Aesthetic Politics in Fashion Elke Gaugele

Publication Series of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna VOLUME 14
Aesthetic
Politics in
Fashion
Elke Gaugele
(Ed.)
Aesthetic
Politics in
Fashion
Aesthetic
Politics in
Fashion
Elke Gaugele
(Ed.)
Publication Series of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

Eva Blimlinger, Andrea B. Braidt, Karin Riegler (Series Eds.)
Volume 14
On the Publication Series We are pleased to present this new volume in the publication series of the
Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. The series, published in cooperation with our
highly committed partner Sternberg Press, is devoted to central themes in
contemporary thought about art practices and art theories. The volumes in
the series comprise collected contributions on subjects that form the focus
of discourse on art theory, cultural studies, art history, and research at the
Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and represent the quintessence of international
study and discussion taking place in the respective fields. Each volume is
published in the form of an anthology edited by staff members of the Academy
of Fine Arts Vienna. Authors of high international repute are invited to write
contributions dealing with the respective areas of emphasis. Research activi-
ties such as international conferences, lecture series, institute-specific re-
search focuses, or research projects serve as the points of departure for the
individual volumes.
With this book we launch volume 14 of the series. Aesthetic Politics in Fashion
illustrates how fashion can be discussed at the nexus of design, art, politics,
and globalism. In this sense, the concept of fashion is seen from the perspective
within the arts (as opposed to the cultural industries), enabling insights often
neglected in publications on the cultural significance of fashion. Thus, topics
like space production, fashion ethics, decolonization practices, and alternative
concepts within fashion practice take center stage in this publication. This
critical and differentiated approach to fashion is paradigmatic for how textile
practices are discussed and taught at the Institute for Education in the Arts of
the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, and with this publication we would like to
invite an international audience to participate in this discourse. We would like
to thank the editor Elke Gaugele for an excellent job in putting this book
together.
The Rectorate of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

Eva Blimlinger, Andrea B. Braidt, Karin Riegler
Contents
Editor: Elke Gaugele

Project/manuscript editors: Martina Fineder, Birke Sturm Aesthetic Politics in Fashion: An Introduction
Editorial assistance: Mira Sacher, Elisabeth Pfalzer Elke Gaugele 10
Editorial coordination: Kathrin Wojtowicz
Copyeditor/proofreader: Charlotte Eckler, Caitlin Blachfield
Design: Miriam Rech, Markus Weisbeck, Surface, Frankfurt am Main/Berlin Aesthetic Economies
Cover images: Bradaric Ohmae, “Pictures Seen,” Spring/Summer 2012; Photos
by Peter Garmusch Aesthetic Economies of Fashion: An Introduction
Printing and binding: Holzhausen Druck GmbH, Wolkersdorf Eva Flicker 22
The book’s color scheme is based on the Pantone Fashion Color Report Spring The Tension of Mallarmé’s Deception Manoeuver:
2014: Women’s Colors. Temporal, Territorial, and Financial Economies in Fashion
Birke Sturm 30
ISBN 978-3-95679-079-9 It’s All About the Image: The Cooperation between the
Fashion Industry and Celebrities
© 2014 Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, Sternberg Press Endora Comer-Arldt 44
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any
form. Andy’s Heritage: Collaborations between Fashion, Art,
and Louis Vuitton
Sternberg Press Monica Titton 60
Caroline Schneider
Karl-Marx-Allee 78 Life Which Writes Itself: Retrospecting Art, Fashion, and
D-10243 Berlin Photography in Bernadette Corporation
www-sternberg-press.com Ilka Becker 76
Production of Space
Fashion and the Production of Space: An Introduction
Barbara Schrödl 98
It All Started with a Bicycle: Spring/Summer 2013

Tanja Bradarić and Taro Ohmae 104
Framing “Saints and Sinners.” Methods of Producing Space

in Fashion Shows: Michael Michalsky’s Fall/Winter 2009 Collection
Alicia Kühl 112
Fashion Film: Spaces of Exclusivity and the Globalization

of Accessibility
Sabina Muriale 130
The Waywardness of Fashion: Society in the Subjunctive

Michael R. Müller 146
Alternative Aesthetic Politics

Alternative Aesthetic Politics: An Introduction
Elke Gaugele and Monica Titton 164
Dressing the Tiger: Decolonization and Style Racism in

South-Asian Fashion
Ruby Sircar 174
“Jute Not Plastic”: Alternative Product Culture between

Environmental Crisis and Fashion
Martina Fineder 186
On the Ethical Turn in Fashion: Policies of Governance and

the Fashioning of Social Critique
Elke Gaugele 204
“Performing Whiteness”: Revisioning White Textiles in

Visual Culture
Birgit Haehnel 228
Image Credits 246

Biographies 252
Elke Gaugele 11
Aesthetic Politics
For fashion theory there has always been trouble at the intersection of aesthetics
and politics. Modernity has drawn out fashion as a figure of ambivalence: it
conflates homogenization and individuation, sells hierarchy as democracy,
and poses normalization as opposition. In terms of politics, the episteme of
in Fashion
fashion has been historically engaged in the program of enlightenment, with
its contradicting signifiers of freedom and dependence. It draws spatial, social,
and corporeal orders, defined by the coloniality of power. As such, fashion
became a hegemonical cultural practice of Western nation building, driven by
the paradoxes of communization, individualization, and gendering. In parallel
An Introduction
with the emergence of industrialized consumer society and as a component
of the new spirit of capitalist economy, fashion evolved into a mass phenome-
non. In the context of aesthetics, fashion had been construed in antithesis
to art as a temporal, transitory aesthetic phenomenon, theorized as a self-
oppositional, entangled with the ephemeral and contemporary aspects of
Elke Gaugele everyday life. This has changed during globalization. Now the commonalities
of fashion and art are emphasized, their conjunctions are fostered, not least
as a model for a globalized aesthetic economy.
Aesthetic Metapolitics
Aesthetic Politics in Fashion proposes modes of critical thinking on the present
junctions of design, art, politics, and global capitalism. It therefore outlines
a perspective on fashion as an aesthetic metapolitics and aims to transmit some
of the energy from vivid discussions of the framework on the interchanges of
politics and aesthetics posited by French philosopher Jaques Rancière to the
body of Fashion Studies. Aesthetic metapolitics, as Rancière suggests, aims
to bring together art and life. The metapolitical project of modernity attempts
to realize what politics can only give the appearance of achieving: to change
not only the laws and orders of the state, but also the specific forms of indi-
vidual lives.1 In its political engagement with questions of freedom and equality,
aesthetic metapolitics creates collective as well as individual subjectivities.
Art and politics, “like forms of knowledge,” Rancière proposes, “construct ‘fic-
tions,’ that is to say material rearrangements of signs and images between
what is seen and what is said, between what is done and what could be done.”2
This imaginative capability and this potential for materialization also pertain
to fashion and its body of aesthetic politics. An interplay between the intangible
and the material inform the following perspectives on fashion and the study
of fashion as an aesthetic metapolitics.
1 Jacques Rancière, “Die Politik der Ästhetik,” The Distribution of the Sensible, trans.
archplus, no. 178 (June 2006): 94–98. Gabriel Rockhill (London: Continuum,
2 Jacques Rancière, The Politics of Aesthetics: 2004), 39.
12 Introduction Elke Gaugele 13
Artistic Regimes, Fashion, and the Distribution of the Sensible those of other industries, its increasing importance also symptomizes the
convergence of economic and artistic logics within global neo-capitalism.18
Historically, fashion functioned in the juncture of aesthetics and politics. Rancière Fashion and art create fictions of contemporaneity. The confluences of the
has examined this as a distribution of the sensible, which he defines as, “vari- fashion and art market are momentous for globalization after 1989. Their sig-
ations of sensible intensities, perceptions, and the abilities of the bodies.”3 nificance lies in the geopolitical production of contemporary imaginations
Accordingly, Rancière introduces three artistic regimes: the ethical regime, and their aesthetic presence in fashion.
the representative regime, and the aesthetic regime of the arts.4
Within this cultural matrix, however, it is striking to look through the kaleido-
All three regimes can be considered as long-term historical structures that scope of the different artistic regimes conceptualized by Rancière. Designed
coexist and intertwine. The ethical regime recalls Plato’s ideal state and char- on different, deep-historical levels in the sense of longue durée, the three ar-
acterizes the pedagogical functions of the arts to adapt to an authoritarian tistic regimes reveal different functions and effects of aesthetics and politics,
class hierarchy.5 The second artistic regime—the representative—admittedly expressed to varying degrees as the consequence of contemporary globaliza-
calls upon the autonomy of the arts in relation to the political. But at the same tion processes. This makes them noteworthy tools for contemporary analyses
time it is designed as a pragmatic and mimetic principle that develops into of aesthetics and politics and likewise for the investigation of aesthetic poli-
forms of normativity by defining the rules of good or bad art. The representative tics in fashion. Contemporary trends such as Ethical Fashion, for example,
regime also sets a hierarchy of genres and their political boundaries.6 At the could be set in relation to the ethical regime.19 Rankings between the arts and
end of the eighteenth century, the third regime arose parallel to the “incoherent their different genres, as, for example, between the applied or fine arts or be-
label ‘modernity’”: the aesthetic regime of the arts.7 There, art is imbued with tween art and fashion are revealed—under the perspective of the representa-
autonomy and freedom insofar as it becomes a potential site for all distibutions tive regime—as social and societal hierarchies of the sensible. The aesthetic
of the sensible.8 The aesthetic regime of the arts reversed oppositions between regime, as discussed above, creates new social and economic spaces of
high and low and broke up the interrelationship between “subject matter and imagined global communities through the appearances of fashions. On the
mode of representation.” 9 Rancière illustrates this using depictions of fashion level of everyday practices, fashion accomplishes a new sensorium of shared
in French nineteenth century literature: through “clothes, or gestures of an fictions and cultural belonging.
ordinary individual (Balzac),” when young women were “caught in the equal
force of style as an ‘absolute manner of seeing things, (Flaubert).”10 At that
point the concept of the aesthetic regime and the emergence of a new sen- 3 Ibid., 39. 14 Adam Briggs, “Capitalism’s Favourite Child:
sorium is closely linked to the aesthetic appearances of fashion. The aesthetic 4 Ibid., 20–30. The Production of Fashion,” in Fashion
regime, Rancière further states, makes art into an “autonomous form of life” 5 Ibid., 20; Ruth Sonderegger, “Ästhetische Cultures Revisited: Theories, Explorations
Regime,” Bildpunkt: Regimestörungen and Analysis, ed. Stella Bruzzi and Pamela
and by that “sets down the autonomy of art and its identification with a moment
(Spring 2010): 8–10; http://www.igbildende Church Gibson (London: Routledge, 2013),
in Life’s self-formation.” 11 kunst.at/bildpunkt/2010/regimestoerungen 186–99.
/sonderegger.htm. 15 Boltanski and Chiapello, New Spirit of
This insight—that softened hierarchies and modernity’s more promiscuous 6 Rancière, Politics of Aesthetics, 21; Capitalism, 38.
Sonderegger, “Ästhetische Regime,” 8–10. 16 Andreas Reckwitz, Die Erfindung der
aesthetic practices bred a new sensorium in fashion, art, and life—is nothing 7 Rancière, Politics of Aesthetics, 24. Kreativität: Zum Prozess gesellschaftlicher
new.12 It goes back, in fact, to Charles Baudelaire’s definition of modernity.13 8 Sonderegger, “Ästhetische Regime,” 8–10. Ästhetisierung (Berlin: Suhrkamp, 2012).
While Baudelaire is best known for his artistic critique of capitalism, he defined 9 Rancière, Politics of Aesthetics, 32. 17 Patrik Aspers, “A Note on Global Capitalism,”
10 Ibid. in Global Capitalism: The Road Ahead, ed.
fashion as a “political economy of the performative self”14 that was developed 11 Ibid., 26. Bharti Thakar (Hyderabad: Icfai University
as a cultural industry connecting economy and art.15 12 Elizabeth Wilson, Adorned in Dreams: Press, 2010), 3–16.
Fashion and Modernity (London: I.B. Tauris, 18 Boltanski and Chiapello, New Spirit of
2003). Capitalism: 8; Ève Chiapello, “Evolution
However, after the normalization of creative selves within a “regime of creativi-
13 Charles Baudelaire, “Modernity,” in The and Co-Optation: The ‘Artist Critique’ of
ty” in the course of the second half of the twentieth century,16 even now un- Painter of Modern Life: And Other Essays, Management and Capitalism,” Third Text 6,
der globalization and capitalism, the model of the aesthetic regime is more trans. and ed. Jonathan Mayne (London: no. 18 (2004): 593.
than relevant. Strong evidence lies in its geo- and bio-political aspects, as the Phaidon Press, 1995), 12–15; Luc Boltanski 19 See in this volume Elke Gaugele, “On the
and Ève Chiapello, The New Spirit of Capi- Ethical Turn in Fashion: Policies of Gover-
fashion system epitomizes the process of the globalization of capitalism.17 talism, trans. Gregory Elliot (London: Verso, nance and the Fashioning of Social Cri-
Since the fashion business resembles forms of artistic practice more than 2005), 38. tique,” 204–27.
Art, Aesthetics, and the Economy of Fashion aesthetic product with aesthetics as its key value. The Aesthetic Economy of
Fashion builds upon cultural knowledge as well as on aesthetic sensibility,
Nevertheless, in the course of the modern age, fashion and art established which comprises its essential form of capital: “aesthetics are the product/s
two particular and differentiated social and economic systems with their own and, as such, are the center of the economic calculations of the practice.” 28
criteria, rules, and value creation processes.20 Even Georg Simmel had already
pointed to the cross-references as well as to the boundaries between the dif- Side by side, operative techniques related to the art world were introduced to
ferent spheres: “Thus fashion can to all appearances and in abstracto absorb foster artistic reasons as a spirit of capitalism.29 Luc Boltanski and Ève Chiapello
any chosen content: any given form of clothing, of art, of conduct, of opinion reveal that the development of flexible neo-capitalism results from an incor-
may become fashionable. And yet many forms in their deeper nature show a poration of the elements of an artistic critique into the economic system.
special disposition to live themselves out in fashion, just as others offer inward These are assimilated into the “spirit of capitalism,” as an “ideology that justifies
resistance.”21 engagement in capitalism.” 30 This relates to the convergence of economic
and creative logics as well as to management’s support for creative modes of
Both the art and the fashion system have developed through mutual exchange functioning. Arguing that capitalist accumulation stands in close connection
processes as well as by statements of autonomy: proclamations that fashion with the forms of critique aimed at it, Boltanski and Chiapello also refer, in ad-
if necessary can be design, but would never be art; or that art by no means dition to the “artistic critique,” to a second antagonistic mode of criticism.31
wants to be fashion.22 Even so, this positioning, distinction, and relation within This social critique—inspired by socialists and Marxists—mainly points to ex-
a cultural industry is highly interesting as an aesthetic politics from a social ploitation, inequality, and poverty among workers as well as the destruction of
as well as a global economic point of view. The development of the fashion social bonds and collective solidarity.32 Fashionable apparel is predominantly
landscapes of the new millennium is characterized by the extension of the manufactured in places—sometimes sweatshops—with low pay, long forced
two major fashion conglomerates LVMH and Kering, buying as many leading overtime, piecework labor, poor health and safety, abusive management, child
design houses as they can.23 Now that more labels than ever before are con-
solidated under the same roof, the luxury fashion industry has adopted the
economic model of an umbrella holding.24 Currently, it sets out the guidelines 20 Isabelle Graw, “Der letzte Schrei: Über about-kering#empowering.
under which the brands operate based on the accumulation of the “artistic modeförmige Kunst und kunstförmige 26 Bruzzi and Church Gibson, Fashion Cultures
and financial potential” of its labels, and builds on strategies of “creativity” Mode,” Texte zur Kunst, no. 56 (December Revisited; see also Monica Titton, “Andy’s
2004): 80–95. Heritage: Collaborations between Fash-
and “empowering imagination.”25 Targeting the geopolitical production of 21 Georg Simmel, “Fashion,” International ion, Art, and Louis Vuitton,” in this volume,
contemporary imaginaries and their aesthetic presence through fashion and Quarterly, no. 10 (1904): 153; http://www. 60–75. Here she demonstrates the exam-
art, the consortium constantly sets up new art enterprises. It establishes gal- modetheorie.de/fileadmin/Texte/s/Simmel- ples of the Kering-Group’s holding, the
Fashion_1904.pdf. Palazzo Grassi in Venice, the art institu-
leries, sponsors art fairs as well as major exhibitions, and pushes brand col-
22 Graw, “Der letzte Schrei”; see also Isabelle tion Prada Foundation in Venice, and the
laborations with artists, so that present fashion merchandise seems to be run Graw, High Price: Art Between the Market “Fondation Louis Vuitton” in Paris. She
more by visiting artists and/or celebrities than by permanent in-house design- and Celebrity Culture (Berlin: Sternberg also highlights the role of Marc Jacobs
ers.26 Ten years ago, art theorist Isabelle Graw characterized the collabora- Press, 2010). within Louis Vuitton, cooperating with the
23 LVMH (Moët Hennessy-Louis Vuitton), PPR artists Takashi Murakami, Richard Prince,
tions between fashion and the art market, as the dernier cri, the latest thing. (Pinault Printemps Redoute Group); see Yayoi Kusama, and Stephen Sprouse; and
She points out that the fashion-shaped arts and art-shaped fashions of the also Stella Bruzzi and Pamela Church in 1988, Louis Vuitton’s cooperations with
1990s and 2000s are the effects of networks within a visual industry that Gibson, “Introduction. The Changed Fash- the artists César, Arman, Sol LeWitt, Sandro
ion Landscape of the New Millenium,” in Chia, and James Rosenquist.
builds its image production and visibility on the corporative structures of this Fashion Cultures Revisited: Theories, Ex- 27 Joanne Entwistle, The Aesthetic Economy
new cultural-industrial completion. This promotes not only the entering of plorations and Analysis, ed. Stella Bruzzi of Fashion: Markets and Value in Clothing
fashion logics or celebrity structures into the art world, but also the adoption and Pamela Church Gibson (London: Rout- and Modelling (Oxford: Berg, 2009).
ledge, 2013), 1–8. 28 Ibid., 55.
of art practices and of gestures of artistic ideals of freedom in the field of
24 Endora Comer-Arldt, “It’s All about the 29 Boltanski and Chiapello, New Spirit of
fashion. Image: The Cooperation between the Capitalism; Chiapello, “Evolution and Co-
Fashion Industry and Celebrities,” in this Optation,” 593.
Joanne Entwistle has framed another perspective on the aesthetic economy volume, 44–59. 30 Boltanski and Chiapello, New Spirit of
25 All quotes are phrases of brand strategies Capitalism, 8.
of fashion.27 Based on ethnographic fieldwork on fashion buyers and models, from the website of the Kering Group; 31 Ibid., 38.
she outlines an aesthetic economy that values and distributes fashion as an http://www.kering.com/en/group/ 32 Ibid., 37.
labor, lack of job security, and barriers to unionization.33 Therefore, contem- lifestyles. It examines Indian textiles as signifiers of decolonization and eco-
porary fashion cultures reveal an interesting field of tension between modes designs as well as ethical fashion as a carrier for values such as trust, honesty,
of artistic and social critique. Through the trend of Ethical Fashion, the fashion and, social justice. It proposes critical whiteness studies as a new perspective
system began to adopt and display the critical discourse on its own exploit- on a globalized fashion industry, which is inspected here for post- and neo-
ative modes of production for capitalist reasons. In a neoliberal way Ethical colonial processes.
Fashion incorporates and performs issues of a global political agenda: climate
change, social inequality, and collective values. With it a new agenda arose Introductory essays at the beginning of each chapter theorize the dominant
in the aesthetic politics of fashion. themes of aesthetic metapolitics: aesthetic economies, production of space,
and alternative aesthetic politics.
Aesthetics and Politics of Fashion: Strands and Chapters

Taking this dynamic framework as a productive point of departure, this an-
thology brings together different angles within interdisciplinary studies that
are motivated by the question of aesthetic politics in contemporary fashion.
Researchers examine aesthetics, economies, and politics of fashion from a
number of perspectives such as: art history, cultural science, sociology,
design, and fashion studies. They debate fashion as a cultural phenomenon at
the intersections of artistic, creative, economic, and everyday practices.
Furthermore, they also focus on alterative aesthetic politics based on postco-
lonial strategies, reflections on critical whiteness, and ecological and ethical
demands. Demarcations and overlaps, hierarchies, and alignments are dis-
cussed within the contexts of fashion, the arts, and styles regarding their ma-
terial constitution and symbolic realization.
On the other hand, Aesthetic Politics in Fashion investigates the key issues
that currently strategize, frame, and form fashion as an aesthetic metapolitics.
These are set out in the strands of aesthetic economies as well as in the pro-
duction of space, and furthermore in the motivations for alternative aesthetic
politics. The first chapter, “Aesthetic Economies,” focuses on the collaboration
of artists, media, and fashion labels. These are investigated as visualization
strategies for fashion marketing. The chapter starts with a study of Mallarmé’s
nineteenth-century magazine La dernière mode, along with its underlying
marketing strategy, and continues with topical research on fashion, celebrities,
and Louis Vuitton’s commercialization of the arts. It examines Bernadette
Corporation’s critical art practices towards fashionable celebrity artists and the
arty anti-fashion poses of fashion models. The second chapter, “Production
of Space,” investigates spaces and media spaces of fashion and art in relation
to the regimes of power, gaze, and representation. It examines how new global
spaces of exclusivity are produced in contemporary fashion shows as well as
in digital fashion films. Finally, fashion is sketched out here as a sphere of
liminality that designs imaginations for a “Society in the Subjunctive.” “Alter-
native Aesthetic Politics,” the third chapter, reflects on the increase of alterna- 33 Briggs, “Capitalism’s Favourite Child,”
tive aesthetic practices and their significance for ecological and postcolonial 186–99.
18 Introduction 19
Literature
Aspers, Patrik. “A note on Global Capitalism.” Graw, Isabelle. High Price: Art Between the
In Global Capitalism: The Road Ahead. Edited Market and Celebrity Culture. Berlin: Stern-
by Bharti Thakar, 3−16. Hyderabad: Icfai berg Press, 2010.
University Press, 2008.
Rancière, Jaques. The Politics of Aesthetics:
Baudelaire, Charles. The Painter of Modern The Distribution of the Sensible. Translated
Life: And Other Essays. Translated and edited with an introduction by Gabriel Rockhill.
by Jonathan Mayne. London: Phaidon Press, Afterword by Slavoj Žižek. London: continuum,
1995. 2004.
Boltanski, Luc and Ève Chiapello. The New Rancière, Jaques. “Die Politik der Ästhetik.”
Spirit of Capitalism. Translated by Gregory archplus, no. 178 (June 2006): 94–98.
Elliot. London: Verso, 2005.
Rancière, Jaques. Dissensus: On Politics and
Briggs, Adam. “Capitalism’s Favourite Child: Aesthetics. Edited and translated by Steven
The Production of Fashion.“ In Fashion Cul- Corcoran. London: continuum, 2010.
tures Revisited: Theories, Explorations and
Analysis. Edited by Stella Bruzzi and Pamela Reckwitz, Andreas. Die Erfindung der Kreati-
Church Gibson, 186–99. London: Routledge, vität: Zum Prozess gesellschaftlicher Ästheti-
2013. sierung. Berlin: Suhrkamp, 2012.
Bruzzi, Stella and Pamela Church Gibson. Simmel, Georg. “Fashion.” International Quar-
Fashion Cultures Revisited: Theories, Explora- terly, no. 10 (1904): 130−55. Accessed July
tions and Analysis. London: Routledge, 2013. 28, 2013. http://www.modetheorie.de/filead
min/Texte/s/Simmel-Fashion_1904.pdf.
Chiapello, Ève. “Evolution and co-optation.
The ‘artist critique’ of management and capi- Sonderegger, Ruth. “Ästhetische Regime.”
talism.” Third Text, no. 18:6 (2004): 585–94. Bildpunkt: Regimestörungen (Spring 2010):
8–10. Accessed February 20, 2014. http://
Entwistle, Joanne. The Aesthetic Economy of www.igbildendekunst.at/bildpunkt/2010/re-
Fashion: Markets and Value in Clothing and gimestoerungen/sonderegger.htm.
Modelling. Oxford: Berg, 2009.
Wilson, Elizabeth. Adorned in Dreams: Fashion
Graw, Isabelle. “Der letzte Schrei: Über and Modernity. London: I.B. Tauris, 2003.
modeförmige Kunst und kunstförmige Mode.”
Texte zur Kunst, no. 56 (December 2004):
80–95.
Aesthetic
Economies
Eva Flicker 23
Aesthetic
Pelt, leather, fiber, pigment, metal, stone; nylon, polyester, polyacrylic. Mate-
riality is an important factor for clothes and a minor aspect in fashion discourse.
The necessity of garment is basically a physiological one but is historically
deeply imbedded in complex social and cultural dynamics that we usually do
Economies of
not reflect in our daily lives.
Fashion refers to the materiality and visuality of cultures. But dematerialization

does not mean that fashion is only a world of signs and symbols. Aesthetic
values in fashion are the central product in aesthetic economies and may of
Fashion
course generate economic materiality. One crucial process in between is
attraction.
As a medium of communication, fashion spreads a wide range of negotiations
An Introduction
in diverse social directions, in social, political, cultural, religious, moral, sexual,
or economic structures.1 Clothes and fashion influence both technologies of
the body and the self as well as technologies of expression and representation.
Georg Simmel argues that fashion is a product of class distinction with the
aim of following those from the same ranks and being distinguished from
those in lower positions.2 Fashion communicates distinction and belonging—
Eva Flicker we shift between the individual subject and the collective or group, minor
and major social systems.
In aesthetic economies, aesthetics act as the central value and attraction as

the central communication. Though aesthetics is a fluid value shifting fluently,
paradoxically the permanent change of qualities of aesthetics represent the
constancy of aesthetic economies. “However, aesthetic values do not come
out of the nowhere; they certainly do not reside in the disembodied signs of
contemporary capitalism, but are generated internally to the field of production
itself, by the routine actions and practices of individuals and institutions.” 3
Creating, producing, exchanging, selling, marketing, seeing, touching, listen-

ing, wearing, watching, admiring, discarding, demonstrating, performing,
commenting, blogging, painting, picturing, imaging, spacing… The complexity
of fashion is overwhelming; in it we find all aspects of modern societies: power,
hegemony, social inequality, distinction, culture, gender, etc. So I decided to
stretch some outstanding ambivalences and contradictions within fashion
and aesthetic economies—without raising claim to completeness—as intro-
duction before announcing the following four contributions.
1 Daniel Devoucoux, Mode im Film: Zur Kultur- published in German in 1911.

anthropologie zweier Medien (Bielefeld: 3 Joanne Enwistle, “The Aesthetic Economy:
Transcript, 2007), 29. The Production of Value in the Field of
2 Georg Simmel, “Die Mode,” in Die Listen Fashion Modelling,” in Journal of Consumer
der Mode, ed. Silvia Bovenschen (Frank- Culture 2 (Nov. 2002): 322, doi:10.1177/
furt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1986), 182. First 146954050200200302.
24 Aesthetic Economies Eva Flicker 25
Originality—Imitation actors, most notably to other actors on the same dividing line of producers
and consumers.” 7 Fashion amounts to a hybrid of art, media, and economy,
“Nichts ist so verbreitet (und damit so wenig originell) wie der Wunsch nach stretching the logic in all directions.
Originalität.” [Nothing is as universal (and thus so unoriginal) as the desire to
be original.]4 How to stand out, when everyone wants to stand out, or even
needs to be outstanding in our society of expression and self-expression? Elites—Celebrities
Managing the balancing act between being original and being the original is
a challenge. There is no original without the impulse to copy and imitate. New Film has created stars since the early twentieth century and demonstrated
fashion styles arrive after centuries of nearly all combinations of styles, fashion the star’s luxury lifestyle in film but also in private life. “Mass culture is
recalls, and recombinations of materials, forms, and colors. The new occurs immersed in fashion and gravitates toward stars and idols, prodigiously success-
within the old and nostalgia is remixed with the future, swinging between the ful and attractive figures, who inspire infatuation and adulation in the ex-
familiar collective traditions and the unfamiliar in the revenant unacquainted. treme.” 8 With a time lag and through social processes, a trickle-down effect
spreads upper class values as simulation to lower classes. Boulevard mass
media and social media play with servile imitation and hysteria and link stars
Luxury—Poverty and celebrities symbolically to their fan communities. Wearing the same
shoes as a movie star and buying a wedding dress similar to that of a royal
Interests in fashion were not restricted to the female in earlier centuries; they princess opens fashion cultures to fashion markets and fashion consumers all
extended also to the male upper class.5 Fashion and styles included not only over the world. “Fashion sales have rocketed when promoted by A-list ac-
clothes, hairstyling, shoes, make-up, jewelry, but also the way of talking, what tresses, top models, and popular media personalities, as well as elite society.” 9
to say, how to behave, to socialize, etc. The more barriers diminished be- Mass media create “it-girls.” The phenomenon of a young woman absorbing
tween the social classes, the more diffusion of clothing styles there was into attraction with a special expression or attribute or “quality” is not new. Where-
lower classes. Within this trickle-down process, the distinction of prosperity as the female “special” characteristic could also have been a quality of mind
was cloned with single pieces as products of fashion economies. Fashion in- in the 1920s and 1930s, it is nowadays mainly reduced to fashion and bodily
dustries producing fake styles were exported to countries with large popula- attraction.
tions of low-wage workers. The global North is swamped by textiles produced
in the global South and East. Global textile supermarket chains supply lower
income populations with affordable fashions. And so, social inequality is no Women—Men
longer visible through shabby clothes or shoes with holes. Fashion is separated
from social habitus and the economic system of low-price fashion contributes Historically, power, body, and gender intertwined only in the hands of the
to a simulation of prosperity and pretends a fictitious wealth. This practice of privileged aristocracy. Court cultures authorized men and women to exhibit
concealment of social inequality pushes poverty and precariousness out of prosperity with their body in exclusive garments. Images and pictures of
the visible public and into the private and invisible sphere. female fashion styles throughout the centuries demonstrate the gendered social
order of fashion.10 At least since the age of Enlightenment and the processes
Popular Culture—Creative Industries

4 Elena Esposito, Die Verbindlichkeit des 8 Gilles Lipovetsky, The Empire of Fashion:
Vorübergehenden: Paradoxien der Mode Dressing Modern Democracy (Princeton,
“What is the case that the excitement which accompanied the emergence of (Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 2004), 81. NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994), 181.
a new fashion design star could be traced through a series of precise promo- 5 Ibid., 160. 9 James Laver, Costume and Fashion: A
6 Angela McRobbie, “Fashion as a Culture Concise History (London: Thames & Hud-
tional strategies involving fashion editors, fashion writers, fashion buyers
Industry,” in Fashion Cultures: Theories, son, 2012), 296.
(who need something avant-garde to liven up a window display) as well as an Explorations and Analysis, ed. Stella Bruzzi 10 Valerie Steele, Fetish: Fashion, Sex and
array of stylists, photographers, models and friends from college, all of whom and Pamela Church Gibson (London: Rout- Power (New York: Oxford University Press,
might be said to constitute a ‘network’?”6 Fashion industries are a remarkable ledge, 2000), 258. 1996); Monika Seidl and Eva Flicker, “Fash-
7 Patrik Aspers, Markets in Fashion: A Phe- ionable Queens. Body – Power – Gender,”
part of the growing creative industries and the globalized markets in fashion nomenological Approach (Stockholm: City in Austrian Studies in English (Vienna: Peter
play crucial roles. Markets are social constructions. “Actors relate to other University Press, 2001), 49. Lang, 2014).
of democratization in the nineteenth century, fashionable men are said to be himself. The magazine became an important style benchmark among European
mashers, homosexuals, or ridiculous.11 Normative gender roles and gender and international elites in the nineteenth century. It propagated images of
stereotypes exclude fashion styles from politics and business. Political func- fashion for “ladies and children,” as well as recipes and home interior deco-
tions and economic elites require visual representation. Pictures of political rating advice. The invention and investigation of upper class lifestyle and
events are laden with symbolic value; women are still a small minority. Female the stereotypical role of women is reflected in three dimensions: temporal,
politicians are imprisoned in a double bind communication: when they perform territorial, and financial economies.
and dress according to feminine patterns, they might be seen as soft players
in the hard field of politics.12 When they accept male dress codes such as the Endora Comer-Arldt, in her essay “It’s All About the Image: The Cooperation
dark suit, they refuse to emphasize the gender shift in politics. No matter how between the Fashion Industry and Celebrities,” sheds a light on the relation and
they devise their roles, they remain imprisoned in a situation that does not co-operation between the fashion industry and celebrities. Practices of celeb-
allow for undoing gender, at least on a visual level and they are always regarded rity marketing and fashion marketing are intertwined—mainly due to media
and judged on this basis. No matter which way they chose, the double bind is visibility. Hollywood stars as fashion models and TV-stars as gaze attractors
fixed within the complex field of communication of politics and media. What is set visual stimuli for a wide audience. Dominant classes or groups set standards
optically striking in visual political communication is the imbalance between of desirability with symbolic and emotional needs and trickle-down effects.
the dominant group of those wearing dark suits and the occasional individual Endora Comer-Arldt describes the evolution of celebrity culture in mass media,
with a different style.13 Models in fashion start to cross these gender borders. enumerating examples of cooperation between the fashion industry and a
While we have been used to seeing women in men’s clothes for a while now, host of pop-culture icons.
male models access the catwalk in women’s dresses. Unisex as a visual code
in both directions is a new dynamic of irritation and attraction in the media, Monica Titton entitles her contribution “Andy’s Heritage: Collaborations be-
but not yet grounded in everyday life. tween Fashion, Art, and Louis Vuitton” and reveals connections between artists
and fashion labels. The author focuses on examples of handbags of Louis
Aesthetic economies and the field of fashion have recourse to functional logics Vuitton created by artists such as Takashi Murakami and Richard Price. The role
of art, mass media/social media, and economics while creating particularities. of the Japanese and the US-American artist demonstrate the intertwining of
Intertwined relations between creators, producers, and consumers are im- globalized markets in art and fashion. International brands create new images
bedded in social structure and cultural and visual knowledge.14 Selective choices with the use of visual codes, logos, and surprising eclectic modifications.
seemingly made by individuals stem from social differences and inequalities, The dualistic structure of avant-garde and commercialization is embedded in
practices of distinction, needs for belonging and codes of communication. In a re-contextualization of art, economy, and social distinction.
information economies, the increasing overflow of information in all societal
aspects challenges processes of selectivity. Attraction has become a scarce Ilka Becker examines the works of a heterogeneous artist collective, the
and contested commodity. Within the economy of attraction,15 it is the cur- Bernadette Corporation, under the aspect of aesthetic politics in her article
rency with which capital is constructed. The common basis is economic and “Life Which Writes Itself: Retrospecting Art, Fashion, and Photography in the
cultural capital, social habitus, and taste (Bourdieu 1982, Gronow 1997) in Bernadette Corporation.” On one hand, she bases this on an essay by Ulrich
diverse variations of prestige in different social classes. Bröckling about “being different differently.” 16 On the other hand, she uses the
observation that, in recent years, art and fashion have grown closer together
The following four contributions of the first chapter, “Aesthetic Economies,” aim as accomplices and that—in regard to the culture of consumption—neither an
at analyzing sensible relations between actors in fashion and art—producers, affirmative nor negative stand seems appropriate from the side of art. Becker
communicators, and consumers.
11 Barbara Vinken, Angezogen: Das Geheimnis 14 John Berger, Ways of Seeing (London:
Birke Sturm titles her contribution “The Tension of Mallarmé’s Deception
der Mode (Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 2013), 70. Penguin, 1972).
Manoeuver: Temporal, Territorial, and Financial Economies in Fashion.” The 12 Anne Hollander, Sex and Suits (New York: 15 Georg Frank, Ökonomie der Aufmerksam-
author analyzes the magazine La dernière mode, which was edited by the Knopf, 1995). keit: Ein Entwurf (Munich: DTV, 2007).
French symbolist poet and man of letters Stéphane Mallarmé (1842–1892). 13 Eva Flicker, “Fashionable (Dis-)order in 16 Cited by Ilka Becker, “Life Which Writes
Politics: Gender, Power and the Dilemma Itself: Retrospecting Art, Fashion, and
The essay discusses the journal’s production and different female writers and of the Suit,” in International Journal of Media Photography in the Bernadette Corpora-
how they seem to be “a coup de bleuff” as a virtual figure created by Mallarmé & Cultural Politics 9, vol. 2 (2013): 214. tion,” in this volume: 76–97.
interprets positions that are established in an intermediate field between art, Literature
fashion and politics. Bernadette Corporation’s position is one that brings
Aspers, Patrik. Markets in Fashion. A Phenom- Hollander, Anne. Sex and Suits. New York:
fixed identities on a visual level into a flow, as a refusal of identity politics. enological Approach. Stockholm: City Univer- Knopf, 1995.
sity Press, 2001.
Laver, James. Costume and Fashion. A Concise
Berger, John. Ways of Seeing, London: Penguin, History. Fifth edition. London: Thames &
1972. Hudson, 2012.
Bourdieu, Pierre. Die feinen Unterschiede. Lipovetsky, Gilles. The Empire of Fashion.
Kritik der gesellschaftlichen Urteilskraft. Dressing Modern Democracy. Princeton, NJ:
Frankfurt/Main : Suhrkamp, 1982. Princeton University Press, 1994.
Devoucoux, Daniel. Mode im Film. Zur Kultur- McRobbie, Angela. “Fashion as a Culture
anthropologie zweier Medien. Bielefeld: Tran- Industry,” in Fashion Cultures. Theories,
script, 2007. Explorations and Analysis. Edited by Stella
Bruzzi and Pamela Church Gibson, 253–63.
Enwistle, Joanne. “The Aesthetic Economy: London: Routledge, 2000.
The Production of Value in the Field of Fashion
Modeling.” In Journal of Consumer Culture Seidl, Monika, and Eva Flicker. Fashionable
(Nov. 2002), 317–39. Queens. Body – Power – Gender, book series
Austrian Studies in English. Vienna: Peter
Esposito, Elena. Die Verbindlichkeit des Lang, 2014.
Vor-übergehenden: Paradoxien der Mode.
Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 2004. Simmel, Georg. “Die Mode.” In Die Listen
der Mode. Edited by Silvia Bovenschen.
Flicker, Eva. “Fashionable (dis-)order in politics: Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1986. Originally
Gender, power and the dilemma of the suit.” published in German in 1911.
In International Journal of Media & Cultural
Politics 9:2 (2013), 201–219, doi: 10.1386/ Steele, Valerie. Fetish. Fashion, Sex and Power.
macp.9.2.201_1 New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Frank, Georg. Ökonomie der Aufmerksamkeit. Vinken, Barbara. Angezogen. Das Geheimnis
Ein Entwurf. Munich: DTV, 2007. der Mode. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 2013.
Gronow, Jukka. The Sociology of Taste. London:

