. This is a global challenge, which in the Polish case is additionally exacerbated by insufficient and uncoordinated public support, problems related to the institutional context of private and public schools, and the low level of sustainability awareness among consumers.

21세기 이후 패션디자인에 나타난 융합적 형태성의 조형 표현 방법과 조형적 특징 고찰 : 바우하우스 형태 교육 마스터들의 기초조형 표현 방법을 중심으로

The purpose of this study is to examine the formative characteristics of the amalgamative formativeness found in contemporary fashion design, based on the basic methods of form expression in Bauhaus. The following questions are addressed in this study: First, what are the form theories and the basic methods of expressing forms developed by Bauhaus masters? Second, what is the concept of the amalgamative formativeness and what are the ways to express the forms established in modern fashion design? Third, what are the formative characteristics of amalgamative formativeness found in contemporary fashion design? This study relied on literature research and content analysis. A column from the magazine Bauhaus, published from 1926 to 1931, and a book concerned with Bauhaus were studied to identify the theory of forms that guided Bauhaus masters. Additionally, 65 artworks found in both the preliminary course and the workshop course – which instructed students about forms – were analyzed to better elucidate Bauhaus theory of form. Further, the basic methods used to express form, as well as the formative characteristics of artworks, were assessed to bolster evidence for the rationale behind amalgamative formativeness. The study also analyzed 632 art pieces from 142 fashion collections that were created in the 21st century and that reveal the characteristics of amalgamative formativeness. According to the study results, the formative characteristics of the amalgamative formativeness in fashion design can be expounded: First, structural expansion based on the arrangement of geometric form; Second, abstract form created from the integration of shape and color; Third, visual mobility resulting from the relativity of color and material; Fourth, mechanical form formed by the deconstruction of materials based on mechanical principles; and Fifth, art infusion that explores perceptual properties inherent to different shapes, colors, and materials.

Designing for Curves

Designing for Curves

FASHION IS A COMMUNICATION AXIS TO REPRESENT CIVILIZATIONS IN CONTEMPORARY MEDIA

The fashion is the interface of the world for human communication and the overlap of cultures, and globalization in contemporary fashion can have a positive impact as it is important in the development of design and executive awareness to achieve the job through economic and cultural development, stressing that the role of the contemporary designer artist is the continuous communication between the global heritage and the new visions used in the present and the aesthetics of design. Fashion and clothing are considered as the language full of symbols, which reflects the (identities) of human societies, because of the different environments in which they are present, as the costume is the title of world cultures as each environment of the world has special costumes that distinguish it, although it shares the fact that it is inspired by the traditional heritage of that region, and expresses the environment in which women live, and this is reflected in many forms of executive model technology carried by different costumes. Although they vary from region to region due to the demographics of the environment, tastes are multiplied by media communication with different peoples and civilizations. They are any costumes that tell the history of human beings from the beginning to the present. In recent times, a phenomenon has emerged characterized by a return to heritage and typical.