This course looks at the many complex messages conveyed by fashion. It deliberately defies traditional categorization, as it does not focus uniquely on fashion as clothing industry. Rather, it cuts trans-historically to foreground the various, extraordinary ways by which communities approached clothing and textiles. What is fashion after all? How did people adorn their bodies and wear clothes to project ideas of belonging and identity? As luxury objects, most clothing, as well as jewellery, was not made to be worn at all, but, like art, existed for a variety of purposes that went beyond mere practicality. This module addresses these and many other questions by moving beyond the traditional linear narrative that presents clothing as evolving from ethnographic costumes to expression of modern individuality. For this reason it does not unfold chronologically but thematically around four large topics that deal with issues relating to the representation, exchange, making, and conceptualization of fashion.
The representation of textiles and costumes in images is never a neutral visualisation of cultural practices, but visual artefacts with their own subjectivity. How do artists ‘stage’ the cloth, cut and fit of clothing? By examining this question with regard to the very basic confluence of pigment and thread, this module also aims to further students’ understanding of how artistic strategies create realities. This module therefore encourages the interdisciplinary study of the history of art and dress/textile history in the humanities. It aims at furthering students’ ability to look at clothes as well as art while forcing them to think in more nuanced ways about the material world and people’s relationship to it.
By the end of the module, students should have acquired:
Module Code HOA00041H