Routledge, 1997.
Birke Sturm 31
The Tension
La dernière mode—The Mallarméan Deception
It is almost impossible to imagine the world of fashion without fashion maga-
zines. Fashion magazines build a platform of examples, models, and sugges-
of Mallarmé’s
tions that money can buy for a reader in search of self-aestheticization. At the
same time, fashion magazines deliver tips concerning a suitable lifestyle,
which can be implemented in one’s everyday life. However, this cannot be re-
garded as a new development. It was already in the middle of the nineteenth
century that such magazines built a strong economic force and were accessible
Deception
to a large readership.1 Especially fashion pictures, which were often attached
as so-called fashion plates, built up an important forum for the bourgeois lady
who wanted to appear well-dressed, beautiful and modern.2 Except for the
images, which have been replaced by photographs, these fashion magazines
Manoeuver
were quite similar to the ones we know today. Among other things, they pre-
dominantly included advertisements for fashion boutiques as well as cultural
tips and diverting readings. If we think of its economical factors, especially
three different economies of fashion can be reconstructed on the basis of
these magazines. As fashion with its huge market value is obviously part of
Temporal,
our capitalist society, the financial dimension comes to mind quite quickly.
Another economic dimension is temporal: fashion changes and people follow
in order to keep up with time, to be up-to-date. Last but not least, there is a
territorial dimension. Fashion is not bound to a single continent. On the con-
Territorial,
trary, fashion is global—no matter whether the production or the consumption
of fashion is concerned.
These economies were already part of the magazine La dernière mode, which
was edited by the symbolist poet and man of letters Stéphane Mallarmé
and Financial
(1842–1892). Eight editions of this magazine appeared every first and third
Sunday per month from September 1874 to December 1874. It started out with
an edition of 3000, a number that was reduced to 1000 under a different
printer in November 1874.3 Within this period of time Mallarmé’s magazine
Economies
showed innovative changes concerning the style and appearance of fashion
and at once offered the poet’s idea of modernity. On the one hand, the maga-
zine shows a modern view on how to deal with fashion, which goes beyond
exterior appearance, straight towards the soul. Simultaneously, Mallarmé’s way
of writing about fashion stresses the importance of the temporal, the territorial,
in Fashion
as well as the financial economy of fashion and makes them leading and re-
curring subjects of discussion throughout the magazine. Speaking about the
1 Anne Higonnet, Berthe Morisot’s Images 3 Philip Nicolas Furbank and Alex Cain, “La
of Women (Cambridge, MA: Harvard dernière mode, and Its Pre-history,” in
University Press, 1992), 90. Mallarmé on Fashion: A Translation of the
Birke Sturm 2 Tamar Garb, Bodies of Modernity: Figure Fashion Magazine “La dernière mode” with
and Flesh in Fin-de-Siècle France (London: commentary, ed. Philip Nicolas Furbank
Thames & Hudson, 1998), 87. and Alex Cain (Oxford: Berg, 2004), 8.
32 The Tension of Mallarmé’s Deception Manoeuver Birke Sturm 33
human soul in a capitalist-oriented context seems to be absurd at first glance. Apart from the sections “La mode,” “Gazette de la Fashion,” and “Chronique de
However, Roland Barthes describes La dernière mode in the following: “If it Paris,” the magazine came with images of fashionable clothes for ladies and
were a matter of a dialectic of the serious and the frivolous, i.e., if the frivolity children and descriptions of these outfits, as well as tips for recipes and
of Fashion were immediately taken as absolutely serious, we would then have homely interior design in the section “Carnet d’Or” (The golden notebook). In
one of the most elevated forms of the literary experience: i.e., the very move- addition, the correspondence with subscribers also made up an important
ment of the Mallarmean dialectic apropos of Fashion itself (Mallarmé’s La part of La dernière mode. Only the last section of the magazine, which con-
dernière mode).”4 sisted of either poems or prose texts, seems to really have been written by
contemporary authors, among them Mallarmé himself. At the end of each edi-
This article will follow the dialectic of “the serious and the frivolous” that Barthes tion, Mme de Ponty dedicated herself to advice on education about how to
briefly mentions in a footnote. Thus, the effort as well as the deception that make offspring a part of modern life.
Mallarmé undertook in order to edit his fashion magazine and the range of
meanings within fashion will be described in order to finally examine temporal,
financial, and territorial aspects of fashion that were also part of his project. La dernière mode—Fashion and the Female Soul
Apart from some unsteadily reoccurring characters, the main authors of the But why did Mallarmé start such an enterprise? At a first glance, it seems as if
magazine can be listed as following: “Madame Marguerite de Ponty,” who filled his concern was quite simple: giving ladies instructions in matters of taste.9
the section “La mode” with the latest news concerning Parisian fashion for the However, a close reading of the magazine gives a deeper impression. It seems
lady. She is described as “une femme du monde qui est aussi un littérateur as if Mallarmé, who had a deep interest in the decorative arts and beautiful
distingué.”5 It is worth noticing that this lady is not referred to as a female writer things, for some time really identified with his readers. Thus, he took up the
as one might suspect, but that the male “littérateur” was chosen: a mistake allure of a female concerned with her own appearance as well as the pleasures
that might not have happened accidentally. Due to her English name “Miss of life. However his reflections go far beyond the surface.10
Satin,” another character, is worried about her readers’ trust in the fourth edi-
tion of the magazine.6 However, only two editions later, she is described as a Prose texts and verses were part of each magazine. In the first edition, Ix asks
very well-known Parisian lady whose actual name remains a secret.7 She was the question whether these are in vogue and fashionable or at least ought to
responsible for the section “Gazette de la Fashion” and discussed shops and be so. According to him it would be wrong to regard this question as being
places where the latest fashion could be found. Another person labeled as “Ix” frivolous. The reason for this is as follows: “For it proceeds from an axiom:
wrote about Parisian theater plays within “Chronique de Paris.” Additionally, that all women love verse, as they do perfumes or jewels or the characters in
books that were supposed to be a must-read for every lady—whether she was novels; it is as dear to them as their own selves.”11 Consequently, the value of
intellectual or not—were part of this section La dernière mode 6: Maisons de
Confiance. His identity was said to have been revealed one day in the sixth 4 Roland Barthes, The Fashion System, trans. (London: Methuen, 1987), 193.
edition, however such a revelation never took place. Matthew Ward and Richard Howard (Berke- 10 Furbank and Cain, “La dernière mode,” 6.
ley: University of California Press, 1990), 242. Furbank and Cain also describe here that,
5 Stephane Mallarmé, “Les maisons de con- when the International Exhibition took
These characters seem to be quite shady. And it is indeed because of these fiance,” La dernière mode 6 (1874). As the place in London in 1871, Mallarmé was
strange characters that Jean-Pierre Lecercle was perfectly right when he called magazine does not involve any page num- asked to review the French stand. Accord-
Mallarmé’s magazine a “coup de bleuff”—a deception manoeuver—in his publi- bers, I refer to the section from which is ing to the man of letters all invention had
quoted (here: “Les maisons de confiance”). ceased in the sphere of furnishing.
cation Mallarmé et la mode (1989).8 The reason for this is that none other than 6 Mallarmé, “Gazette de la Fashion,” La der- 11 Mallarmé, “Chronique de Paris,” La
Mallarmé himself was hidden behind all the characters presented above. nière mode 4. dernière mode 1; Furbank and Cain, “The
7 Mallarmé, “Les maisons de confiance,” La Journal, Fortnight by Fortnight, with Com-
dernière mode 6. mentary,” in Furbank and Cain, Mallarmé
What Mallarmé created with his fashion magazine—the surface of which ap-
8 Jean-Pierre Lecercle, Mallarmé et la mode on Fashion, 30. Philip Nicolas Furbank and
pears like any other magazine published at this time—is a reflection of modern (Paris: Séguier, 1989), 23. Alex Cain published an English translation
culture: a reflection that shows and supports what Mallarmé must have ana- 9 Rachel Bowlby, “Modes of Modern Shop- of Mallarmé’s fashion magazine in 2004.
lyzed in detail before the publication; a mirror that subversively found its way ping: Mallarmé at the Bon Marché,” in The In the following, I will give the page of the
Ideology of Conduct: Essays on Literature English translation as well as the section
back into the culture it reflected. The subscribers didn’t know anything about and the History of Sexuality, ed. Nancy and edition of the original French magazine
these means of production. Yet Mallarmé’s time and effort speaks for itself. Armstrong and Leonard Tennenhouse whenever it comes to direct quotations.
a new book is judged with the help of the criterion of accidental and various The Fast-Moving Nature of Fashion Styles—Temporal
interests of women, such as perfume or jewels. Ix continues: “To please them, Economies in La dernière mode
or at least deserve to do so: I know of no ambition, becoming a triumph if one
succeeds, that is more fitting for a work in prose or in verse. They say that When it comes to time, two economies are obvious in Mallarmé’s magazine. On
there are no real readers any longer, and perhaps this is true; but there are the one hand, the fugacity as well as the fast-moving nature of fashion styles
women readers. Only a woman, in her freedom from politics and gloomy must be considered. On the other hand, it is time the woman reader must have
cares, has leisure, once her dressing is done, to feel the need to dress her on her hands to find her orientation and become part of the world of fashion.
soul as well.” 12
In the beginning of Charles Baudelaire’s essay The Painter of Modern Life, he
Indeed, Mallarmé describes women of the upper class, free from obligations, describes beauty “as made up, on the one hand, of an element that is eternal
as having the chance for a life full of pleasure-seeking frivolity, which is close- and invariable, though to determine how much of it there is is extremely diffi-
ly linked to fashionable clothes. According to him, a female lifestyle gives cult, and, on the other, of a relative circumstantial element, which we may like
women the unique opportunity to care for their own soul. It is that which to call, successively or at one and the same time, contemporaneity, fashion,
makes her a proper reader. On the one hand, it seems as if Mallarmé exposed morality, passion.”20
a lighter and more relaxed part of his character than he does in his poetry.
However, his gaze at the material is definitely serious. Thus, he regards modernity, which is “the transient, the fleeting, the contin-
gent” as “one half of the art, the other being the eternal and immovable.”21 It
Ulrich Lehmann describes Mallarmé’s switch into female identities as an in- is this changing and futile element that Baudelaire works out theoretically and
vestigation of the social status of women. La dernière mode offered him the that ought to become an important practical part within each of Mallarmé’s
opportunity to dedicate himself to futile, simple, and domestic things, which eight editions of La dernière mode.
were connected to the female gender and regarded to be non-male.13
At the very beginning of the first edition, Madame Marguerite de Ponty dedi-
Guy Michaud (1953) went further and stressed a feminine precocity in Mallarmé’s cates herself to the importance that time has for fashion. September 6, 1874—
character, proclaiming a queer reading in his consistency of the identification between seasons—was not the best point in time to speak about fashion.
with femininity.14 And even if we can only speculate about the actual purpose Therefore, the first edition starts out with the words: “Too late to speak of sum-
behind Mallarmé’s venture of publishing this fashion magazine, it is a fact that mer fashions and too soon to speak of winter ones (or even autumn ones).”22 In-
Mallarmé defended against the fast end of his editorship and that he only deed, the temporality of fashion is a prevailing topic in nearly all of her articles.
accepted it reluctantly.15 In addition, the intensive examination of the functioning In the following edition she writes about how many pretty things she glimpsed
of fashion, which results in the revelation of its economies, proves the bourgeois during the previous two weeks. And she uses the word “glimpsed” on purpose,
woman’s deep interest in the modern world. “because preparations for autumn are not completed yet, and the great creators
of Fashion will not let [people] see their preliminary sketches.”23
No matter whether Mallarmé transgressed gender roles or investigated women’s
status in society, he saw feminine frivolity as an important counterpart in a
life that seemed to be too masculine and therefore too serious.16 Nevertheless,
this does not mean that femininity can be said to be superficial in Mallarmé’s 12 Mallarmé, “Chronique de Paris,” La “Fortnight by Fortnight,” 30.
dernière mode 1 (1874); Furbank and Cain, 19 Furbank and Cain, “Fortnight by Fort-
eyes. If we keep in mind that for Mallarmé the aesthetic ideal was reached “Fortnight by Fortnight,” 30. night,” 30.
best via words and language,17 and if we recall the above quotation about the 13 Ulrich Lehmann, Tigersprung: Fashion in 20 Charles Baudelaire, The Painter of Modern
female “freedom from politics and gloomy cares,”18 Mallarmé’s concern seems Modernity (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, Life, trans. P. E. Charvet (London: Penguin,
2000), 75. 2010), 4.
to reach deep. He regards women readers as the only proper readers of his
14 Guy Michaud, Mallarmé. L’Homme et 21 Ibid., 17.
time and thus sees a woman’s chance to reach these pure ideas and “dress l’Oeuvre (Paris: Hatier-Boivin, 1953). 22 Mallarmé, “La Mode,” La dernière mode 1
her soul as well.”19 In contrast to this transcendent background, the magazine 15 Lehmann, Fashion in Modernity, 87. (1874); Furbank and Cain, “Fortnight by
expresses temporal, territorial, and financial economies of fashion in modern 16 Bowlby, “Modes of Modern Shopping” 194. Fortnight,” 21.
17 Lecercle, Mallarmé et la mode, 112. 23 Mallarmé, “La Mode,” La dernière mode 2
society. 18 Mallarmé, “Chronique de Paris,” La (1874); Furbank and Cain, “Fortnight by
dernière mode 1 (1874); Furbank and Cain, Fortnight,” 21.
Thanks to a “flagrant indiscretion,” which is not discussed in further detail, fruit and had little use for it now. Not only exotic ingredients were presented.
Mme de Ponty can already furnish her readers with some tantalizing insights In order to help the readers with authentic recipes and to give his magazine
into latest versions of shoes and hats.24 Each version will be unique, she says, an authentic flair, Mallarmé made up characters with a colonial background.
because, “fashion does not repeat itself.”25 In the next edition she refers to the However, a global exchange was not just proclaimed in the field of food and
complete transformation that fashion underwent that autumn and that it recipes; also fashion was shown as part of a global market. This is especially
would still undergo. The fashion she writes of is capricious, spinning “a thou- thematized in the columns of the two fashionable ladies Mme de Ponty and
sand charming whimsies, indispensable extras for daytime wear.”26 After a Miss Satin. Even though Marguerite de Ponty writes that in Paris there is
couple of remarks concerning, for example, necklaces, scarves, and bows, as “nothing exquisite that it cannot offer for sale,” 32 she describes strange and
well as how to wear them, she reassures that all these novelties were known big jewels with a “certain intimate charm” 33 that the ones of her own country
to her, “before it was known at the last races in the Bois de Bologne” (a place lack. Elsewhere she points at a “collier-de-chien,” a necklace for women that
of fashionable gathering, where the latest fashion could be seen). One women were supposed to be given by their husbands, showing the initials of
glimpse there was enough to confirm her prefabricated opinion.27 All in all, both of them and which was known in London, Vienna, St. Petersburg, and
Mme de Ponty presents herself as a confidant for the lady who wants to know New York.34
what to wear. A trait that is also obvious in the fifth edition, when Mme de
Ponty describes how to dress up for different events such as dinner parties or The reason for that is given in one of Miss Satin’s texts:
trips to the countryside. There is no need to worry about the huge choice of
materials for Mme de Ponty’s readers. Thanks to her descriptions, as she The management has commissioned me to make a confession. It shall be
claims, her readers will be able to foresee the following two months—which brief and loyal. In your Journal, we had forgotten the Ladies of the foreign
was in her view a rather long period of time in the field of fashion.28 colony in Paris, and indeed foreign Ladies everywhere: forgotten them all!
We were so preoccupied with yourselves, Ladies, that it was as if the fes-
Apart from the fast moving and varied fashion styles, time is of importance tivities in London or Moscow or Vienna did not exist. In consequence, what
for the female readers to find their way through the jungle of fashion. In this a shower of letters there has been, bearing bizarre postage-stamps and
context Mme de Ponty is not the only one to help out. The dynamic Miss Satin delicately hinting that susceptibilities have been injured! Nor is that all. The
gives tips on where to buy certain products in the section “Gazette de la ladies of Paris were soon sending us requests for new kinds of information.35
Fashion.” Some “cartes-de-visites” present a number of shops that sell them.
The temporal economy of fashion is therefore immediately linked to the finan- Referring to a couple of letters she received from subscribers concerning that
cial one. topic, Miss Satin concludes: “[W]hat such letters reveal is the need for a rap-
prochement between all members of High Society, whether belonging to Paris,
Fashion on the Global Market: Territorial Economies in La

dernière mode 24 Mallarmé, “La Mode,” La dernière mode 1 French magazine La mode illustrée was
(1874); Furbank and Cain, “Fortnight by also available in England.
Fortnight,” 21. Especially the Chapeau 30 Mallarmé, “Carnet d’Or,” La dernière mode
Territorial economies, as they appear in the magazine, are also connected to Berger and the Chapeau Valois were men- 4 (1874); Furbank and Cain, “Fortnight by
financial economies. Thus, as it was typical for fashion magazines in those tioned in the magazine to be very famous Fortnight,” 107.
days, La dernière mode was sold far beyond the borders of France.29 Apart at that time. 31 Mallarmé, “Carnet d’Or,” La dernière mode
25 Mallarmé, “La Mode,” La dernière mode 2 6 (1874); Furbank and Cain, “Fortnight by
from England, Germany, and Austria, the magazine names its price for Australia, (1874); Furbank and Cain, “Fortnight by Fortnight,” 153f.
the USA, as well as some countries in South America, to name only a few. Fortnight,” 53. 32 Mallarmé, “La Mode,” La dernière mode 1
26 Ibid. (1874); Furbank and Cain, “Fortnight by
27 Mallarmé, “La Mode,” La dernière mode 3 Fortnight,” 22.
The magazine shows an international orientation not only concerning the circu-
(1874); Furbank and Cain, “Fortnight by 33 Ibid.
lation, but also in terms of content. When we leave fashion for a moment, Fortnight,” 75. 34 Mallarmé, “La Mode,” La dernière mode 3
various suggestions for different recipes show a global orientation. Consequently, 28 Mallarmé, “La Mode,” La dernière mode 5 (1874); Furbank and Cain, “Fortnight by
Mallarmé assumed the role of a creole lady to describe the making of a chicken (1874); Furbank and Cain, “Fortnight by Fortnight,” 74.
Fortnight,” 122. 35 Mallarmé, “Gazette de la Fashion,” La
stew.30 In addition, he explains under his alias Zizi, a “bonne mulâtre de Surat,”31 29 This was not unusual for fashion maga- dernière mode 4 (1874); Furbank and Cain,
how to make jam out of coconuts for everybody who was tempted to buy this zines in those days. For example, the “Fortnight by Fortnight,” 100.
the home of all elegances, or to other, perhaps far-flung centres of fashion- give a clear idea of the illustration. The aim of the magazine was last but not
able life.” 36 least to show Parisian life with all “its pleasures and its duties everywhere on
the public scene and in private.”42 Celebrations and the way women were
Thus, the world of fashion is described as highly international in Mallarmé’s dressed for different events were highly important as can be seen by Mme de
magazine and the international impact that fashion already had in those days Ponty’s accomplishments: “Celebrations simply for their own sake? Yes, and
is reflected perfectly well. In the same edition in which Miss Satin focuses on because they are an excuse, and an occasion, for dressing up. ‘Go there’ and
the international readership and the importance of their intercommunication ‘Here is how you should go’: these words will constantly be found in our column,
and agreement, Mme Marguerite de Ponty writes about the British fashion and ‘Madame, with such-and-such a toilette you could well stay at home,
designer Charles Frederick Worth (1825–1895).37 After his apprenticeship in saved from the tedium of the long hours by this silk or that lace, enchanted
England he came to work in Paris. As he was enormously famous for his feminine and as it were made new to yourself.”43
fashion, Marylène Delbourg called him “le grand organisateur de l’univers
feminine.”38 Worth was not only well known in Great Britain and France. In A similar (more or less) decadent attitude is revealed throughout each edi-
Austria he was known as Empress Elisabeth’s outfitter. The most famous ex- tion, for example, when Miss Satin points at ladies “who greatly dislike this
ample is certainly the dress in which Franz Xaver Winterhalter painted her in filling of the pockets of rich manufacturers, and insist, obstinately, that things
1865. It shows the Empress with white stars in her loosely braided hair and in Paris are going to the dogs.” This is recognized as a problem “for gazetters”
wearing a strapless dress of white tulle and golden appliqués. Two editions like herself. However, this is dismissed as beside the point with the uncom-
after the reference to Worth, Mme de Ponty describes the newest ball gowns passionate words: “Not everyone is lucky; not everyone can buy ‘blue-of-
and makes the reader aware that the way of wearing them comes from the dreams’ […] gowns, nor otter-fur-coloured tunics of pure Tibetan wool.”44 The
East (without explaining what she means by “East” in any further detail).39 unfair distribution of luck and the clearness that fashion cannot be available
Therefore, even though Paris can be regarded as the capital of the nineteenth for everybody did not prevent Mme de Ponty from writing about “laws, de-
century, Mallarmé’s accomplishments stress the importance of international crees, projects, and pronunciations” according to which one needs to dress
relations as an economic factor in fashion. this season.45 Baudelaire wrote about a woman’s right or even duty to devote
herself “to the task of fostering a magic and supernatural aura about her ap-
In conclusion, it is clear that fashion must be regarded as a global phenomenon pearance; she must adorn herself, to be adored. It follows, she must borrow,
in Mallarmé’s days. For Mallarmé, fashion was supposed to be of highest im- from all the arts, the means of rising above nature, in order the better to con-
portance not only for the so-called Parisienne, but also for women worldwide. quer the hearts and impress the minds of men.”46 Thus, only a couple of years
His magazine offered a platform on which international news in the fashion later, La dernière mode gave practical and instructive support for women to
business could be exchanged. live up to these standards that Baudelaire (well-known to Mallarmé) had fixed
before.
The Fashionable Lady as Sustaining Economic Power— Although the magazine’s main focus is the female appearance, it goes far be-
Financial Economies in La dernière mode yond it including in each edition, for example, the way women were supposed
As typical for fashion magazines in those days (and still nowadays), La dernière
mode supported a feminized economy of a beautiful woman made up by com- 36 Ibid. (1874); Furbank and Cain, “Fortnight by
37 Mallarmé, “La Mode,” La dernière mode 4 Fortnight,” 51.
modities. The fashionable lady comprised a pillar for the new consumer society (1874); Furbank and Cain, “Fortnight by 42 Mallarmé, “La Mode,” La dernière mode 4
of the nineteenth century. A woman who dressed up represented the magic as Fortnight,” 97. (1874); Furbank and Cain, “Fortnight by
well as the superficial excess that money made affordable in modernity.40 Mallarmé’s 38 Marylène Delbourg-Delphis, Le chic et le Fortnight,” 95.
look: Histoire de la mode féminine et des 43 Ibid.
magazine presented an enormous number of rules and instructions and reas-
mœurs de 1850 à nos jours (Paris: 44 Mallarmé, “Gazette de la Fashion,” La
sured the speed in which fashion styles novated and had to be followed. As Hachette, 1981), 47. dernière mode 5 (1874); Furbank and Cain,
soon as the first signs of fashion were in sight “at this moment of renewal,” 39 Mallarmé, “La Mode,” La dernière mode 6 “Fortnight by Fortnight,” 124.
Mme de Ponty wishes “to reclothe our lady-reader from top to toe.”41 Throughout (1874); Furbank and Cain, “Fortnight by 45 Mallarmé, “La Mode,” La dernière mode 7
Fortnight,” 143. (1874); Furbank and Cain, “Fortnight by
each magazine plentiful images and suggestions are presented. Black and 40 Garb, Bodies of Modernity, 11. Fortnight,” 163.
white engravings of the newest fashion are described in color and material to 41 Mallarmé, “La Mode,” La dernière mode 2 46 Baudelaire, Painter of Modern Life, 46.
to dress their offspring too. The clothes presented were no less exclusive than
those for the children’s mothers. A “costume en cheviotte”47—a coat of a spe-
cial Scottish sheep’s wool for a six-year-old girl—is only one example I would
like to give here. At the same time, advice on education is given in each edi-
tion so that children could be introduced to cultural life from a very early age.
The surrounding of such a modern lifestyle was not to be missed either. A vari-
ety of the aforementioned recipes and menu suggestions as well as proposals
for furnishing the housing space and tips for cultural events were part of the
magazine. Thereby, the events themselves were as important as the chance to
glimpse the latest trends of fashion while visiting them.
Consequently, the magazine La dernière mode points beyond instructions for

the female appearance. Again and again, it confirms a lady’s task of obtaining
the aesthetically valuable things in life that money could buy. This is why Rachel
Bowlby sees the establishment of a prejudice that is still current today. In her
view, the magazine creates a picture of the natural woman in which female
readers can recognize themselves and in which the one thing for women to
do is to go shopping.48
“The Serious and the Frivolous”

Finally, the tension of Mallarmé’s fashion magazine lies first of all in his own
masquerade and his writing from the point of view of different, mainly female
characters that were part of the production. But the tension goes further:
Mallarmé’s magazine is a serious statement on fashion in modern society and
reveals his own devotion to it. For Mallarmé, fashion goes deep. Mallarmé’s
idea is that only women in their freedom of politics could enjoy the pleasures
of a newly developed modern culture; a lifestyle which was supposed to give
them the possibility to take care of their souls. For him, they were the only
real readers. However, this idea is embedded into the temporal, territorial,
and financial economies of fashion, which were already in full swing in those
days and not questioned at all by the author. They give the magazine a highly
superficial flair in spite of all its intensity. Accordingly, Barthes’s description
of Mallarmé’s magazine that describes it as “a dialectic of the serious and the
frivolous” turns out to be extremely appropriate.49 The Mallarméan dialectic
seems to involve absolutely taking seriously what actually seems to be insig-
nificant. For the man of letters, fashion is of high significance.
47 Mallarmé, “La Mode,” La dernière mode 3 48 Bowlby, “Modes of Modern Shopping,” 202.
(1874); Furbank and Cain, “Fortnight by 49 Barthes, Fashion System, 242.
Fortnight,” 76.
42 The Tension of Mallarmé’s Deception Manoeuver 43
Literature
Barthes, Roland. The Fashion System. Trans- Furbank, Philip Nicolas, and Alex Cain. “The
lated by Matthew Ward and Richard Howard. Journal, Fortnight by Fortnight, with Com-
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990. mentary.” In Mallarmé on Fashion: A Transla-
tion of the Fashion Magazine La dernière
Baudelaire, Charles. The Painter of Modern mode with Commentary. Edited by Philip
Life. Translated by P. E. Charvet. London: Pen- Nicolas Furbank and Alex Cain, 17–208. Ox-
guin, 2010. ford: Berg, 2004b.
Bowlby, Rachel. “Modes of modern shopping: Garb, Tamar. Bodies of Modernity. Figure and
Mallarmé at the Bon Marché.” In The Ideology Flesh in Fin-de-Siècle France. London:
of Conduct: Essays on Literature and the His- Thames and Hudson, 1998.
tory of Sexuality. Edited by Nancy Armstrong
and Leonard Tennenhouse, 185–205. London: Higonnet, Anne. Berthe Morisot’s Images of
Methuen, 1987. Women. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press, 1992.
Delbourg-Delphis, Marylène. Le chic et le
look: Histoire de la mode féminine et des Lecercle, Jean-Pierre. Mallarmé et la mode.
mœurs de 1850 à nos jours. Paris: Hachette, Paris: Séguier, 1989.
1981.
Lehmann, Ulrich. Tigersprung: Fashion in
Furbank, Philip Nicolas, and Alex Cain. “La Modernity. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000.
dernière mode, and its Pre-history.” In Mallarmé
on Fashion: A Translation of the Fashion Mallarmé, Stéphane. La dernière mode 1–8.
Magazine La dernière mode with Commentary. Paris, 1874.
Edited by Philip Nicolas Furbank and Alex
Cain, 1–13. Oxford: Berg, 2004a. Michauld, Guy. Mallarmé: l’homme et l’oevre.
Paris: Hatiet-Boivin, 1953.
Endora Comer-Arldt 45
It’s All About

The fashion industry has always been associated with glamour and the
work of journalists; photographers and models are therefore important to
the process of defining fashion. In a world saturated with images, the im-
age of a fashion house or label has to be carefully manufactured across a
the Image
number of economic and cultural sites—advertising, marketing, magazines,
shop design. The role of these agents therefore needs consideration in a
‘systems of provision’ approach.1
Talking about the image of a fashion house, the collaboration between celeb-
The Cooperation
rities and the fashion industry is a good way to scrutinize the hybridity of
fashion as an economic business and cultural moment.2 It combines the pro-
duction, distribution, and consumption of fashion through fashioned bodies
as “agents.” With her book The Aesthetic Economy of Fashion, published in
between the
2009, Joan Entwistle introduced a new approach by analyzing the way the
fashion system works from a combined cultural and economic perspective.
Based on her fieldwork in model agencies and department stores, she exam-
ines how fashion, as an aesthetic product, is valued and distributed. Using
this research, and with reference to Pierre Bourdieu’s Capital Theory and
Fashion Industry
Michel Callon’s and Bruno Latour’s The Actor Network Theory, Entwistle devel-
ops a theoretical framework, which defines fashion as an aesthetic economy—
fashion as its own market that operates within the same economic and
cultural calculations as other so-called heavy industries.
and Celebrities Paving the Way

This article shows how the cooperation between fashion industry and celebrities
became established as part of an economic system within the aesthetic econ-
Endora Comer-Arldt omy of fashion, an economy that depends on a visual environment. As fashion
is distributed by images (fashioned bodies) in magazines, billboards, TV cam-
paigns, and everyday life, the production and distribution of the images has to
be manufactured carefully.
A new actor has become more and more relevant within the last decades—
the celebrity body. This can be shown by taking a historical look at the devel-
opment of fashion marketing and celebrity marketing.
1 Joanne Entwistle, The Fashioned Body: understands itself as art but is also sold as
Fashion, Dress and Modern Social Theory a commodity. To ensure this, different
(Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2000), 210. players are involved in the production of
2 Fashion industry is understood as an eco- visual stimuli for the sale of goods to the
nomic system of fashion companies, fash- consumer. In this respect, the term used
ion magazines (media) and consumers. for fashion industry stands for the produc-
The starting point here is that fashion tion of consumption.
46 The Cooperation between the Fashion Industry and Celebrities Endora Comer-Arldt 47
In 1928, the American marketing professor Paul Nystrom stated in his mono- mentioned period is understood as a time when the partnership between fashion
graph Economics of Fashion that fashion does not need any known “role model.” industry and the celebrity system “took off.” This was due to two develop-
ments: First, new fashion designers and styles appeared since the 1960s and
The usual reports of what is worn by social notables do not seem to be as stated a polarity to the traditional French fashion understanding and hegemony.
valuable now as they formerly were as a means of predicting fashions. The The second development has to do with the spread of media. Media offers the
masses apparently do not imitate individual notables to the extent that platform for the visual circulation and distribution of the celebrity body and is
they formerly did. Today fashion appears to be more of a social or popular therefore a basic requirement for the cooperation between fashion companies
movement in which the imitation is largely of types and ideals, rather than and celebrities. Economic conditions are crucial for the establishment of the
of persons. […] In other words, it is believed that simple, physical counts cooperation. Without the upcoming of a service economy and certain changes
made at successive intervals and analyzed coldly and dispassionately for within company structures, the cooperation couldn’t develop into its own
trends is a much more scientific method of determining the direction of economic system.
fashion than dreamy surveys of what Princess this, Duchess that, or Lady
so-and-so wore.3
Fashion Newcomers
Paul Nystrom would not have been aware, eighty years ago, that the role and
function of “social notables” would be used by the fashion industry to devel- As Barbara Vinken describes in Die Mode nach der Mode, the self-image of
op a new business strategy within the aesthetic economy. the French fashion houses started to change by the end of the 1960s. If
French fashion was equated with aristocratic hegemony only consumable by a
As celebrities are present in our daily lives through the media, fashion com- few selected, the “trickle down”9 started to decompose in the 1970s.10 Vinken
panies have realized that the celebrity body offers a perfect ad space for further points out the change of designers of the 1980s from the Western,
distributing their fashion label and image, which can be inferred from the predominantly French, hegemony of fashion and the strict categorization of
specialized literature on fashion marketing and branding.4 Hence, fashion people. Her work accords to Bourdieu’s thoughts on the new clothes of the
companies reacted to social and economic changes by institutionalizing ce- bourgeoisie, in which he describes how the relationships within the field of
lebrity marketing as a new marketing and distribution strategy. haute couture began to change. While the ruling class of haute couture relies
on established patterns and traditions in their distribution strategy, new
Based on the assumption that designer fashion understands itself as art but is labels (mainly prêt-a-porter) established a new path of differentiation to the
also sold as a commodity,5 different actors are involved in the production of rulers.
visual stimuli for the sale of goods. Celebrities achieved an important role within
the fashion industry during the last decades. A whole new industry, involving
3 Paul F. Nystrom, Economics of Fashion Church Gibson about Fashion and Celebrity
different actors, developed around cooperation. To show which value-making (New York: Ronald Press, 1928), 32. Culture (2012) focuses on the cultural per-
image strategies are used to promote fashion, this article analyses the histori- 4 However, literature such as Fashion Mar- spective without taking into consideration
cal, economic, and social context in which the cooperation established.6 keting (Bohdanowicz/Clamp) and Marketing the economic dimension.
Today’s Fashion (Mueller/Smiley), pub- 7 Isabelle Graw, “Alle Macht der Chefredak-
lished during 1994 and 1999, still do not tion,” Texte zur Kunst, January 7, 2010;
The concern here is not with another history of fashion but, rather, to empha- mention celebrity marketing. This is http://www.textezurkunst.de/daily/cate-
size certain changes within society and the economy, which are crucial for changing with the turn of the century, es- gory/reiche-roemer/.
pecially from 2005 on. Authors such as 8 Elizabeth Wilson, Adorned in Dreams:
the establishment and intensification of the cooperation. This article focuses Mark Tungate (2005), Uche Okonkwo Fashion and Modernity (London: Rutgers
deliberately on the period from the 1980s until today, since a break in the (2007), Michel Chevalier and Gerald University Press, 1985), 158.
mutual relationship between fashion and celebrities began after the 1970s. Mazzalovo (2008), Jean-Noel Kapferer and 9 The theory is based on the assumption
Vincent Bastien (2009), or Tim Jackson that “lower social classes” orient to domi-
According to Isabelle Graw, the fashion world has been increasingly governed
and David Shaw (2009) analyze various nant class of society; see Elena Esposito,
by the principles of “celebrity culture” since the 1970s.7 A change in the performs of celebrity fashion marketing. Die Verbindlichkeiten des Voruebergehen-
ception of fashion and fashion designers already appeared in the 1960s when 5 Gertrud Lehnert, “Mode und Modern,” in den: Paradoxien der Mode (Frankfurt/
there was a close link between fashion and pop culture. Designers themselves Kulturanthropologie des Textilen, ed. Main: Suhrkamp, 2004), 19–22.
Gabriele Mentges (Berlin: Edition Ebers- 10 Barbara Vinken, Mode nach der Mode:
were viewed as pop stars.8 Although from the 1960s major social and eco- bach, 2005), 256. Kleid und Geist am Ende des 20. Jahrhun-
nomic developments occurred (e.g., the formation of a celebrity culture) the 6 The published monograph of Pamela derts (Frankfurt/Main: Fischer, 1993), 57.
The game of the newcomers is almost always to break some existing con- sirable he used celebrities. After starting his career at Nino Cerruti 1881, Armani
ventions (e.g., by introducing previously excluded color mixtures or materials), decided in 1975 to establish his own company with his business partner,
but always within the framework of propriety and without putting the rule Sergio Galleoti: Giorgio Armani SpA.15 During his work at Cerruti, Armani could
of the game or the game itself into question. They are in league with the already get early insight into the cooperation between movie stars and fashion
freedom, the imagination and the new (which are often identified with the houses, even if he was not directly involved in movie projects. As Cerruti used
youth). While the ruling institutions refuse exaggeration and promote art movie projects with stars as an “add on” for his marketing, Armani centered
by excluding advertising and the effect, which means in double negative, his marketing on celebrities.16
the litotes, the understatement, ‘balanced’ and at ‘refinement’ …11
He dressed Richard Gere in the film American Gigolo (1980) and built cooper-
Bourdieu’s remarks refer to the role and function of the French Comité Colbert ations with celebrities in the decades following. In the mid-1980s, Armani
(including Louis Vuitton, Dior, Chanel, etc.), which brings together over sev- became one of the highest paid designers in the world by using the media
entyfive French luxury labels. The Comité Colbert is an association founded in presence of celebrities as marketing tool.17 Dressing celebrities for the Oscar
1954 by French luxury companies, which use the Comité as a forum for joint ceremony was, and still is, a successful form of publicity. In 1991, the Ameri-
strategic orientation. In an interview with the business magazine Brand Eins, can magazine Women’s Wear Daily called the Academy Awards “The Armani
the association mentioned that they discussed how they could use common Awards.”18 After Giorgio Armani opened his boutique in 1988 in Beverly Hills,
strategies to position products in the international market. The word “marketing” he also started to intensify and professionalize the cooperation with celebrities.
was, however, frowned upon here.12 Also, in the reception of newcomers the He hired Lee Radziwill as “special events coordinator.”19 She was responsible
Comité insists on certain values. Although the conditions for new members are for linking well-known people who attract frequent publicity to the label Giorgio
very strict, the Comité sees “renewal” as part of the self-concept. “There is a Armani. First she covered the market on the East Coast. To also cover the
reputation to uphold. Newcomers must deliver their customers the best quality, West Coast, with all of its Hollywood activity, in 1988 Armani hired Wanda
creativity and an international presence, and they can’t afford weakness. For McDaniel as “director of entertainment industry communications.” McDaniel
the best quality, the new must strive to captivate their customers, be creative worked closely with celebrity publicists, agents and managers to ensure the
and international presence and cannot afford any weaknesses.”13 public and media presence of Armani not only at official events, such as the
Academy Awards, but also in daily life.
Since the 1950s, the Comité Colbert has built a marketing strategy upon its
long-standing traditional values. American fashion companies could not fall “Rich and famous,” was the glamor image Armani used to sell his fashions; his
back on such traditional values or “craftsmanship.” Although Italian fashion success shows how well his publicity marketing strategy worked out.20 Versace
companies rely on a long tradition in craftsmanship they were not seen as ex- also pursued this strategy. He convinced celebrities such as Madonna, Courtney
clusive and creative enough. Nevertheless, American and Italian fashion com- Love, Elton John, Eric Clapton, etc., to wear his fashions in public.21
panies developed reputable labels with collections at the bridge and prêt-a-
porter market. These newcomers relied on other values as marketing tools, By the 1990s celebrities were the new fashion models and many designers
such as celebrity marketing. They succeeded by causing symbolic and emo- used celebrities as marketing and advertising instruments. Miuccia Prada de-
tional needs within a specific target group. Even without a haute couture tra- scribes the situation of the 1990s in a Vogue interview as follows:
dition, American and Italian fashion companies managed to add a certain value
to their product lines and to establish corresponding luxury segments.
11 Pierre Bourdieu and Yvette Delsaut, “Die 15 Dana Thomas, Deluxe: How Luxury Lost its
neuen Kleider der Bourgeoisie,” Kursbuch, Lustre (New York: Penguin Books, 2007),
One of the first who understood to use new ways to market professionally and no. 42 (1975): 176. Translated from Ger- 113.
strategically for the conquest of the American market is certainly Giorgio man by ECA. 16 Ibid., 113–18.
12 Karin Finkenzeller, “Botschafter des 17 Teri Agins, The End of Fashion: The Mass
Armani. Shin’ya Nagasawa describes that, in addition to the validity of the
Savoir-faire,” Brand Eins, no. 43 (July Marketing of the Clothing Business (New
four general marketing principles (product, price, place and promotion), es- 2010): 132. York: William Morrow, 1999), 159.
pecially publicity takes in the promotion as a decisive factor. 14 13 Ibid., 135. 18 Ibid., 137.
14 Shin’ya Nagasawa, “Marketing Principles 19 American society lady, younger sister of
of Louis Vuitton. The strongest brand Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
Giorgio Armani took this concept into consideration and focused his market- strategy,” Waseda Business & Economic 20 Agins, End of Fashion, 147–53.
ing and recognition on publicity. To make his fashion and label known and de- Studies, no.44 (2008): 41–54. 21 Ibid., 139.
Of course, to dress an actress is very much of this time. And, of course, if took place in the form of visual and material consumption. Celebrities are
you are a designer, you are very pleased when Uma Thurman and Nicole consumable through the Internet, television and radio, film, newspapers, and
Kidman wear your clothing to search for events. But now there is too much magazines. Except for their presence in radio, celebrities are connected
pressure to dress the actresses in Hollywood. Every year, people in my office through images and words.
in New York, say, ‘Do some things for the Oscars’ and I say, ‘But if I do not
know how an actress wants to present herself, what she wants to express, Only through the evolving media landscape, which guarantees permanent
how can I design a dress for her? I can not.’22 access to information, a celebrity culture emerged. Global media access was
enabled by deregulation and the privatization of television in the 1980s, as
What began as a loose form of “red carpet dressing” and “product placement,” well as by new satellite technology. However, these media opportunities also
transformed in the years that followed into a solid, institutionalized, and required “acquiring information” for filling the daily media program. In her
contractually designed cooperation that in first place Italian and American essay “Always on Display: Affective Production in the Modeling Industry,”26
Designers as Giorgio Armani, Versace, Dolce & Gabbana, Donna Karan, Marc Elizabeth Wissinger describes the role and function of the model within the
Jacobs, Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, etc., used.23 media landscape.
Another aspect that worked to the advantage of this cooperation was that a A model’s work is to produce content for attention-gathering and calibrating
general social-economic and also technological shift occurred. technologies such as photography, television, and the Internet. Because of
the diverse information channels and programs, the search results in many
The restructuring of the field of fashion is only the equivalent—and the ef- options: [...] so you search for more subject matter. And in that search, the
fect—to the restructuring of the field of power (as the objective relations media writes about the lives of models, which I don’t think anyone would
between factions of the ruling class field), which led many observers to see have been concerned with twenty years ago.27
the signs of the downfall of the ruling class, which is in fact only a reorga-
nization of the division of labor accompanied by a change of groups, have The advent of celebrity culture can therefore be understood against the back-
access to new modalities to profits and prestige of bourgeois existence ...24 ground of this development. The beginning of celebrity culture and the
meaning of celebrities as commodities coincide with the spread of television
Based on Bourdieu’s remarks regarding the changes within the field of fashion, and the media system. The faster the media developed, the greater was the
this can also indicate a general shift in the economic power, which is related demand for new faces and stories within the celebrity system. Celebrities
to neoliberalism. A new labor group, e.g., managers, are highly connected to changed from their original professions as actors, entertainers, singers, etc.,
success shown as a factor of income, recognition and power. Success became into purchasable products. Similarly, with regard to the role and function of
a new category for the personal achievement: the belief that if you worked the model, celebrities became a raw material with which to market fashion.
hard enough, you could (financially) achieve everything. Celebrities are also The evolution of celebrity culture meant a significant development for the
part of newly reorganized labor groups. cooperation between the fashion industry and celebrities, since the presence
of celebrities has changed to marketable and tradable goods.
As Caroline Evans states, the use of celebrities around the turn of the century
can also be regarded as a “statement of money.”25 Against this background, This is also reflected in research literature on the advent of celebrity culture.
celebrities took on a core function with the advent of neoliberalism as a “role Ellis Cashmore for example describes in his book Celebrity/Culture that
model.” They reflect the belonging to—as defined by Bourdieu—the group, celebrity culture developed as a part of society in the late 1980s and early
which “has access to new modalities of profits and the prestige of bourgeois
existence.”
22 “1990s. Miuccia Prada takes stock of fash- 25 Caroline Evans, Fashion at the Edge: Spec-
ion on the precipice of the twenty-first tacle, Modernity and Deathliness (London:
… Spreading Media century. Interview with Miuccia Prada.” Yale University Press, 2007), 113.
Vogue (November 1999): 498. 26 Patricia Ticineto Clough and Jean Halley,
23 Results from own doctoral thesis research. The Affective Turn: Theorizing the Social
This access was also provided by the increasing presence of consumer culture 24 Bourdieu and Delsaut, “Die neuen (London: Duke University Press Books, 2007).
as well as the media landscape, because the reception of the cooperation Kleider,” 177. 27 Clough and Halley, Affective Turn, 251.
1990s. This development was supported by the media system, which promoted As Djelic and Ainamo state, the French “umbrella holding” is ideally represented
celebrity status through the praise and criticism of certain personalities, since within the LVMH conglomerate as a prime example.31 The model concentrates
the most important characteristic for the existence and presence of celebrities primarily on diversification, meaning that one label offers different products
is their “visibility.” such as perfumes, cosmetics, and accessories. This also includes secondary
clothing lines that positioned, for example, in another segment as ready-to-
wear, bridge- or mass-clothing. This model highly relates to the understanding
… Economic Conditions of the Comité Colbert. The main focus concentrates on the name of the fash-
ion house and on keeping in house the core functions of “their crafts.”
Celebrity culture and the marketing of celebrities was caused not only by so-
cial change but also by economic upheaval in the transition from a highly in- Compared to the French model, the Italian “flexible embedded network” fo-
dustrialized economy to a service economy in the late 1970s and early cuses mainly on the establishment of subsidiaries and the cooperation within
1980s.28 a close network. While the French model brings several labels together under
one roof, the Italian model concentrates its core business more on product
Companies focused on their core business and began restructuring by out- diversification. To achieve higher market coverage they center on the out-
sourcing certain work areas to suppliers. By the 1990s the concept of “lean sourcing of production. While the self-understanding of the French model for
production” took hold completely.29 Productions were increasingly out- market penetration is primarily on the “design” and “creation,” the Italian
sourced and subcontracted to suppliers in low-wage countries. This transition model prefers the mechanization, standardization, and flexible production
to a service economy has also been accompanied by establishing service through a whole network of suppliers.32
functions such as marketing, research and development, transport and finan-
cial services within the companies. Many of such companies focused on the Holding
transition of the business organization to lean management as well as on Finance, Personnel…
building their brand image. The idea linked to this was that successful com-
panies produce primarily brands (and brand images) and not products. CORE Common Services (or potentially so)
Logistics, Marketing, Advertising
Distribution, Manufacturing, Subcontracting
Already in the 1980s, Boltanski and Chiapello describe the introduction of
new management structures. These were characterized mainly by the word
“flexibility.” This meant both, an internal flexibility in terms of circulation of Individual House Individual House Individual House
work organization and techniques, as well as an external, which was charac- Brand Name 1 Brand Name 2 Brand Name 3
Design Design Design
terized by a networked professional organization.30 Manufacturing, Manufacturing, Manufacturing,
Sales, Brand Sales, Brand Sales, Brand
Management Management Management
These changes had an impact on the organizational forms and structures
within the fashion business. A study published in 1999 by Marie-Laure Djelic
and Antti Ainamo analyzes different forms of organization that have been es- PERIPHERY Some subcontracting: No subcontracting Some subcontracting:
Second lines or accessories Second lines or accessories
tablished in the French, Italian and US-American luxury fashion industry. In
their study, they outline national examples, which they define as “umbrella Fig. 1
holding” for France; “flexible embedded network” for Italy; and “virtual orga- Marie-Laure Djelic and Antti Ainamo, depiction of the “umbrella holding” organizational model in
nization” for the United States. the fashion industry, 1999.
To understand the meaning of the brand, the brand image, and the brand val-
28 Michael Hardt, “Affective Labor,” boundary Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy.
ue it is important to take a brief look at the different examples. As these ex- 2, no. 2 (Summer 1999): 89–100. 32 Marie-Laure Djelic and Antti Ainamo, “The
amples show, the shift within the organizational structures can be retraced; it 29 Luc Boltanski and Ève Chiapello, The New Coevolution of New Organizational Forms
can also be related to Bourdieu’s description of the “newcomers” and the Spirit of Capitalism (London: Verso, in the Fashion Industry. A Historical and
2005), 112. Comparative Study of France, Italy and
meaning of marketing respectively celebrity marketing as part of the brand’s 30 Ibid., 262. the United States,” Organization Science
management of the fashion companies. 31 The French luxury goods conglomerate, 10, no. 5 (1999): 630.
CORE AND PERIPHERAL MODULES IN THE ITALIAN TRAJECTORY STRATEGIC DECISION MAKING
BRAND MANAGEMENT
DESIGN QUALITY DISTRIBUTION
CORE MANAGEMENT OF
MATERIAL CONTROL PLAN
BRAND QUALITY COMMUNICATION SUBCONTRACTORS
DESIGN
MANAGEMENT CONTROL
CORE
MANUFACTURING— DISTRIBUTION— BRAND Manufacturing DISTRIBUTION

PERIPHERY
CORE CORE Design Creation
MANAGEMENT (multiple subcontractors (multiple licensees and
(OUTSOURCED) (freelance designers)
(subcontractors) and licensees) outlet stores)
PERIPHERY MANUFACTURING— Fig. 3

DISTRIBUTION—
(OUTSOURCED) network of regular
franchise network Marie-Laure Djelic and Antti Ainamo, depiction of the “virtual organization” model of organiza-
subcontractors
tion in the fashion industry, 1999.
Fig. 2 restructuring of business organizations and the M&A wave of the late 1990s
Marie-Laure Djelic and Antti Ainamo, depiction of the “flexible embedded network” organiza- show that, in all international companies, the brand gained importance as an
tional model in the fashion industry, 1999.
intangible asset. Due to the positive acceptance and standing of the brand
within the market, it became possible for companies to sell their businesses
Unlike the French model, the design, brand management and quality control for even more than they are worth with regard to revenue or operating funds.
are disconnected in favor of individual flexible modular corporate functions. That is the intangible number behind the “brand value” or “brand equity” of a
Except for a few core functions the majority of production and distribution company. The more popular a brand among consumers, the higher the “brand
are awarded to an established and stable network of suppliers. This allowed valuation.”36 In this context the role of the celebrity must be understood as an
Italian fashion companies to flexibly address market demands and to respond instrument to construct brand awareness and brand value, which leads to a
to demands without losing quality. Herein consists, according Djelic and Ain- return on investment (ROI) for the company.
amo, a substantial difference between the American and Italian models.33 As
the Italian fashion companies can fall back on a tradition of “craftsmanship,”
they keep those functions also in house. Resume—Celebrities and Fashion Industry—A Visual
Dependency
While also the American “virtual organization” couples the production from
the core business, this model does not work in fixed network structures; in- The outlined changes were crucial for the setup of the cooperation between
stead, it assigns short-term as well as locally and regionally unbound produc- fashion industry and celebrities. Due to changes within established cultural
tion orders. In an international comparison, the so-called core business takes fashion structures and economic conditions, fashion houses became aware of
the strategic management. Even more than the Italian model, the American the fact that they have to invest in their brand image. As Cashmore states,
organization concentrates on a consistent modularization of business while the idea of celebrities in the 1960s was still in its “infancy,” the upcom-
functions. ing celebrity culture was set up in the context of a “production system” in
A variety of business functions has been outsourced and monitored in the

context of strategic business development. Many American companies decided, 33 Ibid., 631. buying, dividing or combining different
in contrast to Italian companies (these are often still in founding family or 34 A stock market launch where a private companies.
owner-conditions), for an Initial Public Offering (IPO),34 in order to have the company offers shares of stock to the 36 Jean-Noel Kapferer and Vincent Bastien,
public. The Luxury Strategy: Break the Rules of
necessary capital to finance strategic decisions. Compared to French compa- 35 M&A refers to the corporate strategy for a Marketing to Build Luxury Brands (New
nies, Americans had fewer merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions. 35 The company to grow in its sector by selling, York: Kogan Page, 2009), 120–22.
which the fashion industry took part and from which it benefited.37 The coop-
eration with fashion companies was also important for celebrities as they
used this form of partnership to support and distribute their own brand image.
As the survival of celebrities depends on their presence within the media
system, they discovered another marketing tool for themselves. This happened
first in the recourse of established marketing strategies from the fragrance
advertising. The role of the celebrities often corresponded with the advertised
product. A good example is Joan Collins advertising for Revlon. The name of
the fragrance Scoundrel coincided with her role as Alexis Carrington in the
American TV series, Denver Clan.38
Celebrities need visibility to build a brand around themselves, a point made

evident in sales literature. In the late 1980s, American marketing and commu-
nications professors Philip Kotler and Irving Rein published the book High
Visibility: The Professional Guide to Celebrity Marketing. They describe primarily
how the marketing of celebrities has changed over the last years, and how a
separate industry has been built up around celebrities, an industry that is, just
as the fashion industry, pending on visualizing strategies to sell the celebrity
product. As the fashion industry and celebrities are in need of the same dis-
tributing mechanisms, their cooperation turned out to be an economic win-win
situation. Due to the outlined social and economic changes, the cooperation
developed an independent production system as part of an aesthetic economy,
which is not only related to material production. Thus, concerning the role
and importance of celebrities for fashion houses, Valerie Steele stated correctly
that “[f]ashion today is not about designing and manufacturing clothes; it is
about communicating an image.”39 To communicate, develop, and support the
image of fashion houses, celebrities are important agents within an aesthetic
economy. The shifts within the fashion industry since the 1960s, emergent
celebrity culture and the social economic changes were crucial for the estab-
lishment of the cooperation between fashion and the media machine.
37 Ellis Cashmore, Celebrity/Culture (Lon- 39 Valerie Steele, Fashion, Italian Style (New
don: Routledge, 2006), 11. York: Fashion Institute of Technology,
38 An American sitcom that was shown in the 2003), 107.
1980s.
58 The Cooperation between the Fashion Industry and Celebrities 59
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Monica Titton 61
Andy’s Heritage
The Intersection between Fashion and Art
Over the past decade, the relationship between fashion and art has become a
widely discussed topic in the media and in academic fields like cultural
Collaborations
studies, art history, and sociology. Today, the intersections between fashion
and art can be observed from various perspectives. Media strategies related
to the representation and enactment of art are increasingly employed in the
fashion world and vice versa: on the one hand, exhibition openings and art fair
attendances have grown into society events comparable to Paris fashion week.1
between
On the other hand, fashion shows by designers such as Hussein Chalayan,
Viktor & Rolf, or Iris van Herpen are reminiscent of happenings or performance
art, not least because of the experimental and avant-garde character of the
clothes presented on the runway.
Fashion, Art, and The conditions of production and marketing of fashion and art bear strong
similarities. As art critic Isabelle Graw asserts: “The ‘art scene’ that was formerly
described along the metaphor of a small enterprise, today would be portrayed
more aptly as a ‘visual industry,’ particularly because of its structural similarities
Louis Vuitton
to other cultural industries such as Hollywood or the fashion industry.”2 Glob-
ally operating art galleries such as Gagosian or White Cube face multinational
holding companies such as Kering (formerly PPR) or the LVHM-Group that
comprise international fashion brands but also cosmetic brands, watch-making
companies, and even private museums for modern art, such as the “Palazzo
Monica Titton Grassi” in Venice, owned by Kering, or the “Fondation Louis Vuitton” in Paris,
owned by the LVHM Group.3
A systematic inquiry of the crossover between fashion and art represents a

complex academic endeavor not only because of the wide analytic scope but
also because of the internal segmentation and diversity of both the field of
fashion and art.4 Therefore, I focus only on one facet of the intersection between
fashion and art. I analyze collaborations between fine artists and fashion de-
signers on a common product by the example of the cooperation between
Marc Jacobs for the fashion label Louis Vuitton with the artists Takashi Murakami
and Richard Prince in 2003 and 2008, respectively. The resulting limited edi-
tions of handbags were hybrid products half way between fashion accessory
and piece of art, which makes them an interesting artifact for a sociological
analysis of the relationship between fashion and art.
1 Isabelle Graw, “Der letzte Schrei: Über Fashion and Its Social Agendas: Class,
modeförmige Kunst und kunstförmige Gender, and Identity in Clothing (Chicago:
Mode,” Texte zur Kunst, no. 56 (2004): 81. University of Chicago Press, 2000), 133.
2 Ibid. 4 Efrat Tseëlon, “Authenticity,” in Fashion
3 Isabelle Graw, Der große Preis: Kunst and Art, ed. Adam Geczy and Vicky
zwischen Markt und Celebrity-Kultur (Co- Karaminas (New York: Berg, 2012), 113–21.
logne: DuMont, 2008), 143; Diana Crane,
62 Collaborations between Fashion, Art, and Louis Vuitton Monica Titton 63
I now turn to a brief examination of the key figures from the history of fashion and the proximity to fine art is employed as a marketing strategy, especially by
art history that can be considered predecessors to the cooperation between fashion brands Louis Vuitton and Prada.14 The artistic collaborations that became
Murakami, Prince, and Marc Jacobs before discussing these case studies in detail. characteristic for Schiaparelli’s oeuvre, were repeated with comparable success
only by Marc Jacobs, creative director of Louis Vuitton, as I delineate in the
following section.
Schiaparelli, Dalí, Cocteau—Historical Precursors
Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the works of fine artists served Louis Vuitton and the Arts
as a source of inspiration for fashion designers, who incorporated artistic visual
elements (color palettes, shapes, and design principles) into their designs. French leather worker Louis Vuitton founded his company in Asnières in 1854
One of the most famous examples is the mini dress inspired by the abstract and from its very beginning, it targeted a luxury market. Vuitton’s first clients
paintings of Piet Mondrian designed by Yves Saint Laurent in 1967.5 Also fine were wealthy Parisians who bought the innovative, lightweight suitcases for
artists were inspired to experiment within the creative field of fashion: around their travels to mundane holiday locations such as Nizza and St. Moritz. Already
1900, proponents of Art Nouveau Henry van de Velde and Anna Muthesius de- in the 1880s and 1890s, Vuitton started the international expansion of the
signed so-called “reform dresses,” loosely cut gowns meant to liberate women company with a shop in London and the distribution of the merchandise in
from the health risks and bodily restriction of the corset.6 In the 1920s, artists the United States.15 Louis Vuitton quickly grew into one of the first international
belonging to the circle of Russian Constructivism such as Ludmilla Popova and luxury brands, intent on maintaining a distinguished image by sponsoring
Vladimir Tatlin extended their artistic vision to the design of clothing.7 There sailing trips or rallies and by selling customized suitcases for artists and
are numerous other examples of artists and fashion designers switching their members of the jet set. Since the late 1970s, the organizational structure of
trade, however, I will not elaborate further on the existence of mutual histori- the company adapted to its growing size and global reach, a development
cal references between fashion and art.8 that culminated in the merger with Moët Hennessy in 1987. In the 1990s, the
majority shareholder of the LVMH group (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy Group),
Elsa Schiaparelli was the first fashion designer to actually collaborate with Bernard Arnault, bought a considerable number of fashion houses (Céline,
Surrealist artists on designs for clothing and accessories in the 1930s.9 At the Kenzo, Givenchy, Fendi, Donna Karan, etc.), and hired young, talented fashion
time, the eccentric Italian designer was Coco Chanel’s antipode. In contrast designers to take over their creative direction.16 In 1996, Arnault appointed
to the reduced cuts and muted colors preferred by Chanel, Schiaparelli used
extravagant fabrics and worked with strong color contrasts, and employed in-
novative construction techniques.10 Her gowns were worn by Hollywood ac- 5 Gill Gasparina, I love Fashion: L’art con- 9 Loschek, Reclams Mode- und Kostüm-
temporaine et la mode (Paris: Editions lexikon , 571; Crane, Fashion and Its Social
tresses such as Mae West, Katherine Hepburn, and Marlene Dietrich, and her
Cercle d’Art, 2006), 11; Valerie Steele, Agendas, 170; Steele, “Fashion,” 17.
work was also appreciated by intellectuals and artists at the Paris salons.11 In “Fashion,” in Fashion and Art, ed. Adam 10 Sanda Miller, “Dal ballo al museo: come
1937, she designed the famous “lobster dress,” a cream-white, silk evening Geczy and Vicky Karaminas (New York: l’abito diventa opera d’arte,” in Moda e
gown on which Salvador Dalí had painted a lobster. A year before, Dalí had Berg, 2012), 19. Arte, ed. Marco Pedroni and Paolo Volonté
6 Ingrid Loschek, Reclams Mode- und (Milan: Franco Angeli, 2012), 51–68.
used the crustacean in his sculpture Lobster Telephone. Schiaparelli and Dalí Kostümlexikon (Stuttgart: Reclam, 2005), 11 Annette Hellmeister, Die Pariser Haute
collaborated on several other garments and accessories, but Dalí was not the 412. Couture (Trier: WVT, 1996), 75.
only artist with whom she collaborated—she also worked with Jean Cocteau, 7 Ibid., 345; Djurdja Bartlett, “Stile e social- 12 Dilys E. Blum, Shocking! The Art and Fash-
ismo: quando la moda doveva essere ion of Elsa Schiaparelli (New Haven, CT:
Leonor Fini, Christian Berard, Man Ray, and Louis Aragon.12 Schiaparelli can arte,” in Moda e Arte, ed. Marco Pedroni Yale University Press, 2003), 135.
thus be considered a pioneer of fashion design whose creations are studied and Paolo Volonté (Milan: Franco Angeli, 13 Crane, Fashion, 163; Nicky Ryan, “Prada
and reinterpreted to this day and whose ideas have become part of fashion’s 2012), 69–86. and the Art of Patronage,” Fashion Theory
8 For a general overview, see Alice MacKrell, 11, no. 1 (2007): 14.
common knowledge. When Schiaparelli used one of Dalí’s lip-shaped sofas to
Art and Fashion: The Impact of Art on 14 For the case of Prada, see Ryan, “Prada
decorate her shop in Paris it was a very unusual sight. Today there are hardly Fashion and Fashion on Art (London: Bats- and the Art of Patronage,” 7–24.
any differences in the interior design of avant-garde fashion boutiques and ford, 2005); Gasparina, I love Fashion; 15 Paul-Gérard Pasols, Louis Vuitton: Die
art galleries.13 Schiaparelli also hired artists to design advertising campaigns Steele, “Fashion,” 13–27; Marco Pedroni Erfindung des Luxus (Munich: Collection
and Paolo Volonté, ed., Moda e Arte Rolf Heyne, 2005).
and to array shop window displays—both have become current practices in (Milan: Franco Angeli, 2012). 16 Dana Thomas, Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its
the fashion industry. Particularly in the luxury segment of the fashion industry, Luster (London: Penguin Books, 2007), 18.
American designer Marc Jacobs as creative director of Louis Vuitton with the restricted according to certain parameters, it is nevertheless possible to
intention to increase the fashionable prestige of the brand and to reposition it “pass as an artist” through the recognition of an institution stocked with suffi-
on the fashion market. Jacobs was appointed to design ready-to-wear-collec- cient definatory power. Marc Jacobs stated that no less a figure than Marcel
tions of clothing and at the same time to modernize the brand by transforming Duchamp served as a role model for his collaboration with Sprouse: “I think
the handbags from their status as “classics”—once-in-a-lifetime investments— that what we undertook [...] with Stephen Sprouse was unconsciously in-
into coveted fashion accessories. He did so by diversifying the product range; spired by Marcel Duchamp, with his mustache-painting on the Mona Lisa that
he utilized new materials such as jeans and patent leather in the design of the became the provocative L. H. O. O. Q. That is, the Monogram graffiti tagging
handbags and thereby fetishized them as seasonally changing “it-bags.” is actually a tribute in the form of a desecration.”18 Jacobs repeated this claim
in all his interviews with the fashion press, thereby further embedding the
A handful of renown and established artists had collaborated with Vuitton a Sprouse-Vuitton-bags within an artistic context. Even if the marketing and
few years before creative director Marc Jacobs worked with Murakami, Prince, publicity by Louis Vuitton did not lead to the consecration of Sprouse within
and recently Yayoi Kusama. In 1988, artists César, Arman, Sol LeWitt, Sandro Chia, the art system, the attention derived from the collaboration boosted his late
and James Rosenquist were asked to design a silk foulard measuring 90 x 90 career in the fashion industry (after the assignment at Vuitton, Sprouse
centimeters for Louis Vuitton. The foulards were produced in a limited edition— worked with fashion brands Diesel, Target, and the furniture producer, Knoll
just like the handbags designed two decades later—but were conceived as International). With his ostentatious contextualization of Sprouse in art history,
collector’s items in the first place. Moreover, the materiality of a silk foulard is Jacobs indicated which elements of the handbag collections were to be con-
somewhat related to a canvas and therefore simulates the traditional tool of a sidered “art.” While the graffiti signature could be regarded as a simple design
fine artist much more than a handbag does. However, beyond the difference element, Jacobs constituted it into an artistic intervention and into a reinter-
in the marketing and the formal design, the artistic collaborations of 1988 can pretation of a piece of art by one of the most important artists of the twentieth
be viewed in relation to the ones that took place over the past couple of century.
years.
Starting from 2001, Marc Jacobs repeatedly hired creative partners in the Takashi Murakami
design of new limited handbag collections for Louis Vuitton. Stephen Sprouse,
who was a protagonist of the New York fashion scene in the 1980s and re- In 2003, Marc Jacobs hired another partner for an artistic collaboration on
invented himself as a graffiti artist in the 1990s, designed a collection of hand- a limited series of handbags. The first collection (Spring/Summer 2003) that
bags in cooperation with Marc Jacobs in Spring 2001. The collection was a resulted from the collaboration between Marc Jacobs and Japanese artist
huge commercial success and Sprouse was hired to design another collection Takashi Murakami was so successful that the artist was commissioned to create
in the ensuing year. Marc Jacobs always referred to Sprouse as an “artist” in two more collections, in 2004 and 2008 respectively.
all the interviews and official press releases—a deceptive appellation if Sprouse’s
status as an artist is measured by the standard criteria that designate the For the first collection, Multicolor Monogram, Murakami simply changed the col-
profession (education in an Art Academy, exhibition in galleries, art fairs and ors of the characteristic Louis Vuitton monogram canvas. Its brown background
international art shows).17 Sprouse had organized his first and only art show was tinted white; the beige signs were imbued into thirty-three different shades
in 1989, when, inspired by Andy Warhol, he exhibited six screen prints of Sid of pink, yellow, blue and green. For the second collection, Cherry Monogram
Vicious, the deceased bass player of British punk band the Sex Pistols. (Spring/Summer 2005), Murakami designed a pattern with cherry blossoms in
his characteristic manga style printed on the LV canvas in various versions.19 The
The promotion of Sprouse as an artist, a personality who could rather be lo- third collection, Monogramouflage Canvas, was presented in summer 2008.
cated at the intersection between fashion and art if compared with Murakami This time, the background patterned with a miliatristic camouflage, and the
and Prince, suggests two conclusions. First, the label of “artist” is associated signs were turned black. This collection was not as commercially successful
with more prestige than the label “designer,” a fact that seems to be particu-
larly important for Louis Vuitton as a brand, as becomes apparent in the com-
pany’s systematic positioning in the proximity to art to enhance the brand 17 Howard S. Becker, Art Worlds (Berkeley: 19 Gill Gasparina, “33 Colors,” in Louis Vuitton:
University of California Press, 1982), 181. Art, Fashion and Architecture, ed. Simon
prestige. Secondly, the label “artist” appears to be a fluid and malleable defi- 18 Stéphane Gerschel, Louis Vuitton:“Icons” Castets (New York: Rizzoli, 2009), 40–63.
nition. Even though the inclusion in the art system and its institutions is (New York: Assouline, 2007), 5.
as the first two collections, probably because the appearance of the bags the cooperation with Murakami, the brand managers of Louis Vuitton diversi-
deviated too much from their initial appearance and thus could not be recog- fied the image of the brand so as to appeal to a young, urban class of European
nized at first glance as status symbols, losing much of their “fashionable” and American customers who are able to decipher and appreciate the visual
connotation. codes of Japanese pop culture. From the perspective of the Japanese market,
the collaboration with Murakami appears to be a perfect match for the cus-
tomers’ expectations. Therefore, it can be assumed that the collaboration
yielded a big financial profit for both sides.
It is evident that the commercial proceeds obtained—thanks to the maximiza-

tion of the brand’s prestige—were the primary motivation for the brand Louis
Vuitton to pursue the collaboration with Murakami. Despite the lack of official
numbers, it is safe to assume that Murakami must have been paid a large
amount of money for his work—however, I assert that an analysis of this phe-
nomenon would be too narrowly considered if the financial gain would be
regarded as Murakami’s only motivation for his cooperation with Vuitton.
Hence, in light of his creative work, the project with Vuitton appears as a co-
herent continuation of his career as “artist impresario.”21
In his work, Murakami addresses the culture of kawaii (which literally means
“cute,” “adorable,” or “sweet”): an aesthetic that is characteristic to Japanese
society. It revolves around infantilization and minimization, and is reflected in the
enormous popularity of manga comics and anime movies in Japan.22 The lacking
account-taking of Japan’s traumatic involvement in the Second World War, its
Americanization and the tension between individualism and a strong commu-
nity spirit are recurring themes in Murakami’s work. He comments on these
topics with a visual language that is deeply influenced by Japanese pop cul-
ture.23 Murakami defines his art as “superflat” because he uses the traditional,
two-dimensional, so-to-speak flat Japanese aesthetic for the development of
his own artistic position. In the catalogue for his solo exhibition in Los Ange-
les in 2005, curator Amanda Cruz comments on Murakami’s art as follows:
“His work so perfectly mimics consumer obsessions that it embodies all the
ambiguities and contradictions inherent in those tropes. […] With his uncanny
ability to mirror his culture he is more the Japanese equivalent of Andy Warhol
Fig. 4 than someone intent on critiquing things.”24
Takashi Murakami, Eye Love SUPERFLAT White, 2003 (used as a canvas design for the collaboration
with Louis Vuitton).
One of the reasons why the Multicolor Monogram collection was so success- 20 Thomas, Deluxe, 81–84. the Nonsense of the Meaning, ed. Amanda
21 Kitty Hauser, “Superflat,” Artforum Inter- Cruz, Midori Matsui, and Dana Friis-Hansen
ful to be permanently integrated into the range of Louis Vuitton designs is
national 43, no. 2 (2004): 129; Pamela (New York: Abrams Books 1999), 30–41.
precisely the fact that, despite the change of colors, the logo remained rec- Church Gibson, “Nuove alleanze: mondo 23 Midori Matsui, “Toward a Definition of To-
ognizable, while the highly fetishized logo almost seemed to disappear in the dell’arte, case di moda e celebrità,” in kyo Pop: The Classical Transgressions of
third collection. Another factor that contributed to the huge commercial suc- Pedroni and Volonté, Moda e Arte, 203–18. Takashi Murakami,” in ibid., 23.
22 Dana Friis-Hansen, “The Meaning of 24 Amanda Cruz, “DOB in the Land of Otaku,”
cess of the collection designed by Murakami is the cult-like following of Louis Murakami’s Nonsense: About ‘Japan’ It- in ibid., 14.
Vuitton in Japan, one of the largest sales markets of the brand.20 Thanks to self,” in Takashi Murakami: The Meaning of
Indeed, the parallels between Murakami’s works and Pop art, and particularly in their design, color, and style as much from each other as they did from
Andy Warhol cannot be denied: besides his language, culturally influenced Prince’s most recent painting series that they were based on.
by Pop, his production practices virtually qualify him as one of Warhol’s heirs.
In homage to Warhol, Murakami called his studio “Hiropon factory” that he As had been the case with the Murakami-collection, the Prince collection was
had founded in 1996 in Tokyo. In 2001, he set up the art production company discussed enthusiastically in fashion magazines, accompanied by pictures of
Kaikai Kiki Company with an office in Sapporo and one in New York. The celebrities wearing the eclectic handbags as an ultimate proof of their fash-
company is involved in a vast range of activities ranging from art production ionable allure. Even if official sales figures are not available, it is known that
to merchandise design, managing and agent services and freelance work.25 the Prince collection was not as commercially successful as the ones created
by Murakami. However, the brand Louis Vuitton profited from the collaboration
Even if art critics were skeptical about the cooperation between Murakami and with Prince: its sophisticated yet experimental image was solidified and the
Vuitton, no harm came to his career as an artist he is still invited to all the big strategy of increasing the brand’s prestige was realized. The collaboration
art fairs and international exhibitions as the Biennale in Venice and his works are with Louis Vuitton in 2007 was neither the first time that Prince came into
shown in museums all over the world. The collaboration with Louis Vuitton contact with the fashion world. In 2001, he had photographed a fashion port-
even inspired Murakami to incorporate the monogram canvas into his own folio for the magazine Purple and in 2010 for the Japanese fashion magazine
work and thereupon to reflect it in his artistic vision. POP.
In the retrospective, aptly titled “Copyright Murakami” held at the Museum As in the case of Murakami, it is worth looking into Richard Prince’s development
of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles from October 2007 to February 2008, as an artist in order to reconstruct the rationale behind his collaboration with
Murakami incorporated a fully operative Louis Vuitton store as an integrative Louis Vuitton. In the coffee table book Louis Vuitton, Art, Fashion and Archi-
part of the exhibition into the Museum.26 In the shop, visitors could buy tecture Prince is quoted as follows in an essay by Glenn O’Brien: “If this works,
handbags that were designed especially for the occasion, as well as other Richard said, I can retire.”27 Prince does not even try to give an elaborate ac-
items of merchandise such as key chains or prints. The event caused con- count about his artistic motivation; he rather articulates the provocation that
troversial media debates because Murakami had de facto obtained the con- his collaboration with Vuitton could terminate his career as a fine artist.
servation of the bags in an art museum and had therefore fulfilled the first Prince apparently dissociates himself from any artistic ambition and invalidates
step in their consecration as art objects. every form of criticism that could aim precisely at his financial gain obtained
from the collaboration. However, it is this particular ironic, elusive attitude
that is typical for Prince and only consequential in light of his self-enactment
Richard Prince as an artist.
In 2007, Marc Jacobs asked American artist Richard Prince to collaborate with From a very abstract point of view, the commonality between Murakami and
him on a limited edition of handbags for Louis Vuitton, presented on the runway Prince lies in their systematic recourse to the symbols, signs, and pictures of
of the Spring/Summer collection 2008 in Paris in October 2007. When the run- consumer culture. Contrary to Murakami, however, Prince denies making any
way show began, twelve models dressed in transparent white nurse uniforms statements about his art, a singularity that art critic Rosetta Brooks defines
with matching bonnets and surgical masks made out of black lace, strutted as the formula for his success: “The key to the success of Prince’s work is the
down the catwalk, each of them carrying one of the handbags designed by way in which he presents both his art and himself, characterized by a muteness—
Prince. The performance on the catwalk was based on Prince’s “Nurse Paintings,” or even a deliberate obfuscation—regarding his intentions. By side-stepping
a series of works representing nurses in a sixties look before a roughly painted a straightforward response to questions of intentionality, Prince refuses to
background.
The look of the handbags was very different from their original appearance, 25 Sarah Thornton, Seven Days in the Art craw_artworld_schjeldahl?currentPage=1.
unlike those designed by Murakami. The monogram canvas and the logo were World (London: Granta, 2008), 185. 27 Glenn O’Brien, “Prince, Richard,” in Louis
barely visible anymore, they had been spray painted with colors or completely 26 Peter Schjeldahl, “Buying It: A Murakami Vuitton: Art, Fashion and Architecture, ed.
Retrospective,” New Yorker, April 14, Simon Castets (New York: Rizzoli, 2009),
covered, printed with writing or comics, the leather and canvas mix was re- 2008; http://www.newyorker.com/arts/ 322.
placed by suede leather, plastic, and neoprene. Indeed, the handbags differed critics/artworld/2008/04/14/080414
close down meaning, or even to suggest any particular goal towards which him from any criticism from the very same art system because in the end,
the work might be heading.”28 This evasive and deceptive stance towards his they are only handbags.
art is paradoxically part of the reason why Prince is not only highly ac-
claimed within the art world but also a very successful player on the art mar- Conclusion
ket. His art is accessible also to those art collectors who are interested in
“expensive” art (such as, among others, Marc Jacobs)29 and who have been In conclusion, I want to analyze the collaborations between Murakami and
important agents in the consecration of Pop art as a legitimate art form Prince with Louis Vuitton within the framework of the sociology of art. In
since the 1960s.30 Bourdieu’s art theory, the field of artistic production is conceived as divided
in two subfields: the field of pure production on the one hand and the field
Next to artists such as Sherry Levine, Robert Longo, Jack Goldstein, and Cin- of large-scale production on the other hand.34 Bourdieu argues that every
dy Sherman, Richard Prince is an exponent of appropriation art, a movement segment of artistic production, from literature to theater to fine art, is char-
that emerged in the 1970s in New York City and in which the central artistic acterized by a dualistic structure of avant-garde and its antagonist commer-
strategy consists in the appropriation of someone else’s pictures.31 At the be- cial sector,35 or, “the opposition between art and money.”36 Zahner suggests
ginning of his career, Prince mainly took photographs of advertisings for ex- that in the 1960s a new, third subfield took shape, and that Pop artist Andy
pensive watches, ink pens, perfume, or furniture arrangements.32 The repro- Warhol made a significant contribution to its emergence. Drawing upon the
duction, appropriation, and recontextualization of pre-existing elements work of Bourdieu and Crane,37 Zahner defines this new sub-field as “subfield
remained constant features throughout the various periods of his work. The of extended production.”38 She argues that American Pop artists have perma-
“Joke Series” consists of a series of pictures of retraced cartoons from The nently changed the mechanisms of evaluation and marketing of art. The eco-
New Yorker and layered, blurred chauvinistic jokes. One of the joke paintings nomic boom in post-war America fostered the development of mass media
then served as an inspiration for one of the Louis Vuitton bags: the cartoon and an unprecedented educational expansion. Pop art appeared as an art
was sewn in blue silk thread on a rectangular evening clutch bag made of form that the emerging, well-funded middle class could apprehend, quite
yellow pony fur. unlike the complex and complicated art form of Abstract Expressionism. Ex-
ponents of Pop art exploited symbols and signs from consumer culture that
As in the case of Murakami, I argue that the collaboration of Prince with middle class audiences were familiar with and that demanded relatively little
Louis Vuitton can be considered a coherent perpetuation of his artistic self- background knowledge in art history to be appreciated.39 In addition, Pop
understanding. During the last decade, Prince has withdrawn progressively artists developed a new form of self-understanding and assumed a different
from his critical position and his work has become increasingly self-referen- position towards questions of commercialization and dissemination of their
tial. Graw describes the development in the work of Prince as follows: “[T]he art from the previous generation of artists. Warhol was a key figure in the es-
conceptual Prince, whose early work still engaged the social conditions of tablishment of a new notion of art and demystified the modernist conception
consumer capitalism (luxury goods, fashion, lifestyle), is sacrificed on the al-
tar of the traditional Prince, whose works orbit exclusively around the uni-
verse defined by his own taste (cars, girls with large breasts).”33 Considering 28 Rosetta Brooks, “A Prince of Light or Dark- reconsidering-prince/.
ness?,” in Richard Prince, ed. Rosetta 34 Pierre Bourdieu, The Rules of Art: Genesis
Prince’s designs for Louis Vuitton with Graw’s critique in mind, one is inevita- Brooks, Jeff Rian, Luc Sante (London: and Structure of the Literary Field, trans.
bly reminded of the picture series from his latest work period; the Vuitton Phaidon, 2003). Susan Emanuel (Stanford: Stanford Uni-
handbags almost look like a retrospective printed on leather and plastic. Mu- 29 Thornton, Seven Days in the Art World, XV. versity Press, 1996), 121.
30 Nina Tessa Zahner, Die neuen Regeln der 35 Ibid.
rakami’s mimetic interpretation of the monogram canvas appears like the Kunst. Andy Warhol und der Umbau des 36 Ibid., 91.
work of a veritable designer compared to the collection designed by Richard Kunstbetriebs im 20. Jahrhundert (Frank- 37 Diana Crane, The Transformation of the
Prince. The Louis Vuitton lettering was simply embedded into art works and furt/Main: Campus, 2006), 254. Avant-Garde. The New York Art World,
31 Brooks, “A Prince of Light or Darkness?,” 34. 1940–1985 (Chicago: Chicago University
then printed on new handbag models designed by Marc Jacobs. In the state-
32 Isabelle Graw, “Reconsidering Prince. On Press, 1987).
ment quoted above about his potential retirement after the collaboration Richard Prince at the Solomon R. Guggen- 38 Ibid., 277; Zahner, Die neuen Regeln der
with Louis Vuitton, Prince unmasks his contribution as a purely commissional heim Museum, New York,” Texte Zur Kunst, Kunst. Andy Warhol und der Umbau des
work and steps back from every form of artistic responsibility. Therefore he no. 68 (December 2007): 30; http://www. Kunstbetriebs im 20. Jahrhundert, 248.
textezurkunst.de/68/reconsidering-prince/. 39 Crane, The Transformation of the Avant-
could be criticized by members of the art system for his superficiality and 33 Graw, “Reconsidering Prince,” http://www. Garde, 64.
shallowness, but at the same time, this gesture of overt bluntness protects textezurkunst.de/68/
of art sustained by Abstract Expressionists by producing art works for different

target groups.40 The modernist understanding of art corresponds to Bourdieu’s
characterization of the field of pure production within the artistic field un-
derstood as “an inverse economy whose particular logic is based on the very
nature of symbolic goods—realities with two aspects, merchandise and sig-
nification, with the specifically symbolic values and the market values re-
maining relatively independent of each other.”41 Murakami’s self-conception
as artist and entrepreneur qualifies him as a post-Warhol artist par excellence
and as a representative of the subfield of extended production conceptual-
ized by Zahner.
Prince is also often discussed in the context of Pop art; however, in his case
the connections to Warhol are not as evident as in the case of Murakami,
also because the systematic play with artistic clichés is part of his attitude
and artistic positioning. Prince’s career, from his critical early period to his
institutional and commercial success to the collaboration with Louis Vuitton,
is nevertheless influenced by the transformations of the art field described
by Zahner and Crane. The shift in the art world did not only affect artists,
but also all the other agents and institutions involved in the consecration of
art: art collectors, the system of galleries and museums and art critics that
affected and indirectly shaped Prince’s career as a conceptual post-Pop
artist.42
Prince’s capacity to operate in a grey zone where the appropriation of American

Pop culture icons constantly risks blending into a reaffirmation of the appro-
priated imagery, indeed puts into question the very notion of art works as
authentic individual products set forth by Bourdieu. As Tseëlon argues,
“many people (designers, artists, critics, curators, or theorists) who address
the question of the relationship between art and fashion implicitly reify the
concept of art as a nonutilitarian, authentic original creation, expressing its
creator’s individuality (thoughts, feelings, values) [...].”43 Both Murakami and
Prince overcome the notion of authentic, singular and individual art works
and the myth of the artist as creative genius in their artistic practices—either
by enacting art as the result of an artistic guild/merchandise factory/Warholian
enterprise or by undermining the very concept of authorship and singularity.
In this post-modernistic logic of contemporary art as an ever-referential, always
connotative and self-reflexive practice lies the fundamental similarity to
the aesthetic practice of fashion design and the link to the ongoing and mul-
tifaceted dialogue between art and fashion. Thus, the collaborations dis-
cussed in this paper are ultimately a consequence resulting from this creative
similitude. Yet they differ from other encounters between fashion and art
insofar as the LVMH group shaped the cooperations into global marketing
40 Ibid., 10; Zahner, Die neuen Regeln der 42 Zahner, Die neuen Regeln der Kunst,
spectacles and conspicuous consumption events for a new art-literate clien- Kunst, 248. 251–77.
tele of luxury goods. 41 Bourdieu, The Rules of Art, 141. 43 Tseëlon, “Authenticity,” 112.
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Ilka Becker 77
Life Which
During the last decades, art and fashion have become accomplices in many
ways. Being the target of parody, pastiche, and representational critique in
the 1980s’ so-called “pictures generation” of artists, discussions on fashion
and brands have changed in the course of the globalization debate since the
Writes Itself
‘90s.1 On the one hand, tactical interventions such as ad-busting entered the
art context. On the other hand, a new type of “celebrity artists,”2 performing
model poses in fashion magazines and showing off with luxurious “identity
goods,”3 entered the scene. Similarly, glossy photos of models (e.g., as visi-
tors of art fairs) grace the pages of art magazines.4 In this condition of perma-
Retrospecting
nent outdoing and immanence, which at first glance doesn’t seem to allow
any useful alternative, the idea of critique as a mode of resistance seems out-
moded in the same way that affirmative attitudes by artists towards consumer
culture seems powerless. Really? According to Jacques Rancière, one should
Art, Fashion, and

get out of this discourse of impotence. But what about the multiple visibilities
that flexible consumerism produces? What is the effect of showing pictures
of fashion models in a gallery or museum space, such as Bernadette Corpora-
tion has done? And how can the problems that are created and exposed by
this practice be discussed in terms of aesthetic politics?
Photography in Modeling the Self
Bernadette
In his essay on “being different differently,”5 sociologist Ulrich Bröckling dis-
cusses a mode of subjectivation in the contemporary culture of corporate
and “realistic” capitalism which he calls the entrepreneurial self.6 He describes
this self as engendered by a regime of subjectivity that makes deviance from
the norm normative itself. Thus, subjectivation is “the ensemble of forces act-
Corporation
ing on individuals and advising them to grasp and ‘model’ themselves in a
specific way.”7 The entrepreneurial self is always in a state of becoming,
seemingly trying to be different, avoiding mimicking others, but in actual fact
following the conformist tyranny of originality, distinction, and self-fashion-
ing. According to Bröckling, this form of self-governance requires new forms
Ilka Becker of tactical moves. Too quickly the market incorporates any mode of alterity.
1 See Douglas Eklund, The Pictures Gener- in Kapitalistischer Realismus: Von der
ation, 1974–1984 (New Haven, CT: Yale Kunstaktion zur Gesellschaftskritik, ed.
University Press, 2009), exhibition Sighard Neckel (Frankfurt/Main: Cam-
catalogue. pus, 2010), 281–301.
2 Isabelle Graw, Der große Preis: Kunst 6 Ibid., 281; see also, Ulrich Bröckling, Das
zwischen Markt und Celebrity Kultur (Co- unternehmerische Selbst: Soziologie ein-
logne: DuMont, 2008), 163–86. er Subjektivierungsform (Frankfurt/Main:
3 Ibid., 137. Suhrkamp, 2007).
4 Ibid., 185. 7 Bröckling, Selbst, 81. Translated from
5 Ulrich Bröckling, “Jenseits des kapitalist- the German by IB.
ischen Realismus: Anders anders sein,”
78 Life Which Writes Itself Ilka Becker 79
With his concept, Bröckling implicitly refers to a debate set off in the ‘90s by Analyzing and writing about tactics risks reducing their potency. One cannot
authors such as Tom Frank, who wrote about the commodification of dissent in forget the hazards of speaking from the position of authoritative knowledge
his much-discussed articles in The Baffler, or Tom Holert and Mark Terkessidis, so central to the police order, and which itself is being problematized by tac-
who published their book on The Mainstream of Minorities in 1996.8 In their di- tical activism. The perspective of scholarly writing, then, is in danger of nar-
agnosis of Pop culture and body politics in post-Fordism, Holert and Terkessidis rowing a tactics exactly to those codes of distinction that again are central
called this phenomenon “consumption of dissidence.”9 Also, they emphasized for the social imagination of the entrepreneurial self. The same problem
the meaning of representation for the aesthetic self-definition of control so- seems to exist on the side of visual production, once it has entered galleries
ciety, representation being “the imagination and the image of something in and museums. What remains to be done is to focus the problem of the self it-
another medium.”10 self, circling around the seductive and addictive power of commodity, fash-
ion, and image.
Associated with this debate, media and visual culture studies initiated a range
of publications dealing with the constitutive role of images within the form
of globalized sovereignty then called Empire by Hardt and Negri in 2000.11 Deconstructing the Grammar of Fashion
According to them, Empire is a regime of immanence and as such the “politi-
cal subject”of the current world order with its new governmental logic and Bernadette Corporation can be briefly described as a heterogeneous group
structure.12 For example, Samuel Weber seized on the Heideggerian concept of cultural producers. Their approach is to deconstruct the logic of the mar-
of the “world as a picture,” 13 in order to apply it to contemporary mass media ket, both subverting an expressing the forms of flexible adaption that are at
culture. In his book, Mass Mediaura, he regards the “‘cinematic’ structure of stake. As Stephan Geene writes, BC is taking as a raw material what Karl Marx
that picture”14 as an effect of reproduction. The subject here is depicted “as was trying to exorcize from commodity: its false pretense.20 On its website,
being ‘in the picture.’”15 Following this thesis, “being different” is a matter of instead of an introductory selfportrayal, Bernadette Corporation has posted a
“being in the picture,” of making visible the bodily and textile codes of dis- feature by curator Bennett Simpson published in Artforum in 2004.21 Thus,
tinction in a fashionable mode. Thus, the idea of being different not only lies the members of “BC”—such is the brand logo of the fictional corporation—
in the heart of the contemporary regime of subjectivity, but in the heart of
fashion as a phenomenon of modernity in general, as Georg Simmel has al-
ready stated in 1895.16 8 See Thomas Frank, The Conquest of Cool ford, CA: Stanford University Press 1996), 81.
(Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1997); 15 Ibid, 86.
Thomas Frank and Matt Weiland, Com- 16 See Georg Simmel, “Zur Psychologie der
modify Your Dissent: Salvos from “The Mode: Soziologische Studie,” in Die Zeit:
Staying with the Problem Baffler” (New York: Norton, 1997); Tom Wiener Wochenschrift für Politik, Volk-
Holert and Mark Terkessidis, Der Main- swirtschaft, Wissenschaft und Kunst 5, no.
stream der Minderheiten (Berlin: Edition 54 (October 12, 1895): 22–24.
Ulrich Bröckling comes to the conclusion that the only way to avoid the apo- ID-Archiv, 1996). 17 See Jacques Rancière, Das Unvernehmen:
ria of resistance—which instantly becomes marketable in flexible consumer- 9 Tom Holert and Mark Terkessidis, “Einfüh- Politik und Philosophie (Frankfurt/Main:
ism as just another mode of “being different”—is by “being different different- rung in den Mainstream der Minderheit- Suhrkamp, 2002); Jacques Rancière, Die
en,” in Der Mainstream der Minderheiten: Aufteilung des Sinnlichen: Die Politik der
ly.” Following this idea, anyone who wants to convert the regime of being Pop in der Kontrollgesellschaft, ed. Tom Kunst und ihre Paradoxien, ed. Maria Muh-
different has to develop heuristic tactics neither following the logics of the Holert and Mark Terkessidis (Berlin: Edi- le (Berlin: b_books, 2006).
market, nor the logics of opposition. Bröckling’s tactical moves are comparable tion ID-Archiv, 1996), 6. 18 Bröckling, Das unternehmerische Selbst,
10 Ibid., 18. 288.
with musical improvisation and introduce a disorder into what Jacques Rancière 11 Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Empire: 19 Donna Haraway, “When Species Meet:
would call the police order. Police, for Rancière, is not exactly the institution Die neue Weltordnung (Frankfurt/Main: Staying with the Trouble,” Environment
of police as an executive power, but a governmental order distributing the Campus, 2000). and Planning D: Society and Space 28, no.
12 Ibid., 9. 1 (2010): 53–55.
sensible and putting things and human beings in the right place.17 Hence, the
13 Martin Heidegger, “Die Zeit des Weltbil- 20 See Stephan Geene, “Greater Gatsby,”
“art of being different differently” means to situatively invalidate and interrupt des,” in Holzwege (Frankfurt/Main: Klos- Texte zur Kunst, no. 58 (June 2005): 138.
police order without going back to any fixed position, any identity, any hege- termann, 1950), 82. 21 See Bennett Simpson, “Techniques of To-
monial knowledge.18 It means to situate and answer to problems, to stay “with 14 Samuel Weber, “Mass Mediauras: Art, day,” Artforum International 43, no. 1 (Sep-
Aura and Media in the Work of Walter Ben- tember 2004); http://www.bernadettecor-
the trouble” instead of identity politics.19 jamin,” in Mass Mediauras: Form, Tech- poration.com/introduction.htm.
nics, Media, ed. Alan Cholodenko (Stan-
avoid establishing a fixed and seemingly authentic voice. Rather, the auctorial was used by BC as a key method to make visible the status of the photo-
function of defining what BC is or could be, is delegated to the curatorial graphic image in commodity culture and to test the possibilities of rewriting
voice. Following its own myth making, it was only in 2013, when its first “retro- the grammar of fashion in a non-identitary way. Also, the mixing of styles
spective,” “2000 Wasted Years,” took place in Artists Space, New York and could be understood as an instrument for revisiting and working through the
ICA, London, that core members Bernadette La Huy, Antek Walczak, and John political implications of aesthetic strategies in youth cultures since the 1970s.
Kelsey gave interviews, historicizing BC in order to highlight a shift in their At that time, punk had started a radical clarification of the semantic relations
practice at the same time.22 It was a shift from radical politics of self-abandon- of fashion signs and set off the sign politics of 1980s’ style wars.30 And, while
ment to a more “regular” visibility in the art context, concomitant with an in- first wave hip-hop culture in the late 1980s appropriated and restaged brands
creased presence of the group in solo gallery shows during the last years.23 and accepted styles such as Adidas, linking their textile signs with political
claims, brand culture of the 1990s required new strategies. Fashion photo-
BC is less a programmatic art group than an experimental and “collective produc- graphy was characterized by heroin chic and the market performed its ability
tion context”24 with varying members and a shared interest in fashion, art, film, to absorb and exploit even the most hidden niche of street culture in the
economics, and politics without “political identity.”25 It started in 1994 by organiz- mode of a commodification of dissent.31 Ad-busting in particular aimed at es-
ing parties in New York downtown nightclubs. Soon, BC established a fashion caping this trap by deconstructing the immaterial capital of symbols that en-
label for women’s wear which was characterized by an underground DIY style able the global exploitation of sweatshop workers, without simply regressing
mixing haute couture and the vernacular culture of street wear, appropriated logos to the anti-fashion-reflex of punk.32
and no name elements, “high and low end looks in single items.”26
While BC’s clothes were presented in magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar or Beyond the Entrepreneurial Self
Purple in the 1990s, the group itself published three issues of a fashion
magazine titled Made in USA from 1999 to 2001, after ending the fashion As Bennett Simpson states, it made no sense for BC in the 1990s to follow the
label,27 reorganizing the group’s structure and reinforcing their “tactical self- modernist model of critique from outside, as “critique was the hottest com-
fashioning”28 with the BC logo. For example, the third issue of the magazine modity going: BC began modeling itself after the secret stars of business—
combined black and white photographs of fashion models in dummy-like the producers, agents, and captains of the worldwide image machines.”33
poses with texts by artists and theorists in an experimental layout. The idea Hence, the figure of the critical philosopher could only be introduced in
was to disrupt, using techniques of montage and appropriation, the usual terms of parody. BC did so with the absurd figure of Werner von Delmont (the
concept of fashion magazines: to provide a certain lifestyle in a consumable alter ego of artist Stefan Dillemuth) in Get Rid of Yourself (2003, DV, color,
mode. As Sean Deyoe, graphic designer of the third issue, put it:
22 See Kalya Guthrie, “The Contagious Retro- Intermix.
spective: Q+A with Bernadette Corpora- 27 The magazine was named after the “worst
Page-within-page devices previewed what was to come or replayed what tion,” Art in America (September 5, 2012); movie Jean Luc Godard ever made,” ;
one had already seen. Articles began in what appeared to be their middle. http://www.artinamericamagazin.com/ http://www.bernadettecorporation.com/
Sections were designed to perfectly mimic other magazines. Titles looked news-opinion/conversations/2012-09-05/ musa.htm.
bernadette-corporation-artists-space. 28 Bennett Simpson, “Bernadette Corpora-
like ads and ads like titles. On every page, a reader was acutely aware of the 23 Such as Greene Naftali, New York (2009), tion,” in Corporate Mentality, ed. Aleksandra
construction of an ‘image’ and therefore also aware of how that image was Galerie NEU, Berlin (2010), and Galerie Mir (New York: Sternberg Press, 2003),
meant to (or meant not to) aid in the their own construction of self.29 Meyer Kainer, Vienna (2011). 153–54.
24 Jutta Koether, “Ausleben: Jutta Koether 29 Sean Deyoe; http://www.theroyalacademy.
besucht Bernadette Corporation,” Texte org/DOD/MadeInUSA.
By playing with typography and design in Made in USA, Bernadette Corpora- zur Kunst, no. 49 (March 2003). 30 See Diedrich Diederichsen, “Radical chic,”
tion continued its anti-fashion strategies of the 1990s on an advanced, more 25 Ibid. Die Zeit, no. 37 (September 4, 2003);
26 Jason Farago, “Bernadette Corporation: http://www.zeit.de/2003/37/
abstract level. They combined photographs and hijacked logos with a frag-
‘Don’t Have Sex with Each Other,’” Guardian, Jugendbewegung.
mentary, discursive, and artistic framework. The issues featured, for example, March 24, 2013; http://www.theguardian. 31 Thomas Frank, “Art as Lifestyle (Monocul-
a photo collage of designer Susan Ciancolo, a text by art critic and writer com/artanddesign/2013/mar/24/berna turalism),” The Baffler, no. 4; https://www.
Chris Kraus, an interview with artist Vanessa Beecroft, and contributions by dette-corporation-ica. BC’s fashion shows thebaffler.com/past/art_as_lifestyle.
are documented in the film Bernadette 32 Ibid.
artists Jutta Koether and Rita Ackermann. The combination of images and text Corporation: Fashion Shows, 1995–97, 33 Simpson, “Bernadette Corporation,” 153.
6:20 min., color, sound, Electronic Arts
sound, 61 min.). The film deals with the paradoxes of political activism and virtuosity shared by models and by protesters alike. Also, a play on the aes-
the role of its anonymous protagonists in Empire after 9/11. During the shoot- thetics of black… from Malevich to Zapatista Marcos. If the Black Bloc [sic!]
ings in Genua in 2001, BC cooperated with the post-situationist Le Parti Imag- can be described as a collective elaboration of techniques of showing up
inaire, a collective that is linked to the anti-globalization movement. Get Rid without showing up, as a game of being there and not, or showing up to con-
of Yourself is a rhythmic montage of documentary footage shot during the G8 fuse the field of political and media representation with their chaotic anonym-
riots that intervene with and are ruptured by takes featuring model and ac- ity and camera-smashing picturesqueness … then the fashion model, too,
tress Chloë Sevigny. As Simpson explains, by “provisionally aligning itself may have a radical potential lying dormant in her … who knows? What might
with the so-called ‘Black Bloc’ movement—with the arrogance of its discourse be the Black Bloc [sic!] version of a modeling agency, of a fashion shoot?36
as well as the force and style of their resistance—Get Rid of Yourself is an en-
counter with emerging, non-instituted or identity-less forms of protest that As BC mention furthermore, Get Rid of Yourself was meant to destabilize the
refuse the representational politics of the official Left.”34 idea of the Black Block as well as to take up the aesthetics of politics in order
to “keep the line between aesthetics and politics alive and problematic, rather
A key technique in the film is the displacement of images, voices, and signs.35 than suppressing it and denying it.” Here, especially, the concept of exposure
For example, by employing voice-over comments by activists from the Black comes into play in a double sense: as disclosure of a political dissent and as
Bloc, and by passing this voice on to Chloë Sevigny, who is declaiming a kind photographic process underlying the fashion image. According to my thesis,
of manual for riots, studded with political reflections on Empire. She acts as if it indicates a shift in photographic meaning in a biopolitical sense: from “the
she was learning them by heart, being deeply involved in her role as an actress, light which writes itself,”37 to the life which writes itself within the technical
but at the same time her speech sounds authentic. Her acting exposes the sensorium of mediality.
paradoxical and performative structure of the protests themselves. The activ-
ists become desubjectivized, being transformed into ambivalent figures that
are indistinguishable from a fictional character. Furthermore, she implicitly Radical Black—White Cube
points to possible relations of her persona as a model and actress (Sevigny is
known for her work with artists like Larry Clark, Kim Gordon, and Harmony The symptomatic merging of fashion and politics described by BC frequently
Korine) to the intermingled histories of political resistance and youth culture. occurs in fashion photography. The street is the stage for photography, fashion
For example, she states that the punk movement in the 70s provided “a and protest alike. The atmospheric reframing of teargas clouds make violent
whole counterworld of subjectivities, who no longer wanted to consume, no police actions invisible during riots, at the same time, the style of clothing used
longer wanted to produce, no longer even wanted to be subjectivities.” by the demonstrators are being incorporated in fashion style and photography.
In addition to addressing political activism in Empire after 9/11, the film unfolds In a fashion pictorial by photographer Krzysztof Herholdt titled Black Block
the underlying politics of visibility in its adaptive tactics between camouflage, White Riot, a male model assumes typical poses, dressed mainly in black, but
media, and fashion. One of the commentators mentions that the police are also in grey and white clothes. He is wearing accessories associated with
well organized because they are all dressed the same. But the demonstrators, anti-globalization riots: a helmet, a gas mask, a Molotov cocktail, knuks. One
as he continues, are uniformed in black as well, because “if everybody is of the photographs is a composite montage showing a motion sequence of
looking the same, it is far more difficult to spot out individuals.” Moving him throwing a brick stone. The picture is obviously invoking a Levi’s ad cam-
through the streets becomes a question of improvisation as well as “a coordi- paign by photographer David Vasiljevic from 2008.
nated thing, a musical.” Thus, the montage of the picture plays with the con-
stitutive relations between mask (riot), makeup (model), and the politics of
visibility. The crowd becomes opaque in its uniformity and is obscured by the
fog of burning shop fronts and barricades. BC’s images are always on the
34 Ibid. ternational Artists, Activists, Curators, and
edge of the seeming no-go of “radical chic.” But they are dealing with this 35 See Bennett Simpson, “Techniques of To- Theoreticans (Berlin: Künstlerhaus
problem offensively, as they explain in a statement: day,” Artforum International 43, no. 1 (Sep- Bethanien and Volksbühne, 2005); http://
tember 2004); http://www.bernadettecor- klartext.uqbar-ev.de/documents/ab-
poration.com/introduction.htm. stracts/Bernadette-statemEN_01.pdf.
We were trying to expose the idea of exposure as such, in spectacular de- 36 Bernadette Corporation, “Statement,” in 37 See Jacques Rancière, “What Medium Can
mocracy today. Exposure in the street and in the magazine. As a kind of Klartext: A Series of Discussions with In- Mean,” Pharresia, no. 11 (2011): 36.
Fig. 5 Fig. 6
Bernadette Corporation, Made in USA Issue No. 1, Bernadette Corporation, Made in USA Issue No. 3,
Fall/Winter 1999–2000, 1999. Spring/Fall 2001, 2001.
86 Life Which Writes Itself Ilka Becker
Fig. 7–10
Bernadette Corporation,
Get Rid of Yourself, 2003.
The Model as Model

In their polemical book Raw Materials for a Theory of the Young-girl, the anon-
ymous French collective Tiqqun39 introduce the figure of the Young-girl as a
blueprint-being and model citizen of consumer society within the Empire’s
“anthropotechnical project.”40 For them, this figure is an abstraction of col-
lective desires and the embodiment of seduction consumption. She herself is
the ideal commodity. So the Young-girl with her symbolic surplus is an ab-
straction just as the male model in Herholdt’s fashion shoot. Similar to art,
fashion functions here as a “‘magic belief’ system that maintains the convic-
tion that one engages in voluntary and self-determined work.”41 The Young-girl’s
appearance is an overdetermined, pure visibility, a vanishing point of repre-
Fig. 11
sentation, and so she “resembles her photo,”instead of the photo resembling
Krzysztof Herholdt, Black Block White Riot, 2010.
her.42 In this sense, she can be of any gender or age, her main characteristics
being her alienation, which suggests that there was a form of authenticity
In some of the pictures, his face and arms are covered with dirt, suggesting found behind her. This demand of a codified authenticity and originality
his performance derives directly from street fighting as an activist. Fashion,
here, means recognizability. But within the contemporary regime of subjec-
tivity as described by Bröckling, he is not involved in any politics of aesthet-
ics in the sense of Rancière: this would mean changing a situation and gener-
ating new forms of relations in the tempo-spatial sensorium of the social
world.38 In Herholdt’s pictorial, fashion brings with it instability and the fast
change of its frenzied codes. The black marks of dirt in the bright face can
be read multiple ways: street dirt, camouflage, makeup. Thus, the techniques
of disguise, appropriation, and misuse of clothing used by street activists are
deployed to enhance the air of sexiness attributed to the model. Advertising
not only serves to sell a certain commodity, but its function is to reproduce
the young body as commodity itself.
Fig. 13
Bernadette Corporation, installation view of
The Complete Poem, 2009.
38 See Jacques Rancière, “Politik der Ästhetik,” une Théorie de la Jeune-Fille (Paris: Édi-
archplus, no. 178 (June 2006): 94–98. tions Mille et une nuits, 2001), was pub-
39 Tiqqun is a French collective of authors lished on younggirl.jottit.com, January
and activists founded in 1999. 2010.
40 Tiqqun, Raw Materials for a Theory of the 41 Sabeth Buchmann, “Fetish,” in Magazin
Fig. 12 Young-Girl (Los Angeles: Semiotext(e), Textuelle Bildhauerei, no. 5 (October
David Vasiljevic, 2010), 12. An anonymous English transla- 2010).
Levi’s ad campaign, 2008. tion of Tiqqun, Premiers matériaux pour 42 Tiqqun, Theory of the Young-Girl, 33.
Life Which Writes Itself

In 2009, one year before the Black Block White Riot pictorial for Fiasco Maga-
zine was published, BC showed a group of mostly black and white photo-
graphs and combined them with the 130-page “epic poem”49 “A Billion and
Change” that was displayed horizontally in clean, minimalistic vitrines as a
genuine artwork.50 In each line it included the letters “b” and “c” as a formal
rule. The somehow paradoxical exhibition-title, “The Complete Poem,” high-
lighted the poetic, experimental, and fragmentary character of the text,
which counteracted the assertion of completeness itself. Moreover, one
could only read the texts in a slowed down tempo and an uncomfortable po-
sition, as the vitrines where quite low and a book edition of the poem didn’t
exist until 2010.51
Fig. 14
Bernadette Corporation,
Ars Nova, 2009.
again is internalized by capitalism and concerns the commodity as well as the

commodified body and subject.43 The fashion model is one of the ideal roles Fig. 15
of the figure of the Young-girl, as elaborated in BC’s novel Reena Spaulings in Richard Avedon, portrait of Andy Warhol,
director Paul Morrissey, actor Joe
2004.44 In this book, BC took the Theory of the Young-girl as a model itself for Dallesandro, actor Candy Darling, and
the design of main character, a museum guard becoming a famous model for members of the Factory, 1969.
underwear and it-girl in New York.
While the poetics worked out in the text seemed to be programmatic for BC’s
Wishing to become thing-like, the Young-girl is the perfect commodity, or, as collective writing technique under its brand status, the photographs were a
Tiqqun writes: “In the act of selling herself, she is trying to acquit herself of commissioned work by fashion photographer David Vasiljevic, parasiting on
herself [...]. But this never happens.”45 She is the “new physiognomy of Capi- his authorship and style. BC had asked him to restage an ad campaign he had
tal,” a living currency, a form of Empire life and an object of “selection, man- done for Levi’s jeans in 2009, in the same style but with different models of
agement, and attenuation.”46 Every one of her activities is “directed to self- no-name clothing.
valorization” and reification. Thus, the “Young-girl is a lie whose apogee is the
face.”47 Self-control goes hand in hand with loss of self. This mode of dis-
tance to the self is taken up by BC in Reena Spaulings and transformed into a 43 See Luc Boltanski and Ève Chiapello, Der Spaulings, 187–98. See also Stephan
form of self-abandonment, playing with the notion of a commodified body neue Geist des Kapitalismus (Konstanz: Geene, “Greater Gatsby,” Texte zur Kunst,
UVK 2006), 481. Originally published in no. 58 (June 2005): 138–39.
and the sphere of a photo studio. In the “Black Chapter,” there are similarities
French in 1999. 49 Chris Kraus, “The Complete Poem/
between Karl Lagerfeld’s “reductive black method,” where the “white is only 44 Bernadette Corporation, Reena Spaulings Bernadette Corporation,” in Where Art Be-
there to enter the blackness,” and artistic avant-garde from Fautrier to Malev- (New York: Semiotext(e), 2004). longs (Los Angeles: Semiotext(e), 2011), 51.
ich’s black square.48 45 Tiqqun, Theory of the Young-Girl, 123. 50 Greene Naftali Gallery, New York, Septem-
46 Ibid., 17: 12. ber 17 to October 17, 2009.
47 Ibid., 18: 25. 51 Bernadette Corporation, The Complete
48 See Bernadette Corporation, Reena Poem (Cologne: Walther König, 2011).
He used a seamless, white backdrop, as Richard Avedon did in his iconic photo Conclusion
shooting with Warhol and his superstars in the ‘60s, cited in the ‘90s by Ste-
ven Meisel in a Calvin Klein jeans ad with Joe Dallesandro as model. Thus Jacques Rancière speaks of the “twofold requirement that constitutes the
Vasiljevic symbolically superimposed the modernist white of the white cube, aesthetic regime of art: that aesthetic experience involves autonomy and that
signifying neutrality and rationality, and the blank page of the book with the art is always simultaneously something other than art. On this basis, it is pos-
cited photographic backdrop, “on which a handful of androgynous, vacant- sible to analyze the variant ways of thinking the medium as forms of transfor-
faced models pose[d] conspicuously mirrors the whiteness of the poem’s mation of that twofold requirement.”59 Thus, one could conclude that the
pages.”52 In his restaging of his own photo-shoot for BC, the models are “ad- practice of BC which is situated in the codes of art and art institutions, must
vertising nothing but themselves and by extension, life in jeans.”53 provide a residue of “something other than art” to be able to reflect on the
main problem: the shift from mode to modeling which is the logic of the en-
As David Joselit states regarding the “2000 Wasted Years” retrospective trepreneurial self. Nevertheless, the “productive contagion” they aim for is
show of BC in 2012, style—which is not only a key category of fashion but also only possible in the combination of image/images and text as an operation
of art history—is a “bankrupt concept”in contemporary art,54 remaining alive which produces a being different differently.
only as a verb, as styling: “Styling (as opposed to style) offers distinctive op-
portunities for artists. While the noun was linked to a set of fairly stable prac-
tices, the very purpose of styling is to manipulate and transform the status
quo. Styling is the creature of fashion and consumerism not because it is in-
herently corrupt, but simply because consumerism requires creativity and
perpetual change, and that is what styling does—it is dynamic rather than
inert.”55
In his view, BC offer an insight in this function of styling as an “opportunistic

tool.” This conclusion could be transferred to the photographic practices in
BC’s installations. While the function of the medium was the separation from
mimesis in modernism,56 today’s function of photography is relationalism, as
described in Reena Spaulings. The subject itself appears in the modus of re-
production, which means not individually, but in the mode of replaceability.
Therefore The Complete Poem is not so much about photography’s specificity,
but the ways of participating in a milieu of mediality as tempo-spatial sensorium.
In this context, the exhibition displays employed by BC constitute the dispos-
Fig. 16
itive making visible the photographic ambivalence between documentation Steven Meisel, jeans ad campaign for
(having-been) and construction (repetition). Be it in the form of a graphic tab- Calvin Klein with Joe Dallesandro, 1995.
leau, a screen, a projection, a showcase, or a frame, in BC’s work the display
appears in its hybrid mediality (the “medium as milieu”)57 and as such is an
example for the art of the distribution of the sensible in the digitalized Empire
aesthetics. Photography isn’t “light which writes itself”58 anymore but life that
writes itself. The model’s body is a living currency. Those photographs don’t
reveal any punctum or anything behind their surface. As discursive images
52 Bernadette Corporation, “The Complete nadette Corporation at Artists Space, New
they speak of nothing other than the non-identity of the photographed and
Poem. Synopsis”, http://printedmatter. York,” Texte zur Kunst, no. 88 (December
the “individual body” as a spin-off of the cliché. org/catalogue/moreinfo. 2012): 174.
53 Greene Naftali Gallery, Bernadette Corpo- 55 Ibid., 175.
ration, Press Release, New York, Septem- 56 Rancière, What Medium Can Mean, 35.
ber 17 to October 17, 2009; http://artnews. 57 Ibid., 37.
org/greenenaftali/?exi=1628. 58 Ibid., 36.
54 David Joselit, “The Power to Style: On Ber- 59 Ibid., 37.
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Wochenschrift für Politik, Volkswirtschaft,
97
Production
of Space
Barbara Schrödl 99
Fashion and the

“Production of Space” refers to the work La production de l’espace, published
in 1974 by the Marxist sociologist and philosopher Henri Lefebvre. Its quintes-
sence is the proposition: “[T]he (social) space is a (social) product.”1 For ana-
lytical reasons, Lefebvre distinguishes three dimensions of social space: spatial
Production of
practice, representation of space, and spaces of representation. Spatial prac-
tice comprises production and reproduction, thus specific places and spatial
ensembles. Representation of space relates to our imaginations and pictures
of space. Spaces of representation means space as it is anticipated through
Space
imagination and pictures by people acting in it and with it. One speaks of the
perceived, the devised, and the experienced; the three dimensions are intrin-
sically tied to each other. They are part of one process, the process of the
production of social spaces, which we perceive, imagine, and experience every
day. If space is analyzed according to Lefebvre as a social product, it is sub-
An Introduction
jected to historicity; every society produces its own space.
The chapter “Production of Space,” which analyzes the phenomenon of fashion

under the aspect of spatial production, is, by referencing Lefebvre, put into
a context of current discussions of spatial theory. This discussion was started
by Michel Foucault. In 1967 he declared in his essay “Of Other Spaces” that
Barbara Schrödl the “present epoch will perhaps be above all the epoch of space.” 2 He drew
the consequence out of his observation that history, which had been the big
obsession of the nineteenth century, had lost its importance: “We are at a
moment, I believe, when our experience of the world is less that of a long life
developing through time than that of a network that connects points and
intersects with its own skein.”3 He thereby announced the “topological turn.”
The category of space had not played much of a role in humanities and social
sciences for a long time. This changed radically in the 1990s. As the social
sciences increasingly turned to an analysis of space, fashion theorists realized
that important developments in the field were inexplicable without an under-
standing of their spatiality across scales. Differences, analogies and interde-
pendencies of places were examined. In the process, micro- as well as mac-
rostructures, and especially their interactions, were of interest. Increasingly,
space was understood as emerging out of interactions between matter and so-
cial constructions. In this process the dimensions of deeds came into focus.
The sociologist Martina Löw declares that “Space is a relational (An)Ordnung
of social goods and humans in places.”4 Her specific writing style refers to
order and to its creation. Alongside Löw’s spatial-sociological assumptions,
1 Henri Lefebvre, “Die Produktion des Rau- 2012), 387. First published in 1974.
mes,” in Architekturwissen: Grundlagen- 2 Michel Foucault, “Andere Räume,” in ibid.,
texte aus den Kulturwissenschaften, Band 231. First published in 1967.
2: Zur Logistik des sozialen Raumes, ed. 3 Ibid., 231.
Susanne Hauser, Christina Kamleithner, 4 Martina Löw, Raumsoziologie (Frankfurt/
and Roland Mayer (Bielefeld: Transcript, Main: Suhrkamp, 2001), 224.
100 Fashion and the Production of Space Barbara Schrödl 101
there is special attention to be paid to the philosopher Gernot Böhme’s con- settings in the first place. Furthermore, Hermann Schmitz’s theories of space
cept of atmosphere in contemporary discourses of space. Böhme deals with are used to tie space to body. The settings which can be localized in material-
the space of personal attendance, which is not “relative to our imaginations, ized reality as well as in texts and pictures, are disclosed as spaces “which
but relative to our physical experience.”5 To him the relation between space create in Modekörpern a third entity in interaction with the human body and
and feeling is of interest. He says: “Atmospheres are tuned spaces or to refer clothing” and represent “spaces of experience.”9
to Schmitz: spatially poured, quasi objective feelings. Atmospheres are some-
thing spatial, and they can be received by surrendering to them or by experi- The three theoretical contributions of the chapter “Production of Space” aim
encing their character in the way they modify our feelings or, rather, how we at analyzing the regime of gaze, relations of power, and strategies of fashion
at least respond to them.”6 in different settings. Two articles focus on fashion shows, thereby on fashion
marketing. One text examines fashion as an example of transgressing aesthetic
Böhme regards the term atmosphere as fundamental to a new aesthetics. borders and as a specific space of liminality. The view on the forth contribu-
This new aesthetics is supposed to react to an increasingly aestheticized real- tion, a fashion editorial, is prestructured by those perspectives, yet this fashion
ity. Atmosphere is linked to the actual stage of capitalist development in the rather encourages our thinking about the spatiality of clothing and our ideas
advanced industrial nations, a phase in which aesthetic work represents a big of adequate clothes for eco-correct transportation by means of biking, which
part of the work of society as a whole. This phase is characterized by the fact is a lifestyle for young urbanites. One could say that the articles bear refer-
that basic needs are covered. A specific aspect of the practical value of ence to Lehnert’s concretization of the three dimensions of social space by
goods now becomes important: the use of goods in the context of being ap- Lefebvre for the purpose of realizing the interrelations of space, humans, and
plicable for orchestration. Böhme uses atmosphere in an explicitly critical clothing, which brings in a clearly more political dimension in the shift of his
way. Those subjected to the claims and manipulations of atmospheres are to conception of space from social practices towards cultural practices.
be identified.
“It All Started with a Bicycle” was the name Tanja Bradaric and Taro Ohmae
This short overview of the concepts of the present theory of space gives us gave their Spring/Summer 2013 collection. It is an alluring thought to slip
the sense that fashion and space are indeed to be seen in a close relation. But into the jackets, shirts, dresses, or skirts of the collection, mount a bike,
the theory of space so far shows little interest in fashion. Even the theory of cruise through the city and feel not only wind, body, and fabric, but also the
fashion has not yet taken the topological turn. Fashion is still interpreted gazes of onlookers. The pictures show outfits of diverse plasticity of apparel.
mainly as a connotational system. Only recently have categories such as ac- The range goes from retracing the body line with close-fitting garments to a
tion and perception—and therefore also space—come into focus. Gertrud considerable transformation of the body’s plasticity. The garments are made
Lehnert titled a newly published anthology Räume der Mode (Spaces of fash- of either elastic or loose-fitting fabrics. This style never confines, is never too
ion).7 For analytical reasons she distinguishes three dimensions of relation- voluminous, and rarely reaches below the knee. It shows ample skin through
ships between space, humans, and clothing: “Fashion as Space,” “Space length, slits, cut-outs, and perforated fabrics. The collection seems to aim not
Adopting Body Techniques,” and “Settings: Spaces/Places.”8 One is reminded only at the least possible restriction of natural movements but also at express-
of Henri Lefebvre’s La production de l’espace. Like Lefebvre, the author cre- ing the mobility of the human body.
ates a trichotomy; furthermore, she extends his conception of space, which
emphasizes social practices, in the direction of cultural practice. She refers In her essay “Framing ‘Saints and Sinners’: Methods of Producing Space in
to the spatiality of clothing in “Fashion as Space.” Fashion differs from sculp- Fashion Shows: Michael Michalsky’s Fall/Winter 2009 Collection,” Alicia Kühl
ture through its purpose: it is worn. Clothes are in close interchange with the shows the concept of the space of the fashion show by means of an actual
body that wears them. They retrace the bodyline, or shape it. Sometimes they fashion. In the fashion show, she sees that the place (e.g., the fashion city
make themselves independent as textile sculptures. As “Space Adopting Berlin), the location (e.g., the Zionskirche), and the so-called imaginary space
Body Techniques,” Lehnert defines the subject’s direction through the fit and
the suitability of clothing for different occasions, whereupon the notions of 5 Gernot Böhme, Architektur und Atmo- 8 Gertrud Lehnert, “Mode als Raum, Mode
suitable are fast changing. In this process, she notes, the body is not ex- sphäre (Munich: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 2006), im Raum: Zur Einführung,” in Räume der
16. Translated from the German by BS. Mode, ed. Gertrud Lehnert (Munich: Wil-
pressed but rather created. “Settings: Spaces/Places” refers to settings of
6 Ibid. helm Fink, 2012), 7–23.
staging and representation of fashion. In reference to Martina Löw’s theory 7 Gertrud Lehnert, Räume der Mode 9 Ibid., 8–11.
generation, the author emphasizes that fashionable actions constitute those (Munich: Wilhelm Fink, 2012).
102 Fashion and the Production of Space Barbara Schrödl 103
fuse into the actual space of the fashion show. This could be described as Literature
atmosphere as Gernot Böhme defines it. Following Erika Fischer-Lichte, the
Böhme, Gernot. Architektur und Atmosphäre. Lehnert, Gertrud. Räume der Mode, Munich:
space of the fashion show could also be interpreted as a performative space. Munich: Wilhelm Fink, 2006. Wilhelm Fink, 2012.
The fashion show as a performative act would be defined through boundaries
and framing. After all, Kühl construes the fashion show as a ritual, namely, as Böhme, Gernot. “Atmosphäre als Grundbeg- Lehnert, Gertrud. “Mode als Raum, Mode im
riff einer neuen Ästhetik.” In Einfühlung und Raum: Zur Einführung.” In Räume der Mode.
a ritual for negotiating the current. phänomenologische Reduktion: Grundlagen- Edited by Gertrud Lehnert, 7–23. Munich:
texte zu Architektur, Design und Kunst. Edited Wilhelm Fink, 2012.
In “Fashion Film: Spaces of Exclusivity and the Globalization of Accessibility” by Jörg Friedrich Gleiter and Thomas Friedrich,
287–310. Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2007. Löw, Martina. Raumsoziologie. Frankfurt/
Sabina Muriale explores a quite new setting of staging and representing fashion.
Main: Suhrkamp, 2001.
Unlike a fashion show, which is tied to an actual place and a certain time, she Foucault, Michel. “Andere Räume.” Originally
interprets the fashion film as a step towards democratizing fashion, which is published 1967. In Architekturwissen: Grundla- Schmitz, Hermann. Entseelung der Gefühle. In
still closely linked to commercial interests. Fashion film is a marketing instru- gentexte aus den Kulturwissenschaften, Band Neue Phänomenologie und philosophische
2: Zur Logistik des sozialen Raumes. Edited by Emotionstheorie. Edited by Kerstin Andermann
ment. Nevertheless, it can take on artistic qualities. Therefore Muriale localizes Susanne Hauser, Christina Kamleithner and and Undine Eberlein, 21–33. Berlin: Akademie-
it, as fashion itself, between art and commerce, illustrating that fashion criti- Roland Mayer, 231–39. Bielefeld: Transcript, verlag, 2011.
cism amounts to capitalism criticism. 2012.
Lefebvre, Henri. “Die Produktion des Raumes.”

Finally, Michael R. Müller defines the aesthetic politics of fashion as the cre- Originally published 1974. In Architekturwis-
ation of a sphere of liminality, which designs the imagination as “The Way- sen: Grundlagentexte aus den Kulturwissen-
schaften, Band 2: Zur Logistik des sozialen
wardness of Fashion: Society in the Subjunctive.” At that point Müller refers to Raumes. Edited by Susanne Hauser, Christina
Georg Simmel, who had outlined aesthetic action as an essential mode of so- Kamleithner, and Roland Mayer, 387–96.
cietal life. Aesthetics is not only concerned with reflecting the social, but with Bielefeld: Transcript, 2012.
giving it form. He argues that fashion is part of a liminal aesthetics that con-
fronts the order of everyday life with unusual perspectives or codes of behav-
ior, seeking for new societal forms and other spaces.
It All Started
with a Bicycle
Spring/Summer
2013
Tanja Bradarić and Taro Ohmae
106 It All Started with a Bicycle Tanja Bradarić and Taro Ohmae 107
Bradaric Ohmae, It All Started with a Bicycle,

Spring/Summer 2013 collection.
108 It All Started with a Bicycle Tanja Bradarić and Taro Ohmae 109
Alicia Kühl 113
Framing “Saints
A Debate Is Ignited—Is It Permissable to Use Churches for
Fashion Shows
The pews were not moved. But the cross was covered over and a catwalk
and Sinners.”
set up in the center aisle. It took eight days for the heater fans to drive the
cold out of the church. The girls waited in the sacristy and on the organ
loft for their cue. And Luca Gadjus, the model who lives just around the
corner, opened a fashion show that was an iconoclastic act and at the
same time a profession of faith.1
Methods of Pro- This is how fashion journalist Alfons Kaiser began his article “Jesus must love
Michalsky,” on the Fall/Winter 2009 fashion show featuring creations by
Michael Michalsky, held in a Protestant church on January 30, 2009. Although
ducing Space in
Michalsky does not attend church often, he says he is a devout Christian.
Following the church’s rejection of homosexuality under Pope Benedict XVI.2
Michalsky told a reporter, “there is a place for everyone under God’s roof, even
if some people sometimes claim the opposite.”3 That year the designer, who
worked for Levi Strauss and Adidas before heading his own label, brashly
Fashion Shows
staged his show at the Protestant Zion Church of the Sophien Parish in Berlin.
Michalsky’s choice and the controversial reactions that arose awakened my

interest in the use of urban spaces for fashion shows and led to the question
Michael
of whether their unusual staging evoked the production of a unique kind of
space within the urban spaces.
After outlining the contentious issue of this particular show and describing
what actually happened in the Zion Church, this article proposes a theoretical
Michalsky’s Fall/
approach to fashion show spaces. My research reveals that setting frames is
a valuable method of producing space and is therefore taken into special
consideration. Furthermore, thinking about frames in fashion shows provokes
the question of whether fashion shows can be characterized as rituals.
Winter 2009 Despite Kaiser’s rather favorable coverage, in the fashion press using church
premises for non-religious purposes such as a fashion show did not meet with
Collection
1 Alfons Kaiser, “Jesus muss Michalsky Über die neue Kollektion Michael Michal-
lieben,” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, sky H/W 09/10,” March 13, 2009; http://
January 31, 2009; http://www.faz.net/ak www.vogue.de/fashion-shows/designer/
tuell/gesellschaft/mode/berliner-mode designer-von-heiligen-und-suendern.
woche-jesus-muss-michalsky-lieben- 3 Caroline Bock, “Heilige und Sünder – Der
1760045.html. Translation from the Designer Michael Michalsky,” Südkurier,
German by PB. January 29, 2009; http://www.suedkurier.
2 Tellingly, Vogue proclaimed soon thereaf- de/unterhaltung/lifestyle/trends/Heilige-
Alicia Kühl ter that Michalsky was the “new pope of und-Suender-Der-Designer-Michael-
German fashion,” as cited in Max Ernst Michalsky;art495,3614842. Translation
Walbersdorf, “Von Heiligen und Sündern: from the German by PB.
114 Framing “Saints and Sinners” Alicia Kühl 115
universal approval. The chairman of the International Martin Luther Foundation, This brief sketch of the debate seemed necessary to clarify the explosive
Thomas A. Seidel, vehemently rejected “such a mindless and impious utiliza- nature of this fashion show held during the Berlin Fashion Week and to do
tion,” and posited instead: “One longs for a courageous Christian who justice to the critical voices. The following considerations will forgo taking
would put an end to such a vanity fair with the same energetic verve as Jesus sides for or against such a utilization of sacral space. Instead, I am primarily
cleansed the Jerusalem temple of the money changers.”4 interested in investigating how the space of a fashion show is produced—tak-
ing this show as an example—and in the discussion as to what extent a fash-
Seidel found Michalsky’s appearance at the end of the show particularly repul- ion show can be described as a ritual—not necessarily a Christian one, which
sive, which Kaiser described as follows: “Michalsky himself had no doubt as to would seem obvious here, but in terms of it being an act of transformation.11
his divine mission. At the end of the show the messenger of the gods emerged Precisely in this fashion show’s balancing act between fashion spectacle and
from the sacristy and graced the stage. After lapping up the applause and then its liturgical resemblance—which we shall assume for the moment—basic
turning to leave, the audience could read on his back in large letters: ‘Jesus traits of ritual action can be discerned and reconstructed.
loves me’. Let’s believe it!”5
A segment broadcast on the television station rbb interpreted the repositioning A Description of the Fashion Show Atmosphere of “Saints
of the pews away from the altar towards the catwalk6 to the effect that the and Sinners”
disciples were not to “pray in the direction of the cross, but solely in the direc-
tion of his [Michalsky’s] creations.”7 As one of around 500 guests, one entered the Zionskirche in January 2009
and took a seat in one of the pews of the thirty-meter-long main aisles,
Was this fashion show blasphemous and did Michalsky actually stage-manage flanked by monumental pillars. The pews were set up facing the middle of the
his presence as a messiah? According to the press release issued by the aisle, where a reflective black catwalk was positioned at eye height, even
Sophien Parish, supporting fashion, design, art, and music by making available towering over the altar. The space was darkened completely at the begin-
sacral premises is to be welcomed, for the parish wishes to open up its doors ning. Where the altar and crucifix are usually positioned, a black gate opened
to the secular world. As long as the event does “not use sacral elements for slowly, gradually letting a ray of blinding white light fall, becoming more and
its own purposes,” then it must be assumed that a desecration of the building more intense, on the catwalk.
does not take place.8 According to an article by the journalist Liva Haensel,9
most of the activities were agreed to in advance with the pastors of the parish
and the press office of the Regional Church authority, whereby the director of
the Sophien Parish’s cultural office, Thekla Wolff, acted as intermediary—
4 “Kritik an Fashion Week,” Thüringer Allge- the German by PB.
Wolff later claimed that she knew nothing of plans to use a signet10 in which
meine, February 3, 2009; http://www.luther 8 Press release quoted in “Gehen Prostituierte
the letter “M” was carried by a lamb/the Lamb of God and depicted against -stiftung.org/dokumente/presse/Thueringer und Kirche Hand in Hand?”
the backdrop of a stained-glass window and cross. Allgemeine%2003.02.2009.pdf. Translated 9 Liva Haensel, “Drahtseilakt unterm Kreuz,”
from the German by PB. February 15, 2009; http://www.luther-stift
5 Alfons Kaiser and Anke Schipp, “Im Metallic- ung.org/dokumente/thesen/Die%20
Mantel der Geschichte,” Frankfurter Allge- Kirche%20-%20Drahtseilakt%20unterm
meine Zeitung, February 2, 2009; http:// %20Kreuz%20von%20Liva%20Haensel
www.faz.net/aktuell/gesellschaft/mode/ %2015.02.2009.pdf.
modestadt-berlin-im-metallic-mantel-der- 10 Like the print pattern of the collection, the
geschichte-1775334.html. Translated from signet was created in collaboration with
the German by PB. Japanese artist Shinpei Naito.
6 Here Kaiser’s description was not quite 11 In conformity with Matthias Warstat, “rituals”
correct; although they were not removed, are understood generally as transformative
the pews were repositioned to face the actions in social contexts which are re-
central aisles. peatedly performed according to a deter-
7 As cited in “Gehen Prostituierte und Kirche mined, passed down pattern. See Matthias
Hand in Hand?” Idea Spektrum (June, Warstat, “Lexikonartikel zum Begriff Ritual,”
2009): 9; http://www.luther-stiftung.org/ in Metzler Lexikon Theatertheorie, ed. Erika
Fig. 25 dokumente/thesen/IdeaSpecktrum_Zions Fischer-Lichte et al. (Stuttgart: Metzler,
Michalsky, Fall/Winter 2009 collection signet. kirche_04.02.2009.pdf. Translated from 2005), 274.
This imposing moment is then underlined by the playing of dramatic, fanfare-

like vocals, which segues into the hard, accelerated beat of Depeche Mode’s
“Personal Jesus.” Luca Gadjus takes to the catwalk as the first face, but it is
not until the second model, Toni Garrn, emerges that it becomes clear how
the fake long ponytails of the women swing in perfect tact to the song, a
movement symbolizing the sounds of the lashing whip from “Personal Jesus.”
Partly studded with Swarovski crystals, the stained-glass window prints of the
long dresses and jeans are combined with shiny materials in metallic optics,
with studded leather jackets, lace veils, fur jackets, white sneakers, hoodie
sweaters, and shirts with clerical collars. In the collection Michalsky plays, as
the title “Saints and Sinners” suggests, with the image of a woman, stylized
into a Domina, at once erotic and cool, on the one hand, and a reticent, seri-
ous, but nonetheless casual man with a side parting on the other. Even when
Michalsky in the making-of-video denies any difference between saints and
sinners, saying that in his “definition of church and religion […] either every-
one is a sinner or no-one is a sinner,”12 this attribution to the sexes is relatively
Fig. 27
obvious and stringent. At the end of the fashion show Michalsky expresses Toni Garrn parades on the catwalk. Michalsky, Fall/
his thanks dressed in a leather jacket, emblazoned on the back with “Jesus Winter 2009 collection show.
loves me.” And then it’s off to the old city bath in the Oderberger Straße for
the aftershow party.
The Production of Space13
The remark by one viewer of the show—that “the location is different and
along with it the brand!”14—directs my attention to how space is utilized (for a
different purpose) as a strategy for staging a fashion event, a strategy other
designers resort to extensively.
The following will draw on an in-depth exploration of different theories on

space that have led to, or respectively constitute, the spatial, topographical,
respectively topological turn.15 Space is always socially constructed; that
means that space as such can only then be experienced when humans have
12 Quote from the official “Making-of-video” in Portal Wissen (Universität Potsdam,

(1:55 min.); http://www.youtube.com/ January 2013), 89–91.
watch?v=HR-2ZuS-uV8. Translated from 14 As cited in: “Making-of-video” (2:55 min).
the German by PB. Translated from the German by PB.
13 My considerations here take up ideas first 15 An elaborate introduction to his theoreti-
sketched two years ago in Alicia Kühl, cal approach as well as some of the fol-
“Wie Kleidung zu Mode wird: Prozesse der lowing arguments can be found in my dis-
Verräumlichung in Modenschauen,” in sertation, which will presumably be
Räume der Mode, ed. Gertrud Lehnert published in 2014 under the working title
(Paderborn: Fink, 2011), 57–74. See also “Modenschauen. Die Behauptung des
Sophia Rost, “Designer ziehen Räume an: Neuen in der Mode” at the University of
Fig. 26 Neue Trends oder ‘Schicht im Schacht’ in Potsdam.
Michalsky, Fall/Winter 2009 collection show. der Mode? Ein Gespräch mit Alicia Kühl,”
can now be experienced in the overlapping of the spaces is what I would like
}
to call the space of the fashion show, which is performative and ephemeral.
It could be assumed that the imaginary space comprises the initial place and
Merging of the three
decisively influences the search for a suitable location. However, it can fre-
types of space into the
quently be the case that an exceptional location, which a designer already
space of the fashion show
has in mind, influences the formation of the imaginary space, or the imaginary
space only functions in combination with a specific location. One could even
ask if the collection on show is not influenced by the imagined space or the
chosen location. It is quite clear in our fashion show example that the design
Fig. 28
Alicia Kühl, Overlapping of place, location, and imaginary space, 2013. of the clothes (stained-glass window prints, collars) and the decision for the
location of the Zion Church in Berlin are mutually dependent. Indeed, in this
case it may be speculated that the search for an exceptional location preced-
formed, built, entered, or lived in it, experienced something in it, or talked ed the design process, or at least steered it in a specific direction.
about it and so made it recognizable and endowed it with meaning. In terms
specific to the fashion show it has to be differentiated between three types But back to the space of the fashion show as the result of a fusion between
of space: the place, the location, and the so-called imaginary space. In the mo- place, location, and imaginary space. A similar approach is found in Erika
ment of its staging, all three merge to form the space of the fashion show. Fischer-Lichte’s theory of the performative. As she sees it, spatiality first
comes about in and through a performance, turning space into a mobile and
The designations chosen for these spaces are not based on existing terminology performative thing, embedded in an architecture that exists prior to, during,
but are the result of careful deliberations, which come closest to my view. By and after the performance:
the place of a fashion show I am referring to the geographical place where it is
held, but one that, based on the “coloration” it is given in the fashion business, The spatiality of the performance needs to be distinguished from this ar-
also has social, political, and economic connotations. For instance, while Paris chitectonic-geometric space. The materiality of the performance, whether
stands for haute couture, as an emerging fashion city Berlin is associated with it be spatial, corporeal, or phonetic in nature, is produced first in and
street wear, green fashion, or an “anything goes” attitude. The fashion vision of through the performance—it is generated performatively. Spatiality arises
Berlin is yet to be given a special profile, revealing that sense of place has a through the possibilities utilized to set the various participants or groups
relativist composition. The term location is used while referring to a concrete of participants into a relationship with one another, to organize and to
point within a place at which or in which the fashion show is staged. This structure their movements through space or in space as well as their per-
could mean enclosed spaces (such as tents, industrial buildings, railway sta- ception. No matter how the possibilities are exploited they have an impact
tions, swimming pools, the Zion Church, etc.), or spaces outdoors, either ac- on the spatiality of the performance, for every movement by persons, ob-
cessible to the general public or private (such as a park or garden, a beach, a jects, or light, every sound made, is capable of changing it.19
pedestrian zone, etc.). The imaginary space is the space the designer creates
in his/her imagination, for example the dream Karl Lagerfeld had of his Cha- Furthermore, the performance space is also an immersive space, one into
nel iceberg landscape (Fall/Winter 2010), as he explained in an interview.16 which the viewer can plunge. Here the atmosphere is essential, playing a
This space is not locatable cartographically, but a product of the imaginative pivotal role in how the space is experienced. Gernot Böhme has described
creativity of the designer and production team. Moreover, this space is not
just a sketch of the fashion show drawn up by the designer but embraces ev-
16 Karl Lagerfeld in interview with Tim Blanks, 2004), 161.
erything that is to be experienced in this space. It is an imagined space that
accessed July 3, 2013, http://www.style. 18 Various uses of atmospheres inherent to
envelops its viewers with an atmosphere and thus evokes the perceptions, as- com/fashionshows/video/F2010RTW locations are explained in Alicia Kühl,
sociations, and feelings that the designer intends. In the interaction between -CHANEL. “Wie Kleidung zu Mode wird.”
the three spatial types, however, all that was intended is influenced hic et 17 On the presentist dimension or what 19 Erika Fischer-Lichte, Performativität: Eine
Fischer-Lichte means by hic et nunc, see Einführung (Bielefeld: Transcript, 2012),
nunc17 by the physical presence of all involved and the actions they perform, Erika Fischer-Lichte, Ästhetik des Perfor- 58. Translated from the German by PB.
intermingling with the atmospheres inhering in the place and location.18 What mativen (Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp,
atmospheres as being neither something material nor inherent to the subject; Interestingly, in “Saints and Sinners,” these boundaries largely coincide with
instead, “spaces are in as far as they are ‘tinged’ by the presence of things, the boundaries between the parish’s part of the church and the clergyman’s,
people, or the constellations of the setting, i.e., by their ecstasies.”20 According hence between the profane and sacred. Setting up boundaries in a location by
to Fischer-Lichte, in an atmospheric space the viewers feel their lived experience analogy with the ones already given proves to be an effective strategy of
in a very specific way: the atmosphere penetrates into and breaches the mutual reinforcement. When we sketch these boundaries from a bird’s-eye
boundary of the body. The performative space is thus “a liminal space in view, their setting resembles a set of frames. This raises the question as to
which metamorphoses are passed through and transformations take place.”21 why boundaries are needed in a fashion show and who determines what is to
Cultural anthropologist Victor Turner was a key figure in elaborating the con- be distinguished or framed from what and why. My thesis is that the frame of
cept of liminality, describing ritual as a transgressing of boundaries and en- a fashion show is no longer set only for the purpose of highlighting the new
tering into threshold states of betwixt and between. Before returning to our creation featured, but that the framing itself can represent the new. Fashion
considerations of the fashion show, seeking to identify its features as a ritual, show spaces come about through the aforementioned interaction between
it seems advisable to discuss one of the key tasks facing a designer and fash- three types of space in the moment that the boundaries between them dissolve,
ion show producer, namely, the practice of setting boundaries and framing. but also through a boundary being set between what the designer wishes to
mark as the new in distinction from the old, for which the audience stands
symbolically. This boundary is visible prior to the fashion show and is under-
The Practice of Setting Boundaries and Framing lined; it is prohibited, for example, to set foot on the catwalk prior to the
show or take a look behind the scenes in the backstage area (exclusion).
Boundaries separate in order to emphasize the difference between two areas. These boundaries are dissolved during and after the fashion show to enable
They do not simply exist just (as territorial boundaries are not naturally given) the audience to become part of the performance and witnesses at the pre-
but are the result of social procedures. What are the types of boundaries in a sentation of new creations (inclusion).
fashion show? Firstly, there is the boundary set between the three aforemen-
tioned types of space—place, location, and imaginary space; secondly, within A host of authors have elaborated theoretical underpinning for the concepts
the fashion show space we have a gap or boundary between the audience or terms of boundary and frame, whereas in my view the most fruitful are
[A] and the stage [S], between the stage and the backstage [BS], and further- those articulated in the theoretical considerations of the performative, in soci-
more between object (clothes) and the viewing subject, between a viewer ology, and in theories on ritual.22 In the essay collection Ritualität und Grenze,23
and the persons sitting on either side, between the viewer and the model, be-
tween seats in the coveted front row and the standing room at the back, etc. 20 Gernot Böhme, Atmosphäre: Essays zur Theorie und Geschichte (Berlin: Dietrich
neuen Ästhetik (Frankfurt/Main: Reimer, 2010); Georg Simmel, “Der Bild-
Suhrkamp, 1995: 33), translated from the rahmen: Ein ästhetischer Versuch,” in Der
German by PB. See also his considerations Tag: Moderne illustrierte Zeitung, Novem-
on the atmosphere in a church: Gernot ber 18, 1902; Victor Witter Turner, “Betwixt
Böhme, Architektur und Atmosphäre (Pad- and Between: The Liminal Period in Rites de
erborn: Fink, 2006), 139–50. Passage,” in Symposium on New Approaches
BS 21 Fischer-Lichte, Ästhetik des Performativen, to the Study of Religion, ed. Melford E. Spiro
208. Translated from the German by PB. (Seattle: Proceedings of the American Eth-
22 Next to the publications cited in the fol- nological Society, 1964), 4–20; Victor Witter
lowing, please note in addition: Burckhard Turner, “Liminalität und Communitas,” in Rit-
S Dücker, Rituale: Formen – Funktionen –
Geschichte; Eine Einführung in die Ritual-
ualtheorien: Ein einführendes Handbuch,
ed. Andréa Bellinger (Wiesbaden: VS Verlag
A A wissenschaft (Stuttgart: Metzler, 2007); für Sozialwissenschaften, 2008), 251–64;
Henrik Jungaberle, Rituale erneuern: Ritual- Herbert Willems, Rahmen und Habitus: Zum
dynamik und Grenzerfahrung aus inter- theoretischen und methodischen Ansatz
disziplinärer Perspektive (Gießen: Psycho- Erving Goffmans (Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp,
sozial-Verlag, 2006); Henrik Jungaberle, 1997).
LOCATION Rituale in Bewegung: Rahmungs- und 23 Erika Fischer-Lichte, “Ritualität und Grenze:
Reflexivitätsprozesse in Kulturen der Ge- Eine Einführung,” in Ritualität und Grenze,
PLACE Fig. 29
genwart (Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2006); Hans
Körner and Karl Möseneder, Rahmen:
ed. Erika Fischer-Lichte (Tübingen:
Francke, 2003), 11–30.
Alicia Kühl, Possible frames in a location, 2013. Zwischen Innen und Aussen; Beiträge zur
Erika Fischer-Lichte approaches the concept of boundary through an historical for the latter, which are really only two sides of a single function: closing the
performance: Gertrud Eysoldt’s portrayal of Elektra in a play by Hugo von work of art off against the surrounding world and holding it together. The
Hoffmannsthal in Berlin in 1903 marked a turning point in the art of acting. frame proclaims that a world is located inside of it, which is subject only to its
Through her expressive, wild performance, Eysoldt breaches the traditional own laws, not drawn into the determinations and changes of the surrounding
boundary between the semiotic (i.e., her role) and her own body. The audience world. In so far as it symbolizes the self-contented unity of the work of art,
was no longer able to distinguish between fiction and reality—their identifica- the frame at the same time strengthens its reality and its impression. Similarly,
tion with Eysoldt’s own body was too powerful. There was thus no longer any a society is characterized as inwardly homogeneous because its sphere of
play in the sense of “as if” or “make believe,” the acting no longer imitated a existence is enclosed in acutely conscious boundaries and conversely, the
reality it merely pretended to embody, but actually constituted reality. This reciprocal unity and functional relationship of every element to every other
had a profound impact on the boundary between the audience and stage: the one gains its spatial expression in the enclosing boundary.26
transgression of the boundary erected between the semiotic and physical
body passed over to the audience. At least during the time of the perfor- In Steps to An Ecology of Mind the anthropologist Gregory Bateson also takes
mance the audience also passes through a physical transformation, lending up the analogy of the framing of pictures, explaining that in communicative
the performance a ritual dimension. Fischer-Lichte emphasizes that this structures “perception of the ground must be positively inhibited and percep-
transgression can be considered an “artistic technique”—in other words tion of the figure (in this case the picture) must be positively enhanced.”27
something intentionally employed by artists as a strategy for staging an event. Here, he too emphasizes the ideas of inclusion and exclusion as well as con-
trasting, thus drawing Gestalt theory. In Bateson’s sense, frames can activate
In this example the boundary transgression and transformation are based on specific perception patterns, initiate cognitive and emotional processes, and
the physical co-presence of audience and actors. Here we need to keep in guide modes of behavior.
mind that in the fashion show it is not just the body of the other that can be
experienced through the senses and processed cognitively and emotionally; In his Frame Analysis Erving Goffman assumes even more emphatically that
there are a host of additional elements which constitute the particular atmo- there is an interchanging relationship between frame and event. As he under-
sphere of a show (such as media-generated images, sounds, smells, tempera- stands it, within the so-called primary framework there are, besides the natural
tures, senses of broad open or narrow constricting space, etc.). The afore- variants (e.g., events of nature), the social frameworks which “provide back-
mentioned immersion, the inclusion of the viewer into a space through ground understanding for events that incorporate the will, aim, and controlling
plunging into an atmosphere, takes place through a multidimensional boundary effort of an intelligence, a live agency, the chief one being the human being.”28
transgression. Limiting actions through primary social frames means that the participants
understand what is happening, rendering meaningless aspects of the scene
As for the frame, it would seem obvious to think of the term as the physical into something meaningful. Through keys, defined as a set of conventions, “a
frame given to a work of art. However, because the “fashion show” as a total given activity, one already meaningful in terms of some primary framework, is
work of art is not as a single artifact but a performative act, this notion of transformed into something patterned on this activity but seen by the partici-
framing is not particularly applicable. Instead we need to turn to sociology pants to be something quite else.”29 One frequently cited example for such a
and, once again, theories of ritual and theater, which translate the principle transformation are soccer games, where specific actions by individual radical
behind the framing of a picture, namely the inclusion through exclusion, to fans are transposed into a new frame, lending them the character of a fight
the communication between individuals. and thus possibly escalating into outright acts of violence.30
In his essay “The Sociology of Space” Georg Simmel explores the concepts of 24 Georg Simmel, “The Sociology of Space,” on the Organization of Experience (Bos-
the boundary and the frame.24 Simmel uses both terms as a sociological met- in Simmel on Culture, ed. David Frisby et ton: Northwestern University Press, 1986),
al. (London: Sage, 2000), 137–69. First 22. First published in 1974.
aphor to describe contexts of meaning and behavior: “The boundary is not a
published in German in 1903. 29 Ibid., 43–44.
spatial fact with sociological consequences, but a sociological fact that forms 25 Ibid., 143. 30 See Jan Weinhold, Michael Rudolph, and
itself spatially.”25 26 Ibid., 141. Claus Ambos, “Framing als Zugang zur
27 Gregory Bateson, Steps to an Ecology of Ritualdynamik,” in Rituale in Bewegung:
Mind (Chicago: University of Chicago Rahmungs- und Reflexivitätsprozesse in
The frame of a structure, its self-contained boundary, has a very similar sig- Press, 2000), 187. First published in 1972. Kulturen der Gegenwart, ed. Henrik
nificance for the social group as for a work of art. It performs two functions 28 Erving Goffman, Frame Analysis: An Essay Jungaberle (Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2006), 25.
Frames are thus, according to Goffman, organizational principles for events in what I call a “memory image” (Erinnerungsbild) of the show, which is later
that the individual has formed out of experience or based on his/her recoupled to the clothing in the negotiation process which follows every
knowledge. Taking up the approaches of Bateson and Goffman, the authors fashion show.32
Weinhold, Rudolph, and Ambos have come up with a definition of frames
fruitful for grasping the dynamics of rituals:
The Fashion Show—A Ritual?
Frames are understood as individual or collective, conscious or uncon-
scious knowledge structures and organizational principles which structure Is it possible to discern a ritual character in the fashion show, namely as a so-
physical and social (and thus also ritual) realities. With a frame actors in- cial process for negotiating (what is new), which would legitimatize defining
volved in the ritual are defining which acts, elements, and events are salient the fashion show as a ritual?
and correct in the respective situation and which are not. Frames are cog-
nitive-affective and thus action-guiding sets of information. While frame is Generally, the new and the ritual, as Burckhard Dücker has explained in detail,
understood as a concept describing structures, framing designates the are not mutually exclusive but in fact depend upon one another.33 Indeed, the
process of perceiving and interpreting a situation. On the individual level new is only possible within the framework of seriality, and a series, i.e., a re-
this entails actualization of frames, on the social and cultural levels curring order, is ensured when it is affirmed over and again in a similar ritual
the constitutive process of establishing, changing, and communicating act. The ritual needs the new so as to be able to verify and confirm itself—and
frames.31 the new needs the ritual as a vehicle to come into the world:
Two important characteristics emerge from this: firstly, frames enclose some- If ‘the new’ is recognized as such it has passed through a ritual negotiation
thing so as to emphasize it; and secondly, to a certain extent frames can en- process, as for example in a fashion show, industry trade fair, or awards
sure that events are experienced and understood in a specific way, and those ceremony, which leads from a marked beginning (proposition, presenta-
involved respond in a specific way. In terms of the fashion show this means tion) through to a consequential end (acceptance or rejection). In this way
that, as an event, it is the result of interaction between planning and emer- ‘the new’ unfolds a specific social dimension that reveals itself as a narra-
gence—planning because the designer and his/her team, through composing tive context creating meaning which revolves around the participating
a fashion show space, deliberately set a frame around what is to be present- persons.34
ed as an “artistic technique,” the intention being to distinguish it from an
“outside.” And emergence because within the time of the fashion show this According to Dücker the fashion show is a ritual by virtue of its negotiating
set frame is dissolved—inside and outside briefly become one. what is new. As discussed above, rituals are also dependent upon and shaped
by the existence and use of boundaries and frames, both of which are clearly
The frame not only encloses the new but also is in itself new. Up until now, evident in a fashion show. Goffman’s theory of brackets can further nuance
our premise was that the frame encloses and makes something that is to be our definition of ritual.35 These are signs that alert actors to the beginning, the
presented on the stage clearly discernible. The aspiration of the designers is progression, or the end of an action or a ritual. Fashion shows are shaped and
to show something on the stage that is innovative in the sense of a “never- pervaded by such brackets: as a rule they follow the same pattern (parade
seen-before-in-this-form.” The whole fashion system cannot function without with first and last face, finale, and appearance of the designer), involve the
the old being supplanted by the new. What happens however, when there are same persons (professional models), take place in the same locations (e.g.,
no more innovations in fashion design—or at least have considerably dimin-
ished and that which is shown is “only” quotes, deconstructions, and combi-
nations of older fashions and styles, in other words nothing genuinely new? 31 Ibid. schaft,” in Das Ursprüngliche und das
32 For further discussions on the nature of Neue: Zur Dynamik ritueller Prozesse in
To where has innovativeness been displaced? I state that the strategies of
the new, the so-called “memory image” Geschichte und Gegenwart, ed. Burckhard
rendering the new visible, namely the framings, are themselves to be visible, and on strategies of recoupling, please Dücker and Gerald Schwedler (Berlin: LIT
discussed, communicable, and saleable. What is shown and declared as the note my forthcoming dissertation as men- Verlag, 2008), 32. Translated from the
new in Michalsky’s “Saints and Sinners” is initially nothing material such as tioned in note 15. German by PB.
33 Burckhard Dücker, “‘Alle Jahre wieder…’ – 34 Ibid., 21.
the clothing, but the contextualization of the clothing itself which is given ‘Was gibt’s Neues?’ Das Neue und das Rit- 35 Goffman, Frame Analysis, 251; Weinhold
through the spatial and social frames of the church. This context is captured uelle als Kategorien der Kulturwissen- et al., “Framing als Zugang,” 25.
official fashion week tents), in the same cities (the “fashion capitals”) and at
the same times of year (in six-month cycles). Fashion shows that deviate from
this regime attract special attention, for example, when an unusual location is
selected, amateur models booked, or the order of events reversed.
Moreover, as Fischer-Lichte and the anthropologists she draws on (in particular

Arnold van Gennep and Victor Turner) underline, various phases are passed
through in a ritual, whereby the status of the person involved is altered or
affirmed. Passing through these phases can occur spatially, i.e., crossing spatial
thresholds or transgressing boundaries. In the moment of crossing those in-
volved find themselves on a threshold that “forms the passage from one order
to another” and “leads them into a liminal state.”36 Therefore, a fashion show
can be seen as a kind of fictive transformation in which the models simulate,
but do not actually consummate, a transgression of the boundary separating
the old from the new.
All fashion shows—and not just Michalsky’s—exhibit a ritual character. Those

elements of “Saints and Sinners” so vehemently criticized, for instance the
opening of the portal mimicking the Gates of Heaven, equating the catwalk
with an altar and casting Michalsky as a “Creator” can be perceived as a blas-
phemous commentary. At the same time, however, this is more of an exag-
geration or perhaps even persiflage of the ritual character of fashion shows in
general, the character that Michalsky’s show called attention to in the first
place.
Translated from the German by Paul Bowman
36 Fischer-Lichte, Ästhetik des Performa-

tiven, 258. Translated from the German by
PB.
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Sabina Muriale 131
Fashion Film
From Physical to Virtual—The Global Scope of Online
Fashion Presentations
The fashion show is not quite the final destination of a new collection, that
Spaces of
would be the customers. But it is a strategically important objective for both
marketing and advertising. The first impression or so-called “pre-sensation”
of journalists, critics, buyers, or in this particular case the customers, is decisive
for the product turnover. At the same time, a global image of a brand is also
conveyed.
Exclusivity and Fashion shows are integral parts of the fashion industry; therefore, it is sur-
prising that over the decades the catwalk has undergone minimal change. It
has become at most more complicated and subsequently more expensive in
the Globalization
its production.2 The catwalk acts inter alia as a stage for pretentious settings
or lavish performances that are sometimes even compared to art installations.
For Chanel’s Spring/Summer show 2012, Karl Lagerfeld transformed the
Grand Palais in Paris into an oversized water world. A swarm of models strutted
through an under-the-sea tableau replete with white coral and aquatic crea-
of Accessibility
tures. A huge, shimmering curtain supplied the already opulent setting a note
of even more dramatic, climatic grandeur.
Or recall the performance at the end of Alexander McQueen’s show for his
spring/summer collection of 1999: the model Shalom Harlow rotated on a
Sabina Muriale platform, embedded in the stage floor, in a white sleeveless dress with petticoat
lining. Like a pirouetting ballerina atop a clockwork music box, the model
appeared rooted to the ground. Only her arms and upper body were moving to
the rhythm of the rotating disc in an unstable, almost vulnerable way. This
“mechanical ballet”was flanked by two robots,3 taken from a car factory,4 which
sprayed the model’s dress with black and yellow paint. In McQueen’s words,
this was a carefully prepared project that took one week to choreograph, or
rather to program the robots. He was inspired by an installation by the artist
Rebecca Horn in which two rifles shot each other with blood-red color.5
1 N°47 The “Pre-sensation” Is the Destina- 1980s. See “Shalom Harlow,” Vogue; www.
tion—Wear the Enfolding Past, Touch the vogue.com/voguepedia/Shalom_Harlow.
Contemplative Present and Smell the 4 “The Towering Genius of Alexander
Soundperfume of the Time to Come. McQueen,” The Hapsical, February 15,
http://www.bless-service.de/BLESS_new/ 2010; http://hapsical.blogspot.co.at/
N/Eintrage/2012/9/24_N47_The_Presensation 2010/02/towering-genius-of-alexander
_is_the_destination.html. mcqueen.html.
2 Cf. Hayley Mills, “Catwalk Set Trends: 5 “Dress, No. 13, Spring/Summer 1999,” The
Womenswear Autumn/Winter 2009/10,” Metropolitan Museum of Art (blog); http://
WGSN Fashion Trend Forecasting & Analysis, blog.metmuseum.org/alexandermcqueen/
April 6, 2009; www.wgsn.com. dress-no-13/.
3 Shalom Harlow studied ballet in the
132 Fashion Film Sabina Muriale 133
However, these two examples are linked to a traditional catwalk, i.e., models
moving enfilade, presenting the collection live and locally in front of the invit-
ed audience. Live, local, invited audience, etc., are keywords, which will be
discussed in this essay as they are important in relation to new forms of fash-
ion presentation in the digital age.
It is only in recent years that we have seen a hype growing around new forms
of fashion presentation that utilize the world wide web and other digital tools
for its own merit. The digital fashion film is only one variation of many examples
on which we will focus in the following. Especially illustrated by the coop-
eration between fashion film director Ruth Hogben/SHOWstudio and London-
Fig. 30 a, b, and c
based designer Gareth Pugh. BLESS, Collection 47: The “Pre-sensation” Is the Destination—Wear the Enfolding Past, Touch the Con-
templative Present and Smell the Soundperfume of the Time to Come, 2012.
This kind of fashion presentation generates controversial opinions among
fashion critics as well as other fashion designers. Suzy Menkes, fashion editor the shortest or most practical way to promote collections.10 Meanwhile, ever
of the International Herald Tribune, commented on Gareth Pugh’s fashion film more fashion companies use the possibilities of the medium of film and incorpo-
of his spring/summer 2012 collection:6 “They are the champions of the Inter- rate these films selectively into a communication strategy in their presentations.
net age designers who can tap into the ultra-modernity of image and sound
as part of a multimedia experience.”7 But she warned, thinking of Mugler’s There are various approaches: the film may be used as a substitute for or to
collaboration with Lady Gaga, for more caution: “Do not forget the clothes!”8 accompany the traditional catwalk. Depending on the content, this could be a
And this leads us directly to a debate about pros and cons of digital fashion sequence of various outfits from a collection, or the film could portray an
film and its experiences with a new aesthetic. The rise of a visual industry had abstract story. Techniques range from traditional cinematography to cutting
already begun. But let us start by looking back on digital fashion presentation edge, digital processes.
and its development over the years, before we continue to observe and dis-
cuss current fashion films or other exclusive presentation forms in the follow- Thirteen years ago, in 2000, the fashion film platform SHOWstudio was also
ing chapter. In the end we will analyze the relationship between spaces of ex- one of the first that pushed the trend and developed its own specific type of
clusivity and the globalization of accessibility under the perspective of fashion film.11 Nick Knight—cofounder of this platform—explains that fashion
network capitalism. and film work together as a matter of course because clothes have a strong
visual effect and are especially designed for shaping and movement.12 Experi-
mental filmmaker and Knight’s former assistant, Ruth Hogben,13 supports him
First Streams and Fashion Films by Helmut Lang & SHOWstudio
6 See SHOWstudio, http://showstudio.com/ 11 There are, however, also further platforms
Helmut Lang was one of the first to live-stream his New York debut show for project/gareth_pugh_ss_2012. for the fashion film medium: Dazed Digital
his Fall/Winter 1998/99 collection, solely for an online audience.9 At that time, 7 Suzy Menkes, “Don’t Forget the Clothes!” (the online platform of London style mag-
it was a scandal for all those eager to be seen in the limited front-row seats. A New York Times, September 9, 2011; azine Dazed & Confused) and A Shaded
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/30/ View on Fashion Film (formed by mother
lot has happened since then. It has already become a mainstream phenome- fashion/mugler-and-gareth-pugh-dont- of all fashion bloggers, Diane Pernet).
non that fashion shows are broadcasted directly via the web, and it is worth forget-the-clothes.html. 12 Cf. Lauren Davis, “Fashion Film Creative
nothing that there are significantly larger audiences than fifteen years ago. 8 Ibid. Talent: Top 10,” WGSN Fashion Trend Fore-
9 Cf. Harriet Walker, “Out of Fashion: casting & Analysis, December 20, 2010;
The Internet renders the exchange of information simple and allows access to
Designers Finding New Ways to Sell Their www.wgsn.com.; Lauren Davis, “Fashion
the fashion business, regardless of one’s physical location. In the age of digital Style,” Independent, February 9, 2012; Film: The Digital Future,” WGSN Fashion
culture, imagery from fashion shows are shared—thanks to bloggers and so- http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/ Trend Forecasting & Analysis, December
cial media applications such as Twitter, Instagram, etc.—in reasonably good fashion/news/out-of-fashion-designers- 9, 2010; www.wgsn.com.
finding-new-ways-to-sell-their-style- 13 Other filmmakers are inter alia Sarah
quality on the personal computers of dedicated followers of fashion. At first 6669578.html. Chatfield (YSL) or Katerina Jebb
glance, separate and exclusive fashion shows are outdated and are no longer 10 Ibid. (Givenchy).
when she describes the relationship between clothing and film. Her commen- required only a single, albeit huge, screen and two solitary (models primarily
tary sheds light on how materiality and gendering manipulate meaning in Kristen McMenamy)18 for the presentation of his entire collection. This film,
fashion cinema: “If you see a garment once, it communicates one thing, but if just over eleven minutes long, copied the effects of a kaleidoscope with its in-
you see it repetitively, you concentrate on its intimately changing form and terrupted movements and multiple reflections. The use of light and the ar-
movement. Each film is led by the elements of the different garments: some- rangements of space do not follow terrestrial logic. The absence of gravity
times it moves to the bass and sometimes it goes against the beat; chiffon and time form new fundamental laws. Everything is artificial and highly aes-
might feel feminine, whereas metallic could be aggressive [...].”14 thetic, and right at the beginning a kind of a Genesis occurs. Out of a black
nothingness, a metal cube appears and reminds us of Stanley Kubrick’s open-
Hogben’s own descriptions of her working method are significant with regard ing scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey.19
to our debate about the rise of a visual industry. Image building and stirring
up emotions are further keywords in our analysis of fashion film as a market- But this was not his first move to amaze his audience with recent digital cre-
ing concept. ations. He already organized a space of exclusivity and global accessibility for
his Fall/Winter 2009/10 show. On one hand he limited the access to his show
and released high-resolution images only for a certain number of people. And
Ruth Hogben and Gareth Pugh’s World of Emotions and on the other hand, he published a fashion film on SHOWstudio’s website with
Needs—Desire Pre-programmed deep-resolution images of his collection. By flirting between the boundaries
of accessibility and exclusivity Pugh fosters a desire for the illustration of
Gareth Pugh is one of the designers who has, since 2009, recognized the op- fashion. But beside this marketing artifice, how does Ruth Hogben’s method
portunity of viral marketing and advertising, as well as the artistic potential of of filmmaking work?
a fashion film. For several years, in collaboration with Ruth Hogben, he has
been integrating digital films into his presentations as an alternative to the
catwalk. Meanwhile, Hogben produces and directs a fashion film each season
for Pugh, and she seems dedicated when she describes the ethos and stan- 14 Davis, “Fashion Film.” for 2001: A Space Odyssey shows refer-
15 Menkes, “Is a Runway Show Really Neces- ences to Hogben’s approach: “I tried to
dards of her work: “I try to make a representation of every piece of fabric, ev- sary?” New York Times, September 29, create a visual experience, one that by-
ery shape and sculpture. I am trying to convey Gareth’s world. I play with 2010; http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09 passes verbalized pigeonholing and di-
scale; physically some parts are quite claustrophobic. There is a lot of free- /30/fashion/30iht-rshow.html. rectly penetrates the subconscious with
16 See SHOWstudio, http://showstudio.com/ an emotional and philosophic content. I
dom, depth and space—a vast, endless infinity of the world.”15
project/gareth_pugh_ss_2011/fashion_film. intended the film to be an intensely sub-
17 Menkes, “Is a Runway Show Really jective experience that reaches the viewer
Pugh’s presentation of his Spring/Summer 2011 collection through an eleven- Necessary?” at an inner level of consciousness, just as
minute digital film as part of Paris Fashion Week,16 was hotly debated in the 18 Jonathan Baker is the second model in music does....”; Gene D. Phillips, Stanley
this film, who is visible for only short Kubrick: Interviews (Jackson: University of
press. The question of whether there is a need for a conventional fashion sequences. Mississippi Press, 2001), 47.
show in this day and age, was asked by Suzy Menkes, among others.17 Pugh 19 And also Kubrick’s quote on his intention
Her fashion films may convey in an abstract way not merely the textile vision even if it is eventually released with only a few megabytes on YouTube—is still
of a fashion designer, but also the image of a fashion company. In some of labor intensive and expensive with the current state of technology. Perhaps
Hogben’s films, one finds only virtual transformations of clothing, body, time, this is because the fashion film is still an evolving, emerging format.
and space without narration. Artificially generated images appear like avatars,
as an abstract expression of what we once understood of clothing and body, But will the virtually transferred fashion film replace the traditional catwalk?
and what we had defined before as time and space. Hogben’s intention is less Caroline Evans, professor of fashion history and theory at Central Saint Martins,
about showing details of a textile structure or a pattern in motion, but repre- states a clear “no.” The exclusivity is decisive for designer fashion, or a luxury
senting a particular vision and evoking an emotional response.20 label, more than the immediacy and thrill of this new media. 29 Despite many
other positive comments on fashion film as an alternative, fashion show
Fashion journalist Suzy Menkes’s benevolent opinion on this matter is: “There producer Etienne Russo also does not believe that the Internet, and the possi-
is a general feeling that after a quarter of a century of catwalk shows, with bilities of social media or Web 2.0 will replace the traditional catwalk. For this,
zombie-faced models walking up and down, with no interaction between the live experience of the fashionistas or consumers and journalists is far too
clothes and audience, this system is coagulating fashion blood rather than important.30 Ed Filipowski, copresident of KCD, agrees.31 He does not long for
making pulses race.”21 the day when all the runway shows are virtual: “I’m a fashion purist [...]. I can’t
wait to go to my first couture show tomorrow morning.”32
But what are exactly the benefits for producer and viewer of such a complex
formation of a new cinematic aesthetic? Both men are of the same opinion that rather different digital marketing for-
mats will be developed and can coexist alongside the catwalks. Examples of
this are seen in the use of augmented reality tools during a fashion show and
The Digital Fashion Film—Benefits and Objections to Going of interactive apps for smartphones as well. London-based designer Emilio de
Online
20 “Gareth Pugh Womenswear S/S10 Film Communication,” WGSN Fashion Trend
Prequel,” Dazed Digital; http://www.daz Forecasting & Analysis, May 14, 2009;
Professional fashion shows cost an enormous amount every season with eddigital.com/fashion/article/4620/1/gareth www.wgsn.com.
significant repeated costs for locations, models, and so on. 22 Subsequently, -pugh-womenswear-s-s10-film-prequel. 24 Mills, “Catwalk Set Trends,” 2.
the financial aspect underpins a different approach in the search for alterna- 21 Menkes, “Is a Runway Show Really 25 Menkes, “Is a Runway Show Really Neces-
Necessary?” sary?,” 15.
tives to the traditional catwalk. Production costs should be reduced as much 22 Trend researcher Cher Potter gives con- 26 Ibid.
as possible.23 The transformation of fashion shows into fashion films has also crete figures: £25,000 to £40,000 must 27 One model presented their entire Spring/
formed a new viewer benefit. Lars von Bennigsen, CEO of Temperley London, be estimated at least for a fashion show Summer 2009 collection. See SHOWstudio
and plus €10,000 to €15,000 for a top Website, http://showstudio.com/project/
points out the new and highly necessary event character of the medium: “
model. Cf. Menkes, “Is a Runway Show inside_the_house_of_viktor_rolf/viktor_rolf_
“Consumers may in turn wake up to the fact that spending millions on cat- Really Necessary?” For America’s top spring_summer_2009_show.
walks does not necessarily make a good or desirable product. Catwalks will fashion show locations like Bryant Park in 28 Cf. Binkley, “Digital Catwalk Is the New
hopefully be always around, but maybe in a less formulaic and boring way. Af- New York: $28,000 and $58,000. Cf. Fashion,” 22.
Estelle Marandon, “Chic durch die Krise,” 29 Cf. Donatien Grau, “An Intellectual Fash-
ter all, fashion is a creative industry and it is amazing that the form of showing Die Zeit, April 6, 2009; http://www.zeit.de/ ion—Caroline Evans,” AnOther Magazine;
clothes has not changed for so long. It only got more expensive.”24 Nick online/2009/08/mode-sparen; Christina http://www.anothermag.com/current/
Knight even expands upon von Bennigsen’s statement, considering the logis- Binkley, fashion and style journalist, cal- view/1826/Caroline_Evans.
culates for a small to medium sized show, 30 Cf. Walker, “Out of Fashion.”
tical problems of travelling with the entire fashion-entourage of models, buy- even $150,000 to $300,000; Cf. Christina 31 KCD is a worldwide operating fashion PR
ers, and journalists and the significant carbon footprints generated.25 But Binkley, “For Couture Shows, Digital Catwalk and production company from New York
does it really save money if you change from a traditional catwalk to a digital Is the New Fashion,” Wall Street Journal, that has recently launched a digital cat-
January 23, 2012; http://online.wsj.com/ walk by invitation only. That means limited
fashion film? “[I]t was not any easier—and certainly not any less expensive—to
article/SB1000142405297020380650457 access via log-in data as a replacement
take the image option, even if it avoided the ‘uncontrollable stress’ of the live 7177251392311874.html. for a traditional catwalk on their website.
format,” Pugh espoused to Menkes.26 It remains in an undeviating mood for 23 Shared catwalks are another attempt to See: KCD Worldwide Project Website,
fashion film. Viktor & Rolf, like other fashion companies, returned to a live-in- save costs. For example Topshop acts as a http://www.digitalfashionshows.com.
host and presents several designers on a 32 Binkley, “Digital Catwalk Is the New
person format after the extra effort and costs of their virtual fashion show in common fashion show. Cf. Cher Potter, Fashion.”
October 200827 had not been appreciated.28 The production of a digital film— “Future Fashion: New Forms of Designer
la Morena examined the direct sale-ability of his Autumn/Winter collection is often unpaid, during lunch or leisure time, because of their dedication to the
2009 via a mobile phone app.33 The audience voted via this app for individual product or brand. Just think of all the numerous fashion bloggers, who freely
pieces and Morena could estimate a possible sale of his collection, and thus promote the products of their favorite brands.41
he was able to plan the further process of the upcoming production.34
This phenomenon is not as new as we think. According to sociologists Luc
But what information is processed directly? Essentially, it is merely an inven- Boltanski and Ève Chiapello, we have been witnessing for decades the emer-
tory of the moment, a short click for a yes or no, or, as Doug Rushkoff point- gence of a New Spirit of Capitalism bound to the rise of network capitalism.42
edly defines in his latest book Present Shock, “to capture the slipping moment.” The new, unlimited possibilities in the time of digital age and social media give
Without questioning the motivations of such short-term actions: “It is simply us new approaches to raise profit through a global network. But the commu-
an effort to key off what we have just done in order to manipulate our deci- nicative and creative possibilities of the Internet lead us to think too easily of
sions in the future. Their campaigns encourage the kinds of impulsive behavior democratization and freedom.43 Boltanski and Chiapello explain:
that fool us into thinking we are living in the now while actually just making us
better targets for their techniques.”35 Capitalism is obliged, if it is to succeed in engaging the people who are in-
dispensable to the pursuit of accumulation, to incorporate a spirit that can
provide attractive, exciting life prospects, while supplying guarantees of
The Promise of Exclusivity Within the Concept of Global security and moral reasons for people to do what they do. And this com-
Accessibility—Oxymoron or Corollary posite amalgam of grounds and reasons turns out to be variable over time,
depending upon the expectations of those who must be mobilized and the
We can also speak of a further step in the globalization of fashion in terms of hopes they have grown up with, as well as the forms taken by accumula-
accessibility, in which former exclusive fashion shows are now open to the tion in different periods.”44
digital public—globally and instantaneously. Everyone can get involved, and
everyone is allowed to share their penny’s worth.36 Even commenting, critiqu- These benefits can be misused for a justification of capitalism, which makes a
ing, and copying occur, especially in the world of social media and other net- possibility of critique more difficult. In our case we just need to replace the
work possibilities. It is a paradise for all copycats. This is a known trade-off promised benefits with the keywords of “democratization” and “freedom” and
when one releases their latest collection as a digital film via the Internet: we are currently right in the middle of another chapter in The New Spirit of
once the fashion film is in circulation, one relinquishes control over who can Capitalism of the digital age. The widespread assumption that a free Internet
see the latest collections and who can judge (e.g., on blogs). This is a fact with its various usage possibilities supports a democratization of the fashion
that the fashion business is unwilling to accept.37 industry is starting to totter.
Put plainly, it is a direct line to customer acquisition and product marketing. A 33 This app is based on a program called futurologist Alvin Toffler. Cf. Alvin Toffler,
traditional catwalk will never be able to offer these advantages because it is Near Field Communication. That NFC The Third Wave (New York: Bantam Books,
dependent on a physical location and on an announced date. And it looks like program for data transmission is a form of 1980).
contactless communication between 40 Cf. George Ritzer and Nathan Jurgenson,
even a new designer’s work ethic has emerged. Sara Zenic, a graduate of smartphones, tablets or other devices. “Production, Consumption, Prosumption—
Central Saint Martins, explains the new type of client relationship: “We want See NFC Near Field Communication Web- The Nature of Capitalism in the Age of the
to present our work in a less extravagant way. We want our presentations to site, http://www.nearfieldcommunication. Digital ‘Prosumer,’” Journal of Consumer
org. Culture 10, no. 1 (March 2010): 13–36;
be made more through communication and collaboration, with a more tai- 34 Cf. Potter, “Future Fashion.” http://joc.sagepub.com/content/10/1/13.
lored approach.”38 35 Douglas Rushkoff, Present Shock (New full.pdf+html?ijkey=KKTk6xYE6Vq1c.
York: Current, 2013), 8. 41 Cf. Toffler, Third Wave, 37.
36 See, for example, the social network Pinter- 42 See Luc Boltanski and Ève Chiapello, The
But what does it mean for all the busy bees of digital multipliers such as fashion
est in pinboard-style (www.pinterest.com), New Spirit of Capitalism (London: Verso,
bloggers and the like? It seems that a new form of “prosumers” have evolved which allows users to share and spread a 2007), 107.
around Web 2.0 and social media.39 Briefly explained: as a prosumer, one is countless number of images taken from the 43 Cf. Ritzer and Jurgenson, “Production,
consumer and producer concurrently.40 It is a new hybrid of an old production Internet to the public net-community. Consumption, Prosumption,” 38.
37 Cf. Walker, “Out of Fashion.” 44 Cf. Boltanski and Chiapello, New Spirit of
process and already known capitalist hierarchy. One consumes information, 38 Potter, “Future Fashion.” Capitalism, 24–25.
evaluates, and distributes it over the Internet, or via social media portals. This 39 The term “prosumer” goes back to American
Yet, Nick Knight still adheres to his vision, and fortifies his position on positive tion of the fashion industry that finds its way between commercial interest
achievements of the Internet. He even considers fashion film as an art form and visual aesthetics. Even though she talks about fashion shows per se, her
that has been freed from the constraints of an elitist predominance: “Artists statement can also be transferred on fashion film:
have forever had to go through a system of patronage—from the Medicis and
the Church to record companies and book publishers. Now you can produce The fashion show can be understood both in the context of commerce,
art and put it up, and people can judge it on its own merit. I think that’s a fun- and in the context of the late-twentieth-century concern with image and
damentally different relationship between art forms and the audience.”45 identity. For our identities and identifications are framed and given shape
by the context of commercial relations, and fashion is a modern paradigm
With this statement, Knight emphasizes unintentionally the previously men- that brings together commerce, culture, and identity in a particularly
tioned justification for capitalism, or a marketing product such as fashion (post)-modern formation on the runway.50
film. But—and that is a new point—he argues through an “artistic critique.”46
Fashion film becomes art and the quasi-democratic Internet is the best way to Yet there is also a trend that avoids the Internet and prefers the exclusiveness
spread artistic freedom globally. of a traditional catwalk. In exaggeration the catwalk can even be brought back
to a salon format that is only made accessible for a selected audience.51 The
Art theorist Isabelle Graw describes this fusion of the art and fashion world as American designer Tom Ford, for example, keeps his presentations strictly lim-
part of a visual industry in which “the responsibility for image production and ited: 100 guests at the most, no photos or reviews.52 He thereby swims
visibility remains no longer with single artists or retailers, but with larger networks against the current to make every and any “fashionable” detail accessible on
or cooperations.”47 The emergence of fashion film as an art form can also be seen the Internet, and at the same time he gives a clear image of its brand that
as a targeted co-branding strategy. Fashion charges itself to a higher level with wants to be created only for a handful of selected customers. In the opinion
artistic authenticity: “it is primarily the (justified) hope for image transfer.”48 of several fashion critics regarding these kinds of digital fashion shows, a
desire for fashion is built upon exclusivity and not on accessibility.53 Ford hits
What precisely does this fusion of fashion and art mean, especially in relation the nail on the head with his exclusive salon concept.
to the fashion film, which is not made solely for irrigation and art apprecia-
tion, but strongly focused on creating customer loyalty? It sounds rather like It should be noted that such a trend is not the result of an uncertainty with
a communication relationship between buyer and seller, but with high aes- respect to the myriad possibilities and latest digital technologies, or of a
thetic and artistic standards. Consequently, the reassessment of a marketing longing for simpler times—a search for authenticity in a world which becomes
tool as a new art form is first of all co-branding on both sides. Internet-users increasingly artificial or, rather, digital. This is all about image. The exclusivity
are indeed the “producers” with their power of likes and dislikes, but the prof- becomes part and parcel of the concept of the brand.
it, or the potential for it, is still owned by the company, or rather SHOWstudio
or, finally, the glorified fashion label.49 Nick Knight has a more pragmatic approach and still insists on the positive
marketing-characteristics of the Internet-savvy fashion film: “There has been
Do We Need a New Fashion Term?

45 Ruth Marshall-Johnson, “Nick Knight, Pho- 50 Caroline Evans, “The Enchanted Spectacle,”
And the question arises: how does fashion evolve? Is it now the number of tographer, Director & Founder of Show- Fashion Theory 5, no. 3 (2001): 304.
studio,” WGSN Fashion Trend Forecasting 51 Cf. Potter, “Future Fashion.”
clicks and like-buttons on the Internet? Does fashion develop through the in- & Analysis, July 22, 2011; www.wgsn.com. 52 Cf. Susannah Frankel, “Ready To Wear:
fluence of a visual industry and the amounts of images that are transmitted 46 Cf. Boltanski and Chiapello, New Spirit of Fashion Shows Are Becoming Ever-More
via the boundless Internet? Is this the new generator for a “fashionable” Capitalism, 419. Exclusive Affairs,” Independent, February
47 Isabelle Graw, “Der letzte Schrei: Über 2, 2011; http://www.independent.co.uk/
movement? Or is it solely the quantity of personal relationships gained
modeförmige Kunst und kunstförmige life-style/fashion/frankel/ready-to-wear-
through an emotion-stoking visual medium? Mode,” Texte zur Kunst, December 2004; fashion-shows-are-becoming-evermore-
http://www.textezurkunst.de/56/ exclusive-affairs-2213737.html.; cf. Walker,
Because emotions create connections between people, create identities, and der-letzte-schrei/. “Out of Fashion.”
48 Cf. ibid. 53 Cf. Grau, “An Intellectual Fashion,” 27; cf.
social affiliations, visual media contributes a new, soul-catching coup of the 49 Cf. Ritzer and Jurgenson, “Production, Potter, “Future Fashion.”
fashion industry. Caroline Evans recognizes these efforts as a clear manipula- Consumption, Prosumption.”
a massive change [...]. The public are seeing clothes as they are shown, rather has to be consciously observed and discussed on a socio-, consumer-, and
than in magazines three months later. And they want them when they see capitalism-critical basis.
them.”54 Knight has certainly no fear of the masses or of a so-called mainstream.
He rather sees potential for direct sales and marketing. At least this is the
final goal of the digital fashion film.
Conclusion
Fashion films have become an essential tool for advertising and marketing for
the global fashion and luxury industry and are increasingly being used as a
presentation medium.55 Whether to replace or to complete a traditional catwalk,
in the end all efforts to find alternatives for traditional catwalks imply the de-
sire to present and to sell a global image of the brand—globally communicated
through the Internet, but always focused on the customer. As such, the fash-
ion film as a marketing tool is a different approach by the fashion industry to
catch and influence consumers by “arousing emotions” (Ruth Hogben). Gareth
Pugh and his film team have so far produced the most successful examples.
They are producing films that have on the one hand an abstract artistic form
and the other hand can skillfully represent the fashionable vision of the de-
signer and the brand image. The fashion film is not only targeted toward jour-
nalists, buyers, or other business insiders. Through its digital form, it will
quickly spread on the Internet on YouTube and other platforms to reach users
and therefore potential customers. Critical discourse sited herein has demys-
tified catch phrases like “open communication” and identified the contradic-
tions of pseudo-democratization, making visible their role in the machinations
of capital. Users of Internet distributed fashion films are among the new
prosumers of our time. They provide through free content sharing, their likes
and dislikes, and thereby providing free feedback for the production studio
and the advertised brand. Fashion films stir emotions in their viewers, thereby
instilling identification and loyalty among consumers and generating a viral
spread.
The previous examples demonstrate the ambivalence and flexibility of fashion.

Fashion and its protagonists switch back and forth between viewpoints and
54 Cf. Walker, “Out of Fashion.” Davis, “Talent,” 10. This example shows
perceptions. They draw inspiration from the conflicting sites of art and com- 55 Meanwhile, major brands cooperate with the business-political strategy of trading-up.
merce; naturalness and artificiality. In the meantime the crossover experiment prestigious directors to produce their In the language of marketing, this means
is officially declared by its maker/producer as a new art form. A factor already fashion films (e.g., David Lynch for Dior, to make a product more valuable by
Martin Scorsese for Chanel, and Kenneth charging it with value and desirability, e.g.,
described as a rise of a visual industry regarding the fusion and co-branding/ Anger for Missoni). However, in the opinion through artistic positions or celebrities.
network capitalism of the art with the fashion world and vice versa by Isabelle of Nick Knight, such cooperations are not Cf. Magdalena Kröner, “A New Love Affair:
Graw. The boundaries between the two systems are already more permeable necessarily positive for the film because Clothes, Art and Moving Images,” Goethe
the directors take up too much space Institute, November, 2010, accessed Au-
and the transitions have become consistently blurred, albeit through a targeted
through their own celebrity aura and create gust 5, 2012, http://www.goethe.de/kue/
strategy.56 Shown in examples by Nick Knight, Gareth Pugh, and Ruth Hogben a distraction. The brand’s image or the des/prj/mod/thm/en6800847.htm.
this digital visual economy is part of an absolute commercialization, which designer’s vision should be prioritized. Cf. 56 See Graw, “Der letzte Schrei.”
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Michael R. Müller 147
The
Aesthetic action is far more than an incidental accessory to social life; it con-
tains a political dimension as well. This point has already been addressed by
Georg Simmel.1 In his view, aesthetic action is an essential mode of social life
that reflects as well as shapes the social. Of the observations that come to
Waywardness
mind to support this view, two are particularly noteworthy. There is, first of
all, the fact that religious and political dispensations are prone to resort to
prestigious forms of art such as architecture and clothing to invest themselves
with emotional relevance. Even more to the point for Simmel was another ob-
servation. Responding to the rationalization and anonymization of reflects as
of Fashion
well as shapes the social life, quite a few of his contemporaries chose to play
the aesthetic card, developing a plethora of new lifestyles. He concluded that
wherever industrialized societies release individuals from the then estab-
lished order, such individuals tend to set off in search of a personal lifestyle
Society in the
congenial to them, complete with appropriate forms of clothing and
furniture.2
Subjunctive
Michael R. Müller
Fig. 31 Fig. 32
Steven Varble, Soho Street Art, New York, 1975. Comme des Garçons, Spring/Summer
Collection, 1997.
1 Georg Simmel, “Soziologische Ästhetik,” 2 Georg Simmel, Philosophie des Geldes,

in Das Individuum und die Freiheit (Berlin: Gesamtausgabe vol. 6 (Frankfurt/Main:
Wagenbach, 1984), 167–77. First published Suhrkamp, 1995). First published in 1900.
in 1896.
148 The Waywardness of Fashion Michael R. Müller 149
While aesthetic interventions are therefore instrumental in bolstering order— transgressions are also an integral part of the life of any society and cannot
or in creating it in the first place—they are also excellent tools for those seek- be automatically labeled as exceptional or as crisis phenomena. They are due
ing to create disorder. Aesthetic action is by no means limited to prestigious neither to degeneracy of the “will to the state” or of the will to order,4 nor to
forms. Its possibilities range from minimal deviations to the demonstrative the idiosyncrasies of isolated individuals or of small groups. There seems to
transgression of ideological, moral, and social boundaries. Cases in point are be a substantial body of evidence that most societies have ritual measures at
different types of the aesthetics of unseemliness or the hyperbolical mise-en- their disposal for accommodating such border transgressions whilst at the
scènes we are familiar with from performance art and street parades (e.g., fig. 31). same time providing structures for their control. Such measures are becom-
Complex hybrid forms of such liminal, i.e., transgressive aesthetics crop up ing more and more media based.
again and again in fashion and fashion photography (fig. 32). And where fash-
ion challenges the traditional corporeality of clothing, futurist or tachiste My topic here is this very societal organization of aesthetic border transgres-
painting impugns the whole idea of the “two-dimensional” identity of pictures sions, which started out as ritual before increasingly shifting into the modern
(e.g., fig. 42). But not even the decidedly beautiful is immune to border trans- medial realm. What I will mainly concern myself with is an aspect of the societal
gressions. One example that comes to mind is Thomas Hoepker’s controver- creation of order that is central to an understanding above all of the flow of
sial rendering of 9/11 (fig. 33), a photograph that fundamentally challenges aesthetic commerce between art, fashion, or street and club cultures. I pro-
the ways of seeing this event, which was established by CNN and other media pose to start with a handful of classic forms of, and theories about, aesthetic
companies. border transgressions before moving on to the role that such border trans-
gressions play in fashion and art. I will end with some thoughts on the socio-
political significance of this kind of waywardness.
From the Dionysian Work of Art to the Aesthetics of

Unseemliness
One of the best-known mythical figures associated with the transgression of
the limits imposed by everyday life is Dionysus, the god of drunkenness, ec-
stasy, and frenzy; also of blood frenzy and sensual pleasure, at once both cruel
and prurient. He is the thorn in the flesh of all people to whom order is dear,
grabs them by their desires and goads them to wreak havoc with the order
they have created. In ancient Greece he represented the victory of sensuality
over rationality. The feast dedicated to him, the Dionysia, originally conceived
as a carnivalesque revelry, matured into a festive ritual and gave birth to com-
edy and tragedy—enactments of the comic and tragic aspects of the Diony-
sian dissolution of order.5
The Greek myth of Dionysus and Greek tragedy famously inspired Friedrich
Fig. 33 Nietzsche to conceive an aesthetic theory that goes under various names,
Thomas Hoepker, 9/11 From Brooklyn, 2001.
3 Cf. Alois Hahn, “Kunst, Wahrnehmung und (Munich: Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsver-
Sinndeutung,” in Diesseitsreligion: Zur lag, 1991), 41; cf. Eric R. Dodds, Die
Through the different contexts, these and similar types of aesthetics are
Deutung der Bedeutung moderner Kultur, Griechen und das Irrationale (Darmstadt:
found to be utterly different; yet, structurally, they have two things in com- ed. Anne Honer, Ronald Kurt, and Jo Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft,
mon. On the one hand, they penetrate to or even transcend the limits of what Reichertz (Konstanz: Universitätsverlag 1991); cf. Louise Bruit Zaidman and Pauline
everyday reasoning can routinely handle. They throw a wrench into the works Konstanz, 1999), 153–82. Schmitt Pantel, Die Religion der Griechen:
4 Simmel, Philosophie des Geldes. Transla- Kult und Mythos (Munich: C.H. Beck,
of our everyday perception and action styles and push our assorted received tion from the German by MM. 1994).
wisdoms to the sidelines at least for a time.3 On the other hand, such aesthetic 5 Wolfgang Schuller, Griechische Geschichte
including the “Dionysian world view.”6 Nietzsche identifies Dionysian ecstasy Systems of Liminal Aesthetics in Fashion and Art
with an all-engrossing collapse of order. “All the caste-like divisions which ne-
cessity and arbitrary power have established between men disappear; the One of the most important liminal symbolic forms identified by Turner is (par-
slave is a free-man, the aristocrat and the man of lowly birth unite in the same tial) nakedness. As a liminal symbol, nakedness renders its “wearer”—this may
Bacchic choruses.”7 Crucially, such instances of the toppling of the prevailing sound like a paradox—invisible. It does so by eliminating from sight all the
order are no freak accidents in Nietzsche’s view: they are brought about de- telltale hallmarks of ordinary societal existence: those who depart the orderly
liberately by society, partly through the use of intoxicants, partly also by artis- realm of everyday life, so-called “liminal beings,” may be “ disguised as
tic practice often involving music. monsters, wearing only a strip of clothing or even go naked,”10 but whatever
option they choose they shed all references to a societal rank, role, or posi-
Émile Durkheim has emphasized the role of pictorial forms of expression for tion. That symbolic forms of nakedness may become detached from concrete
such ritual border transgressions over Nietzsche’s foregrounding of music.
Drawing for his view on ethnological studies and travelogues dealing with
Australia’s Aborigines, he attributes special significance to the disguises and
masks worn by each participant in these rituals. For “the decorations he
does and the masks he uses to cover his face give material form to this internal
transformation even more than they induce it.” 8 The transition to ecstatic
states of mind is by no means caused solely by physiological stimulants. What
is decisive for Durkheim is the use of pictorial symbolic forms. The power
to fascinate embodied in what lies outside the prevailing order is due also,
Durkheim concludes, to culturally nurtured notions about the extra-ordinary,
that is, to liminal aesthetics of the kind represented by masks, disguises, and
other pictorial forms.
A comprehensive theory of the demarcation and transgression of aesthetic

borders was formulated in the 1960s by Victor Turner.9 His analysis focuses on
life in modern industrialized societies (notably the civil rights, black power,
and hippie movements). His theory of liminality assumes the existence of a
structured domain of everyday life where each of us is assigned fixed roles,
functions and positions. Adjacent to this domain is the unstructured sphere
of liminality from which everyday order is excluded. Some people only pay
temporary visits to this out-of-the-ordinary domain (on ritual or festive occa-
sions or in the context of other types of “events”), while others, as Turner is at
pains to emphasize, take up permanent residence in it (religious virtuosos,
Fig. 34 Fig. 35
political dissidents, mendicant monks, rockers and hippies). What is crucial in Alas and Piggott, Kate Moss, 1999. Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin,
each case is that the borders separating these domains are highlighted by Thank you Thighmaster, 1991.
aesthetic markers, known as liminal symbols. It is remarkable in sociological
terms that the classic ritual liminal symbols studied by Turner and the modern 6 Friedrich Nietzsche, “Die dionysische 8 Émile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of
medial and performative aesthetics of fashion and the performing and visual Weltanschauung,” in Die Geburt der Religious Life (New York: Oxford Universi-
Tragödie: Unzeitgemäße Betrachtungen; ty Press, 2001), 163–64. First published in
arts exhibit astonishing formal similarities (isomorphisms).
Kritische Studienausgabe, vol. 1 (Munich: French in 1912.
DTV, 1999), 551–77. First published in 1870. 9 Victor Turner, The Ritual Process: Structure
7 Friedrich Nietzsche, “The Dionysiac World and Antistructure (Chicago: Aldine Pub-
View,” in The Birth of Tragedy: And Other lishing, 1969).
Writings (Cambridge: Cambridge Univer- 10 Turner, The Ritual Process, 95.
sity Press, 1999), 120. First published in
German in 1870.
actions and become part of the medial pictorial baggage of a society is hard-
ly to be doubted, given the evidence, among other things, provided by fash-
ion and art. What you get in fashion is bodies whose distance from everyday
life is almost excessively elaborated, bodies in unusual situations, in mise-en-
scènes that cannot be accommodated within familiar horizons of interpreta-
tion. Such body images offer—in contrast to the body attired for everyday
life—few docking points for projections of social status or societal function.
And the projection areas that even the unclothed body provides can be
rendered inoperable: Cindy Sherman, Vinoodh Matadin, Inez van Lamsweerde
(fig. 35), and other artists create pictures that are impervious to the biological
or sexual categories of everyday perception. The mise-en-scène of nakedness
creates what in terms of its aesthetic effect amounts to a lacuna: perception
has no routines to fall back on and is reduced to treading water. The carpet
under the received wisdoms of everyday life is pulled away.
Such hyperbolic rejections of the mundane and the familiar can of course
also be achieved in other ways. The ethnologist Klaus E. Müller, for instance,
speaks of ritual clowns that were a common sight anywhere in the world until
well into the nineteenth century: “Their outward appearance borders on the
grotesque […]. They walk around […] in decaying rags, their faces disfigured Fig. 38 Fig. 39
Richard Avedon, Andy Warhol, 1969. Anders Edstöm, Martin Margiela’s Spring/
Summer 1994 collection, 1993.
by paint […], their hair matted and dishevelled.” “Occasionally they would
turn violent, sometimes running the entire gamut to unbridled destructive-
ness.”11 Such burlesque opponents to the orderly cosmos of everyday life are
not unknown in the twentieth century. Yohji Yamamoto (fig. 36) for instance,
puts his models in such a manner on the catwalk. Steven Klein realizes an
aesthetics of unseemliness in his pictures (fig. 37). Eugen Schrick, Guenter
Brus, Oleg Kulik, and others resort the body to realize such aesthetics. A less
drastic but no less poignant example is a portrait by Richard Avedon showing
Andy Warhol from 1969 (fig. 38). Foregrounding the blemish, it emphasizes
what traditional aesthetic criteria strive to play down. Another example is an
arrangement by Martin Margiela from 1994 (fig. 39) with its asymmetrical fall
of folds, its unsutured layers of fabric and undefined hems. In all these cases
what we get is a disclaimer to the ideals of clarity, harmony, and sublimity
that have traditionally served as benchmarks for aesthetic orders until recent-
ly, a “negative aesthetic habitus,” which, in Wolfgang Iser’s view, acts “as a
permanent attack on the conventions from which we take our bearings.”12
Fig. 36 Fig. 37 11 Klaus E. Müller, Der Krüppel: Ethnologia pas- 12 Wolfgang Iser, Der Akt des Lesens (Mu-
Yohji Yamamoto, Spring/Summer Steven Klein, Arene Homme Plus, sionis humanae (Munich: C.H. Beck, 1996), nich: Wilhelm Fink, 1976), III. Translation
Collection, 2010. 2001/02. 227. Translated from the German by MM. from the German by MM.
Disempowering key expectations relating to our everyday perception ranks painting of Mary dishing out corporal punishment (fig. 41). Here our imagina-
foremost among the sociological functions of any type of liminal aesthetics. tion is confronted with an idea that it would hardly be capable of conceiving
Dismissive and negative, this momentum is complemented by its twin, which on its own: Mary spanking Jesus. All of these examples reveal what different
is anticipatory, fanciful, and fictional in essence. It is evident in the projection types of liminal aesthetics are good at from a sociological point of view: they
of possibilities of perception and behavior that are considered downright enable or provoke notions and perceptions that are all but inconceivable as
impracticable from a sober, common-sense point of view. Such fanciful and long as established perspectives are in charge. Liminal aesthetics—I am here
fictional projections are comparatively easy to realize by resorting to a method drawing on literary hermeneutics and philosophical anthropology—arranges
of representation that is part of the stock in trade of street parades, party cul- things and circumstances in an unorthodox or even heterodox way. By delib-
tures, and religious festivals: the master becomes the slave, the slave the mas- erately aiming to create dissonances, it appeals to the imagination to devise
ter; the old comport themselves as if they were still in the prime of their youth; alternative dispensations. It challenges us to see and think in the subjunctive:
women act as men, men as women; animals stand in for human beings, etc.13 “It might well be / have been like this.”14
What is most remarkable here from a sociological point of view is that such
an appeal to the imagination is potentially directionless and unbiased as to
the result. This becomes especially clear in the context of decidedly non-iron-
ical representations, such as Thomas Hoepker’s 9/11 photograph (fig. 34). Not
published before 2006, it has an unmistakable potential to irritate established
interpretations and habits of perception about this event. It does not repre-
sent any confident point of view but the necessity to explore other
perspectives.
Structurally, even if not in every individual case, liminal aesthetics tend to induce
a state in which perception, as Walter Schulz (1985) has put it, “floats.”15 While
not putting forward unambiguous conclusions per se, it opens up a horizon of
possibilities for perception and imagination. Instead of offering full-blown
ideological positions, this kind of aesthetics holds out the possibility of tran-
scending the relatively narrow perspectives that such positions entail.
Liminal aesthetics confront the order of everyday life with unusual perspectives
or codes of behavior. This has a profound relevance for those societal institu-
tions and venues where such forms of expression are developed, such as modern
art museums. Arnold Gehlen drew attention to the role played by abstract art
in this context as early as 1960. If a work of art such as Lucio Fontana’s Conc-
etto spaziale (fig. 42) is interpreted, on the basis of its signature format or the
Fig. 40 Fig. 41
Marc Jacobs, Spring/Summer Collection, Max Ernst, La Vierge corrigeant l’enfant Jésus
13 The most consistent disempowerment of entitled to our place in society.
2010. devant témoins: André Breton, Paul Eluard et le
everyday order patterns and perceptual 14 Cf. Iser, Der Akt des Lesens, 291; Hans
peintre, 1926.
expectations is achieved through the de- Robert Jauß, Ästhetische Erfahrung und
personalized representation of the human literarische Hermeneutik (Munich: Wilhelm
body. The figure of the dog is thoroughly Fink, 1982), 31–44; Hans-Georg Soeffner,
Examples for such inversions of the order of everyday life are not difficult to typical here: it is to be found both in the Symbolische Formung: Eine Soziologie des
find elsewhere. Think of “underwear as outerwear,” a nineties fashion trend context of the early disco movement (see Symbols und des Rituals (Weilerswist:
(fig. 40) that brought what was considered intimate and personal out into the Müller, “Body”) and in Oleg Kulik’s perfor- Velbrueck Wissenschaft, 2010), 209–24.
mance art. In both cases it calls into doubt 15 Walter Schulz, Metaphysik des Schwebens:
public domain to be shared by all and did so in a breezy, matter-of-fact way the axiomatic assumption underpinning Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der
rather than as an embarrassed concession. Even more drastic is Max Ernst’s all social life that we are persons rightfully Ästhetik (Pfullingen: Neske, 1985).
their clearly defined roles, routines, genres and styles, are being stripped of
their contours at least in aesthetic-situational contexts.18
Fig. 44 Fig. 45
Corinne Day, Vogue, 1993. Corinne Day, The Face, 1993.
Fig. 42 Fig. 43 The same institutional self-abrogation has been a guiding principle for important
Lucio Fontana, Concetto spaziale, 1964–65. Clara Mosch, Aktion Baumbesteigung Rügen, movements within fashion since the 1990s. Especially noteworthy here are the
1979. border transgressions of fashion photography that are frequently if not entirely
aptly referred to in the literature as the products of New Realism. If we assume
fact that it was originally hung on a wall, as a painting, this categorization is that photographs of the sort reproduced in figs. 44 and 45 are fashion photo-
contradicted by the work’s curious object character. Conversely, if it is under- graphs—an assumption encouraged by the fact that they have appeared in
stood as an object or a sculpture, such an adscription sits uneasily with its fashion magazines—their realism—unglamorous and at times destitute—de-
pictorial character. Against a backdrop of traditional categories such a work stablizes such a conjecture. Conversely, if you decide they are really docu-
remains “ambiguous” in that “it is doubtful whether it is a work of art in the mentary photographs, this diagnosis is made dubious by elements that are
first place.”16 specific to fashion—poses, suitable captions, the magazine format, ads for
consumer goods, etc. The glamorous habitus of fashion and the realistic habitus
In the same way such ostensibly unambiguous categories as “artist” and of documentation cancel each other out and create a lacuna: fashion, as the
“work of art” are liable to be shattered. Andy Warhol for instance consistently institution that we thought we know, loses its societally distinctive profile in
repudiated the traditional ideal of the artist. All the traditional attributes asso- such images. In close analogy to what we have noted in the discussion of rele-
ciated with “genius,” such as contemplative mastery, irrepressible expressivity, vant trends in art, such fashion contradicts its own societal definition.
consummate rhetorical skill, etc., are consistently denied aesthetic recogni-
tion.17 A similar treatment is meted out by action and performance art such as
16 Arnold Gehlen, Zeit-Bilder: Zur Soziologie 18 Karl-Siegbert Rehberg, “Verkörperungs-
the performance of the artists’ collective “Clara Mosch” in 1979 in the GDR und Ästhetik der modernen Malerei Konkurrenzen: Aktionskunst in der DDR
(cf., fig. 43): Instead of discrete genres and audiences what you get is the (Frankfurt/Main: Athenaeum, 1960), 212. zwischen Revolte und ‘Kristallisation,’” in
Gesamtkunstwerk, the total work of art, which fuses painting, dance, drama, Translation from the German by MM. Performance und Bild: Performance als
17 Michael R. Müller, Stil und Individualität: Die Bild, ed. Christian Janecke (Berlin: Philo
music into one single entity and, at least in some cases, strives for a fusion of Ästhetik gesellschaftlicher Selbstbehaup- Fine Arts, 2004), 115–61.
audience and spectacle. The institutions of art as we used to know them, with tung (Munich: Wilhelm Fink, 2009), 179–218.
As is made quite clear structurally by examples such as those named above, illusion. Their cultural significance consists in the thus enabled confrontation
the aesthetic challenge to everyday order or its abrogation is by no means between society’s routine life and those improbable possibilities of perception,
confined to club or street cultures or to older ritual forms. Instead, liminal conduct, and existence that would otherwise remain forever beyond the pale.
aesthetics emerge from such ritual forms and become part of the medial and
artistic baggage of societies. One question remains what are the implications
for a society if significant use is made of such types of liminal aesthetics in
the key spheres of aesthetic activity, art, and fashion?
Society in the Subjunctive

Nietzsche and Durkheim, as has already been said, have taught us to view the
dissolution of societal order not as a freak occurrence but as an event that is
deliberately brought about and usually plays itself out in a regulated manner.
Turner has shown that there is a wide range of historical and societal forms
for liminality to take. It was and is practiced in rites of passage; it is to be found
in the shape of modern escapist practices and “subcultures”; it is forcibly
experienced by social outcasts while being deliberately sought as a permanent
way of life by others. In the thesis I am proposing, liminality as described
above is seeking another and relatively new societal form: the challenge it
mounts against everyday order is in this case no longer restricted to certain
times nor to the marginal lifestyles of tiny minorities. It is part of a reality that
tends to be medially organized more and more so that relevant events, actions
and mise-en-scènes only become socially visible through photographs, video
recordings or blogs; or, the border transgressions in question rely exclusively
on pictorial media for their realization.
As in ritual, the realization of border transgressions in pictorial media involves

a distance from everyday life and a domesticating effect. At the same time—
and this must not be overlooked—it is the ritual or the image that makes sure
that border transgressions become available as models for social learning
and for repetition. They do so by providing forms of realization in the fields of
music, clothing, and media technology that are required for such cross-border
traffic to become possible. Nor is that all: ritual and the pictorial media are
each capable of replacing actual infringements of taboo, genuine frenzy, and
real revolts by symbolic representations (in the form of action that is only
hinted at or of mere images). This does not mean that they are thereby deprived
of a facilitating effect. On the contrary: their fictional detachment is condu-
cive to engendering what Max Scheler called a Phantasieüberschuß (surplus
of fantasy).19 The very fact that the countless practical, moral and ideological
constraints of everyday life are sidelined creates possibilities of conceiving
and enacting what would be beyond the reach of everyday common sense.
19 Max Scheler, Die Stellung des Menschen
The types of liminal aesthetics that have been at the center of this analysis are im Kosmos (Bonn: Bouvier, 1986), 30. First
therefore neither a priori politically emancipative nor are they a mere medial published in German in 1928.
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163
Alternative
Aesthetic
Politics
Elke Gaugele and Monica Titton 165
Alternative
As part of ecological, ethical, and postcolonial lifestyles, alternative aesthetic
politics form generative strands within the globalization of fashion. This line of
an aesthetic metapolitics in contemporary fashion has been historically
formed by the anti-colonial independence movement as well as by the Western
Aesthetic
reform, youth, feminist, and ecological movement. Both movements were as
much opposed to the Western regime of fashion as they had been epistemo-
logically excluded from it. Terms such as “traditional folk costumes” or “non-
Western styles,” but also classifications such as unfashionable or anti-fashion
still bear witness to this temporally, socially, and spatially outsider fashion.
Politics
Historically this was perpetuated by a colonially biased, modern fashion theory
in which, for example, Georg Simmel’s understanding of fashion had at that
point been limited to a “higher civilization.”1 Based on a colonial-racist theori-
zation, Simmel wrote about “savages,” “primitive races,” or “primitive condi-
An Introduction
tions of life,” who would be afraid of “anything new” that they could “not un-
derstand” or “not assign to a familiar category.”2
Both movements—decolonization as well as Western dress reform—intrigu-

ingly already met in the style of Mahatma Gandhi. In London he had been ad-
vised by Anglo-Irish authors to doff his suit and to wear an imagined Indian
Elke Gaugele and Monica Titton reform costume for leading the masses to freedom and liberty.3 For his style
of decolonization, Gandhi chose the look of an ascetic fakir, wearing a dhoti
handloom woven cloth around his hips, completed by a homespun hand-
woven khadi-shawl. Furthermore, he staged himself with his spinning wheel
and along with it, handmade textiles as signifiers for decolonization and
independence.
In the 1970s, Cultural Studies defined style—in contrast to fashion—as a politi-

cized term for subcultural practices. This “resistance through style paradigm”
has been closely linked to the everyday practices of subcultural white working
class youth groups as well as to those of young black immigrants in Britain. 4
As a postcolonial strategy, style was considered as a semiology narrating the
historical sequence of migration routes like that of Africa via Jamaica to Great
Britain. Style also could be deciphered as “a phantom history of race relations
since the War.”5 Exemplified by the Rastafarian movement, the meaning of
style had, for some, been symbolically infused with emancipatory postcolonial
politics “refracting the system of black and white polarities, turning negritude
1 Georg Simmel, “Fashion” International Dipeash Chakrabarty and Homi Bhabha,

Quarterly, no. 10 (1904): 130−55; http:// Habitations of Modernity: Essays in the
www.modetheorie.de/fileadmin/Texte/s/ Wake of Subaltern Studies (Chicago: Uni-
Simmel-Fashion_1904.pdf. versity of Chicago Press, 2002), 67–69.
2 Ibid. 4 Oliver Marchart, Cultural Studies (Kon-
3 See Ruby Sircar, “Dressing the Tiger: De- stanz: UTB, 2008), 100–30.
colonization and Style Racism in South- 5 Dick Hebdige, Subculture: The Meaning of
Asian Fashion,” in this volume, 174–85; Style (London: Routledge, 1979), 31.
166 Alternative Aesthetic Politics Elke Gaugele and Monica Titton 167
into a positive sign, a loaded essence, a weapon at once deadly and divinely li- can be framed with recourse to Rancière’s notion of art as an aesthetic re-
censed.”6 Within style politics the styles of the Black Power movement, of gime “of perception, sensation and interpretation.”17 In very much the same
Black Cool and its celebrations of Negritude, were rated as the “darkest of re- way as art is “constituted and transformed by welcoming images, objects and
bellions,”7 and with that valued with the highest subcultural capital. With good performances that seemed most opposed to the idea of fine art,”18 fashion has
reason the concept of style had been criticized; for its blindness towards also perpetually redefined and renewed itself since modernity, not only in
gender and commodification, for its subcultural romanticism based on Marx- terms of fads and trends, but also in terms of what is considered fashion—or
ist ideas, and for its outlines of grass-roots resistance. Nevertheless, it has anti-fashion, for that matter. In this context, fashion’s specificity consists in
brought about an alternative aesthetic politics as a utopian strategy and an its capacity for creating identificatory spaces through its media. Fashion
ideal, where style emancipation deconstructs the categories of race and class media permanently re-affirm fashion’s gendered, racialized regime of con-
and creates idealistic spaces, where “anti-European values available to the duct. While the aesthetic regime of fashion guarantees the fortification of its
dispossessed black could begin to congregate.”8 power structures, in the context of globalization this configuration
simultaneously opens and expands spaces for the production of alternative
Hence, the 1970s also saw an expansion of the fashion industry in many aesthetic politics in the form of countercultural and postcolonial representa-
emerging economies, calling into question Simmel’s notion of fashion as a tions of identities, bodies and styles. Today, fashion as an aesthetic politics
mainly Western phenomenon.9 The introduction of prêt-à-porter collections in orients itself toward global cultural participation. In contrast to nineteenth-
the late 1950s and early 1960s challenged the “aristocratic hegemony” of century concerns about fixating national belonging, the imagined communities
French haute couture and introduced new fashion designers attuned to the of contemporary fashion assemble the new middle classes and emerging
political and social changes around them, which they translated into new aes- elites in global contemporaneousness.19
thetic forms.10 Designers like Yves Saint Laurent and Zandra Rhodes drew
their inspirations from travels to Morocco, Afghanistan, and India, and resus- The four essays compiled in this chapter analyze these developments from
citated Orientalist11 and “ethnic” fashion trends by proposing fashionable ad- different angles. Ruby Sircar’s exploration, “Dressing the Tiger—Decoloniza-
aptations of kaftans, saris, and colonial uniforms (as in Yves Saint Laurent’s tion and Style Racism in South-Asian Fashion,” traces the textile and fashion
1968 “Saharienne” collection).12 At the same time, in 1969 the Indian designer history of modern India for its colonizing, decolonizing, and neo-colonizing
Ritu Kumar started her career by designing contemporary fashion in recourse patterns. Fashion and textiles are laid out here as antithetic transcultural
to vernacular-historic handicrafts. signifiers; for colonial admiration as well as for postcolonial independence, as
ongoing eras of exoticization and as reiterating patterns of style-racisms.
However, this exoticization of places and costumes also went hand in hand Martina Fineder’s study “‘Jute Not Plastic’: Alternative Product Culture between
with an inclusion of Asian and black fashion models, epitomized in the launch
of a sari collection by Hermès in October 2011. Throughout the past two de-
6 Ibid., 37. Child’ – The Production of Fashion,” in
cades, the gradual globalization of fashion production was facilitated by “the 7 Ibid., 31. Fashion Cultures Revisited, ed. Stella Bruzzi
neoliberal erosion of protectionism,” i.e., the cutback of economic charges 8 Ibid., 32. and Pamela Church Gibson (London: Rout-
that protected the Western clothing industries.13 9 Patrik Aspers and Frédéric Godart, “Soci- ledge, 2013: 194).
ology of Fashion: Order and Change,” An- 14 Jacques Rancière, The Politics of Aesthetics:
nual Review of Sociology, no. 39 (2013). The Distribution of the Sensible, trans.
As part of globalization processes after 1989, we also witness a veritable boom 10 Pierre Bourdieu and Yvette Delsaut, “Le Gabriel Rockhill (London: Continuum,
of new fashion media outlets so that fashion is discussed here as an “aesthetic Couturier et sa griffe: Contribution à une 2004), 96.
théorie de la magie,” Actes de la recher- 15 Jennifer Craik, The Face of Fashion: Cultural
metapolitics,” which Rancière conceptualizes primarily as a symptom of mo- che en sciences sociales, no. 1 (1975): Studies and Fashion (New York: Routledge,
dernity. As a form of metapolitics, the aesthetic inextricably intertwines art 7–36. 1993), 47.
and life so as to encompass specific forms of life—not only the laws and orders 11 A style which had already been en vogue 16 Christopher Breward, Fashion (Oxford:
in the 1910s thanks to Paul Poiret, see Oxford University Press, 2003), 115.
of the state pertaining to the domain of politics.14 Today we witness an expan-
Nancy Troy, Couture Culture: A Study in 17 Jacques Rancière, Aiesthesis: Scenes from
sion of media images that is similar to the increase of fashion magazines in Modern Art and Fashion (Cambridge, MA: the Aesthetic Regime of Art, trans. Zakir
the late nineteenth century.15 This expansion of visual reproductions and dis- MIT Press, 2003). Paul (London: Verso 2013), X.
seminations through media16 historically created a new social and aesthetic 12 Frédéric Monneyron, La frivolité essentielle 18 Ibid.
(Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 19 Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities:
sensorium through fashion, which is establishing itself once again. Once 2001), 59. Reflections on the Origin and Spread of
more, as an expansion of fashion’s aesthetic metapolitics, this development 13 Adam Briggs, “‘Capitalism’s Favourite Nationalism (London: Verso, 2006).
Environmental Crisis and Fashion” investigates how the alternative product critique of contemporary politics in human rights cultures reveals that under-
culture in the 1970s was critically dependent on new, adequate media outlets lying the contemporary ethical regime of fashion are political governance and
to disseminate its environmentalist messages from the perspective of Material politics of class.24 A growing luxury market for Western as well as for African,
Culture Studies. Asian, and subcontinental elites is built up on this neocolonial economy, pre-
sented and marketed as “alternative aesthetic politics.” Therefore, the East-
Elke Gaugele’s research, “On the Ethical Turn in Fashion—Policies of Gover- ernization, Orientalization, and currently also Africanization of fashion histori-
nance and the Fashioning of Social Critique” inspects the commodification cally expose once more the idealized notions and spaces of nature and
of trust and honesty after the global financial crisis in 2007−08 as well as its culture that promise to find what has been seemingly lost in the Western in-
modes of Othering. Also, the United Nations’ shift from blue helmets to ethi- dustrialized world.25
cal fashion is investigated here as an eager embracement of the luxury
industry. Inspecting contemporary processes of self-ethnification of fashion designs,
i.e., the so-called Indian style, brings to light exotic parameters that are close-
Birgit Haehnel’s chapter “‘Performing Whiteness: Revisioning White Textiles in ly linked to what colonialism defined as Hinduism in the late nineteenth cen-
Visual Culture” shows how performances of whiteness are produced and tury. Concurrently, the inspection also reiterates style racisms that quote anti-
represented in fashion media imagery as well as through art images and their Western colonial sentiments.26
disseminations from a Visual Culture Studies approach.
Taken together, they examine the study of fashion as an aesthetic metapolitics Materiality and Material Culture
within contemporary globalizing processes from the following approaches:
Postcolonial and Critical Whiteness Studies, Material and Visual Culture Studies, Materiality is one of the crucial components that formed an alternative aes-
and Studies on the Critique of Capitalism. thetic politics from a postcolonial as well as from an environmental and ethi-
cal perspective. Daniel Miller states that materiality is one of the driving forc-
es “behind humanity’s attempts to transform the world in order to make it
Fashion, Postcolonial, and Critical Whiteness Studies accord with beliefs as to how the world should be.”27 For all enquiries in this
chapter, the materiality of cloth and the historically emblematic reiterating
For Fashion Studies this chapter proposes postcolonial as well as critical reprocessing of specific textile materials are crucial for the creation of a sen-
whiteness studies as a perspective; for the analysis of visual culture as well for sorium of alternative politics.
investigations on the global apparel industry. Fashion critique has blamed the
lack of racial diversity in the visual representation of fashion for a long time.20 Focusing on postcolonial processes, textile materials and the materiality of
In the forefront of 2013 fashion shows was the launch of a Diversity Coalition the handmade had played an important role within India’s way to independence.
of black American and British models, the campaign of which blasts the busi-
ness for its whitewashed model casts; furthermore, in five out of nine seasons,
20 Minh-Ha T. Pham, “Why Fashion Should (1991): 220–51; online at http://www.
Asian models have even less representation than black models.21 Critical Stop Trying to Be Diverse,” Threadbared, robertjcyoung.com (2007), 44.
Whiteness Studies also urges the critical analysis of performing whiteness, September 30, 2013; http://iheartthread- 24 Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, “Righting
including the gaze, as an ethnic performance and political attribution that bared.wordpress.com/2013/09/30/just- Wrongs,” The South Atlantic Quarterly, no.
stop/; Bethann Haridson, Naomi Campell, 2/3 (Spring/Summer 2004): 523−48.
constitutes a racist politics in fashion. 22 This approach could be also trans- and Chanel Imam, Diversity Coalition 25 Jackie Stacey, “The Global Within: Con-
ferred to strategies and modes of othering within contemporary green life- (blog); http://balancediversity.com. suming Nature, Embodying Health,” in
styles when, for example, faces of black fashion models are painted with green 21 Ibid. Global Nature, Global Culture, ed. Sarah
22 Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, Performing Franklin, Celia Lury, and Jackie Stacey
make-up in order to express ecological consciousness. Alternative fashions
Whiteness: Postmodern Re/Constructions (London: Sage, 2000), 112.
are inspected critically in this chapter in two respects: for their participations in the Cinema (New York: State University 26 See Ruby Sircar, “Dressing the Tiger:
in neocolonial developments and for their own creation of style racisms. Re- Press, 2003). Decolonization and Style Racism in South-
ferring to Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, who states that the idea of a Third 23 Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, “Neocolonial- Asian Fashion,” in this volume, 174–85.
ism and the Secret Agent of Knowledge: 27 Daniel Miller, “Materiality: An Introduction,”
World itself is part of a neocolonial process, neocolonialism is basically de- an interview with Robert J.C. Young,” in in Materiality, ed. Daniel Miller (Durham,
fined by economics rather than by territory or culture.23 Spivak’s postcolonial Neocolonialism, Oxford Literary Review 13 NC: Duke University Press, 2005), 2.
As a political act of resistance and a strategy of decolonization, this also meant “good” and “bad” consumers that echoes the inequalities responsible for the
getting rid of the reliance on British hemp and textile production. At that time very necessity of “eco-fashion.” Ethical fashion with its emphasis on class-
the term khadi, which entails all kinds of hand-spun and hand-woven textiles, specific values such as honesty reflects the dialectic amalgamation between
became a signifier for resistance. Furthermore, this fabric took in the struggles social critique and capitalism.32
of the working class, which were connected through the fight over cotton
and hemp products.28 With recourse to Weber’s classic analysis of the Protestant ethic of capitalism,
Boltanski and Chiapello argue that throughout its history, capitalism as an eco-
Developing an alternative political sensibility, the post-1968 Western environ- nomic system has had to go beyond mere economic goals (i.e., the accumula-
mental movement has shaped the question of materiality as well as the critique tion of wealth) and incorporate the very arguments of its opponents in order
of materialism. Once again, specific materials such as jute or hemp, or handi- to legitimize its existence.33 As in the past, Boltanski and Chiapello argue, capi-
craft techniques, turned into textile signifiers for alternative commodity cul- talism has been able to incorporate the economic critique and to thereby con-
tures as they symbolically united anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist and ecological solidate its economic structures and ethical and moral system of values.
critique.29 While eco-dresses as well as eco-textiles of that time were still
considered as unfashionable from a mainstream perspective, today’s ethical At the turn of the twentieth century, Werner Sombart declared that “fashion is
and eco-fashions stand at the center of a globalized commodity culture. the favored child of capitalism.”34 Like many other historical accounts of nine-
Therefore, a new production of smooth, soft, and light, sustainable materials teenth-century fashion, his clear-cut verdict was inadequate. As we discussed
arose. Within this next generation of environmental lifestyles we detect a new earlier, alternative aesthetic politics could emerge only thanks to the mobili-
material culture of fashion and with it an alternative aesthetic politics, with zation of the critique of capitalism. Critique against the economic and cultural
its claims of transparency: about materials, manufacturing details, working agenda of globalized capitalism, but also the outcries against the devastation
conditions, price calculations, and even about the carbon footprint of the of the environment and the protests against colonial imperialism were vital
cloth. At present, we observe interesting analogies between the slow food stimuli for the emergence of the aesthetic metapolitics of fashion. Fashion as
movement and sustainable fashion and between vegan eating and dressing a social and aesthetic phenomenon is entrenched in a heterogeneous net-
as modes of consumption. In that sense the materiality of alternative and work of global economic interdependencies, political and cultural processes
postcolonial lifestyles on all layers constitutes a sensorium for ethical, political, and strategies of aesthetic signification. In the face of its contemporary kalei-
and also religious cultural belongings. doscopic configuration, fashion must be theorized as bearing spaces of global
contemporaneousness, as a force that aggregates new middle classes and
emerging elites on a global scale and thus creates symbolic spaces shaping
Globalization, Capitalism, and Critical Social Theory new subjectivities and imagined communities.
The contributions collected in this chapter tackle the effects of globalization

and network capitalism on fashion both as an industry and as an aesthetic
metapolitics. Global governance tools such as multilateral trade agreements
and environmental regulations contributed to an intensification of global
hierarchies and worsening inequalities of labor conditions. Thereby, global-
ization unfolded a negative dialectic and with ethical fashion it provided 28 Ruby Sircar, “Dressing the Tiger: Decolo- (London: Routledge, 2001).
nization and Style Racism in South-Asian 32 See Elke Gaugele, “On the Ethical Turn in
grounds for a revitalization of early capitalist and colonial humanitarian aids Fashion,” in this volume, 174–85. Fashion: Policies of Governance and the
and class-specific practices.30 The discourse revolving around the production 29 See Martina Fineder, “‘Jute Not Plastic’: Fashioning of Social Critique,” in this vol-
and consumption of eco/sustainable fashion thereby also assumes religious Alternative Product Culture between Envi- ume 204–27.
ronmental Crisis and Fashion,” in this vol- 33 Luc Boltanski and Ève Chiapello, The New
undertones: from redemption to purity and righteousness, it is reminiscent ume 186–203. Spirit of Capitalism, trans. Gregory Elliot
of Weber’s characterization of the Protestant ethic of capitalism.31 Further- 30 Patrik Aspers, “A Note on Global Capital- (London: Verso, 2005).
more, with its mantras and shibboleths, eco-fashion evokes a generic, holistic ism,” in Global Capitalism: The Road 34 Werner Sombart, Economic Life in the
Ahead, ed. Bharti Thakar (Hyderabad: Icfai Modern Age, ed. Nico Stehr and Rainer
understanding of ecology and humanity, as well as fragments of a diluted,
University Press, 2008), 13. Grundmann (New Brunswick, NJ: Transac-
globalized notion of Buddhist and Hindu teachings. The consumption of 31 Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the tion Publishers, 2001), 225.
ethically, morally, and ecologically “correct” garments creates a ranking between Spirit of Capitalism, trans. Talcott Parsons
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Ruby Sircar 175
Dressing
Since early modernity, beginning with the marriage of steam and cotton in 1750
and hence industrialization, there was a tightly knitted exchange of materials
between the British dominion India and Europe. This exchange, which came
along with an intensive creolization of textile styles and formal parameters,
the Tiger
can be documented on all levels of custom and trading. When counting the
years backward from the early 2000s we may follow the glittering thread of
exotic saris through the centuries: in the 2000s Selfridges promoted the so-
called Bollywood style, in the aftermath of the New Asian Cool era and as an
advertisement of the London-based musical sensation “Bombay Dreams”
Decolonization
(2002) by Andrew Lloyd-Webber.1 Further down the years: Manish Arora’s
Phish Label cooperation with brands such as Reebok and Swarovski (also early
2000s), which tried to hang on to the defined Western love for exotic sparkles
and a subcontinental, imagined need for European/Western high-end/street
and Style Racism

brands; the Beatles and international jet set of the 1960s, who promoted the
Nehru jacket which was picked up repeatedly by Italian fashion producers
such as Etro;2 the 1930s and 1920s extravaganza for an Indian as well as Euro-
pean high-end consumer such as Lady Mountbatten (the Vicereine of India)
who had Cartier produce her celebrated Tutti Frutti set or the khaki-drenched
in South-Asian
uniforms of colonial power soldiers (from Canada, to Africa via India and onto
Oceania).
How may these epochs and eras of exotication be differentiated? And what
Fashion
exactly is happening today? How has the exchange between India and the
Western fashion market changed over the last 20 years? What is the hidden
political realism behind a change of stylistics and formal languages in textiles
and fashion?
In 1992 the Indian central government decided to end the socialist market
Ruby Sircar economy and replace the former through a more liberal enterprise system,
thus supporting export schemes and development plans. For the fashion in-
dustry this was a two-edged possibility: on the one hand non-regional high-
end and high-street brands gained access (especially after 1996) to the Indian
metropolitan consumer and the fashion industry. For example: Hermès de-
signed a sari line between 2008 and 2012, Louis Vuitton campaigned the
opening of their Mumbai flagship store in Mumbai’s Taj Land’s End by launch-
ing their ninth city travel guide (2003) or Swarovski’s hitting South-Asian soil
in 2001 in Mumbai. But also Indian designers began producing for a larger
global audience. Thus styles, developed by designers such as Manish Arora or
Ritu Kumar, became almost undistinguishable between those developed by
1 See Valerie Rigsbee, “Bombay Dreams,” 2 See Sothebys, “The Mountbatten Jewels,”
September 26, 2013, http://www.broad- The Royal Magazine, June 25, 2008, http://
waymusicalhome.com/shows/bombay. www.royal-magazin.de/england/mount-
htm. batten-jewels.htm.
176 Decolonization and Style Racism in South-Asian Fashion Ruby Sircar 177
such brands as Etro. Nevertheless, the consumers and their prime interest for For both key notions they found historically well-documented answers and
consuming certain brands differ widely. Contemporary Indian designers are possibilities. The textile industry was, next to the heroine enterprise, the sec-
still mainly consumed within a growing Asian and Arab market, mirroring the ond and important pillar to the British Empire in India. Thus on the one hand
growing self-confidence of consumers and markets—which no longer require they crossed and annexed successfully manufacturing structures on the sub-
European or Western brands and labels to mark their self-esteem and aplomb, continent, creating a larger need for drug supply. Further, by using raw fabric
even indulging in style racisms clearly quoting anti-Western/European/colo- material to manufacture cheap textiles for the large Indian market, they also
nial sentiments. This development clearly states the following questions: who caused a breakdown in the Indian homespun tradition. On the other hand
is being represented and clothed? What happens to these styles and its carrier they found profitable markets in Europe and defined exotic styles, arts, and
fashion when reaching a non-Indian consumer circle? To whom do brands crafts anew. Apart from interior textiles (from rugs to cushion covers and wall
and designers such as Etro, Burberry, and Hermes—on the one hand—and hangings) Indian style and fashion, subcontinental fabrics became bon ton
Arora, Kumar, and We the PPL as contemporary and politically left-winged for the European masses after 1857/8. The nostalgic, yet—unlike the African—
neo-nation labels—on the other hand—cater? The latter quoting the Indian not barbaric, thus wearable innate styles influenced European fashions from
freedom fighter Subhash Chandra Bose, the Tiger of Bengal: “Give me blood then on highly. Why not barbaric? India and her princely houses, her wealth
and I will give you freedom!” (Indian Rally in Burma, 1944). Gandhi is dead. and the impressive Mughal culture could not be neglected as non-culture but
had to be at least respected from the crafty side as cultural, thus British deni-
zen-worthy products. Especially clothing styles and textile fashions from with-
History: The Nineteenth Century, Salons, and the Labor in the realms of the northern and northwestern territories, the Mughal era and
Movement the splendorous courts of the Indian Princes have received such a nostalgic
yearning.5
When in the 1750s the first wave of industrialization hit Great Britain and
rolled over Europe a change of perception of material and its exchange with It is, furthermore, interesting that from the very beginning, the products were
the Empire’s colonies took place, materiality was redefined and stylistics were not merely designed for European/Western customers. Also subcontinental
either pidginized, imagined or creolized. This can be easily sketched through customers were considered, as well as how to use them for promoting indus-
developments such as Europe’s fascination with Far Eastern styles,3 or the re- trialization in Europe and its enterprises. We may trace this development on a
imagination of a uniquely Pan-African style of wax printing, all produced on large political and regional development scale in 1821 with the introduction of
the British isles; as well as copying the imperial Mughal peacock designs: re- a uniform sari style as well as a Puritan-designed ideal sari blouse, which is
naming it after a Scottish village and selling the industrially and machine- still valid as a folk costume accessory today.6 Further racist ideals can be seen
made paisley scarves to an ever-growing British population, all yearning for in court dress and white beauty definers from the 1840s onwards, as well as
colonial glory and bought self-esteem. developing an Indian men’s costume by simplifying the Mughal court dress
and Farsi bourgeois costume.7 One must also not forget John Forbes Watson’s
The British Raj’s government, as well as the East India Company, followed two (1827–1892) work for the India House (now the Victoria and Albert Museum in
key notions at the beginning of their colonial textile style and parameter ex- London) when cataloguing and categorizing Indian textile wealth. His idea for
change. Firstly, form follows function: British natives/original citizens must be “portable industrial museums” led to the publication of The Collections of
allowed to adopt local styles as per their usefulness to survive tropic climates the Textile Manufactures of India in 1866, eighteen volumes of mounted and
and diseases. Inventions such as pith helmets, jodhpurs, khakis, and pajamas,
etc., found their way from native/local clothing into fancy military gears and
later into the Western everyday household. Secondly, the Empire sought for a 3 See Kashmiri/Pashmina shawl fashion, Lang, Maharaja: Die Pracht der indischen
solution of marketing the found colonial diversity within the region of origin Japonism, Orientalism, and Chinese silks Fürstenhöfe; Katalogbuch zur Ausstellung
and lacquer ware. in München, Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kultur-
as well as on the British Isles, other colonies and the Western world at large.
4 Angela Völker, “Die Produktion von ‘Wiener stiftung (Munich: Hirmer, 2010), 25.
As well as offering cheaper ways of producing certain textiles such as chintz Shawls’ in der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahr- 6 Judith Benhamou-Huet, 21st-Century
and silk, styles such as paisleys and ikats, patolas, madras checks, etc., were hunderts,” in Documenta textilia, Fest- Embroidery in India: In Their Hands (Lon-
reproduced. They first found the possibility for the latter peacock/paisley schrift für Sigrid Müller-Christensen don: Prestel, 2009), II–IV.
(Munich: Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, 7 William Dalrymple, The Last Mughal: The
weave in crafty tartan weaves from Scotland. Later, machine crafted textiles 1981), 409–22. Tale of a Dynasty: Delhi, 1857 (New Delhi:
from Southern France and Vienna replaced British craftsmanship.4 5 Anna Jackson, Amin Jaffer, and Christiane Vintage, 2007), 87–89.
classified samples of Indian textiles containing seven hundred examples in use it in their designs. An interesting side note to the use of khadi is that
all. The samples were mostly taken from Indian textiles shown at the 1855 Paris Indian languages (spoken or textile) are often used to mark anti-imperial
International Exhibition. Thirteen sets of the books were distributed in Britain, movements in English-speaking science fiction (films, literature) such as the
mostly to textile manufacturing districts; seven went to India.8 This allowed Jedis in the latest Star War episodes, who fight the Dark Side. The use of the
local British producers to copy and to market possible and imagined exotic/ cloth as something indigenous to the whole subcontinent is, just as imagined,
Indian styles. The exercise in colonial marketing is taken further when enter- a mere political demonstration and was applied by Gandhi to his theories.
ing the South-Asian princely courts—from Jaipur all the way south to Mysore.
Now a new market of promises opened its doors to European producers and Why? If we follow the documentation of Dipesh Chakrabarty in Habitations of
haute couture. Cartier, for example, built its wealth on princely jewels and Modernity, we will discover that Gandhi was not wearing indigenous cos-
wealth. They played and used or generated the interest of the princely houses tumes.10 He was advised by Anglo-Irish authors based in London’s Bloomsbury
in European contemporary fashion by marking them as the peers or carrying to acquire the look of an ascetic fakir who celibately leads the masses to
vessels of modernity. But also artists such as Man Ray, Constantin Brancusi freedom and liberty.11 Donning khadi styles can be also seen with other inter-
and architects such as Le Corbusier profited from the Europeanization of the nationally acclaimed Indian leaders of the time, such as Swami Vivekananda,
court system in the late nineteenth century. The wish to join an international who started his journey to the Parliament of the World Religions in Chicago in
aristocratic jet set, thus not being compared with other objects of the Raj, 1893 dressed in Western costume. On his way through New York he hit ground
drove the princely court to support Art Deco artists, modern architecture, and with various feminist salons, which advised him to rather wear an imagined
the fashion industry. Early twentieth-century fashion and women magazines Indian reform costume than to don Western evening garb during his Vedanta
such as Vogue were funded by the Princes of Mysore and Hyderabad to portray and Yoga lessons, which he made popular in the West. Also the Nobel Prize
and show case the beauty and wealth of their princesses (see: Vogue, Spring winning poet Rabindranath Tagore, who came from a well-educated Bengali
1924) flouncing off saris and jewelry to the envy of the vicereine and con- background just as Vivekananda, was advised to represent himself as a modern
sorts.9 While Cartier had earlier catered to the style and taste of the princes, Indian teacher and educator. He was advised in 1919 by his theosophic friend
imitating Mughal Renaissance patterns, when creating head sets and Polo Annie Besant, who herself wore a sari to show her native solidarity.
watches, Mountbatten’s diadem–cum–necklace is full of racism towards the
Empire’s objects—a show of glee to earlier financial supporters who had The costumes and styles described so far can be traced to the present. The
bought their piece of Western polish through their diamonds and heirlooms. question, however, is: Which racisms are repeated from the mid-twentieth
century to today and how are they reproduced or are there hidden emancipa-
Apart from the world of the Indian and European courts and the growing in- tory traces? Apart from the resistance woven into khadi cloth there is of
ternational jet set, the 1920s also witnessed another movement: the urge for course the inlaid history of the working class, connected through the fight
religious and political independence was expressed through textile too. The over cotton and hemp products. Gandhi’s visits to the mills in Manchester and
style, which was mainly supported by congressional politicians in Gandhi’s Lancashire were poignant moments; in 1931 the hand-loom war was on. Gandhi
vicinity, became known as khadi. The term khadi covers all kinds of hand-spun showed his sympathy and empathy with the British and migrant workers at
and hand-woven textile products. The cloth can be found traditionally all over these mills and their bitter and desperate everyday situation. The workers in
South Asia, from Afghanistan to Bangladesh and Burma. Nevertheless, the Manchester, Lancashire, and further down in London also showed their un-
movement was shaped ideologically by Gandhi who tried to free the subcon- derstanding and empathy with the Indian cause as both groups perceived
tinent from the reliance on British hemp and textile production. The goal was
to disrupt the transport from India to the Isles of cotton, which was made into
clothing and then sold again to Indians. Thus, khadi became the cloth of inde- 8 See Victoria and Albert Museum, “Indian according to modernity, regional possibil-
pendence and the Swadeshi movement, because Gandhi saw it as a possibili- Textiles and Empire: John Forbes Watson. ities. Cartier offered to use Indian gems,
Collections of the Textile Manufactures of such as rubies, sapphires, and emeralds
ty for rural self-employment and rural self-reliance. He himself always
India,” http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/ to carve exotic fruits (out of which not all
donned, on returning from his studies and work in Europe and South Africa, a articles/i/indian-textiles-and-empire are native to South-Asian soil and flora).
dhoti: a hand-loom cloth wrung around his hip and a shawl made from khadi -john-forbes-watson. 10 Dipesh Chakrabarty and Homi Bhabha,
which he had spun on his charkha (spinning wheel). The anti-colonial imple- 9 Nevertheless, the latter’s Tutti Frutti diadem Habitations of Modernity: Essays in the
and necklace is, the best documented ex- Wake of Subaltern Studies (Chicago: Uni-
mentation of this mythical and simple cloth still lingers on today, when con- ample of the exchange between fashions versity of Chicago Press, 2002), 67–69.
temporary designers such as Basant Rai, Ritu Kumar or Rohit Bal, We the PPL and an understanding of how to present, 11 Ibid.
themselves to be slaves to merchandise and subaltern states. Not only were spirituality; Oshos, Prabhupadas, and other religious leaders pop up. It is a
Indian manufacturers and consumers boycotting British textiles, but also Indian popular repetition of the fashion earlier promoted by linguists and authors
imported goods to the Isles were restricted by the British government. The such as Hermann Hesse, Vivekananda, and the theosophs of the earlier
media suddenly had to document the unexpected. Gandhi was welcomed by half of the century. While Besant supported Krishnamurti and Tagore, the
the workers who understood his and the Indian cause visibly and audibly, new (self-fashioned) gurus no longer aimed to link themselves with the In-
thus bridging from working class to working class. One must not forget that dian region and culture; they rather chose design as a certain perspective
the majority of British mill workers at that time perceived themselves as sub- for Western audiences. Their dresses/clothes do not mirror a certain caste
alterns and colonial objects, as quite a large number hailed either from Ireland, or their inherited social and regional standing but instead Western-imagined
Southern, and Eastern Europe or even South Asia. The workers applauded the Indian outfits. Their textile styles and mantras became icons for popular
prime issue of Gandhi’s visit—the round table conference in London requiring personae such as George Harrison, Boy George, and Stevie Wonder (see
the preservation of indigenous textile manufacturing. Even though the Con- the Hare Krishna mantra). Nevertheless, in the 1990s another sense of
gress Party had of course larger and more universal goals (such as freedom), self-fashioning starts to intervene with the orientation towards the West.
Gandhi picked this as his personal priority. Gurus and leaders such as Sri Sri Ravishankar begin to wrap local lifestyle
and the teachings of Osho together, addressing thus the newly found In-
dian urge to create a postcolonial identity, which is superior and free of
The Last Fifty Years: From Hippies and Dropouts to the former Western influences. This movement also strongly supports nation-
Global Cat Walks and All the Way Back alistic undercurrents in the Indian global/international society.
“India will never be out of fashion!” This quote from India’s leading fashion 3. Concentrating on the world of luxury and imagining a glorious (colonial
designer Ritu Kumar12 applies to the exoticization of India across cultural plat- and princely) past, as well as embedding into this a political conscious-
forms. Shockingly, the racism born of Empire, and knit into its textiles, has ness and emancipatory act is what the Italian fashion industry promotes
only increased in the last fifty or so years by finally hitting the mass market. from the 1960s onwards. On the one hand, it comes as an aftermath to
This movement is easily decipherable when following the industrialization of such stylistic iconic films as Fritz Lang’s Indian Epic; on the other it is a
production and the ways cheap material maneuvered colonialism into neo clear and misogynist bow towards a specific political class within the In-
liberal enterprises such as neo-colonialism and globalization. By looking again dian freedom movement: the Nehru jacket—a reflection of the 1960s
at the given examples of haute couture, Gandhi, Vivekananda, Tagore, and to 1970s—places its wearer well between the image of a gentleman and
Annie Besant one can observe the development as follows: connoisseur of the Beat generation, knowing about Nehru’s socialist
leanings, as well as his playboy image in the chit-chattering yellow press.
1. Haute couture becomes high street by being marketed through the me- Thus, the fashion industry picks up on independent India with a flair of
dia. A vivid example is Fritz Lang’s Indian Epic (The Tiger of Eschnapur wonder and romanticism.
and The Indian Tomb, both 1959) in which the Indian prince and his court
all don so-called towel or widow turbans, a kind of turban which was 4. The first Indian label is established—not a government-owned enterprise
also worn by Vivekananda, undistinguishable of all marks of cast and re- such as Cottage Industries Emporium, which quotes the khadi move-
gionalism as is otherwise decipherable with this piece of costume. ment and claims to produce fair fashion, according to a Gandhian ethos.
Vivekananda who was also the original model for Peter Seller’s The Party Fabindia is a community-owned enterprise (at least on the production
(1968) and Jimi Mistry’s adoption in The Guru (2002). side of the enterprise). But, unlike a direct link to Gandhi and thus bridging
into an emancipatory consciousness with a national flavor, like so many
2. The so-called Indian style and exotic parameters are closely linked to other designers and brands in the last third of the twentieth century,
what colonialism defined as Hinduism in the late nineteenth century. Fabindia rather links to urban myths at large and caters to an urban Indian
These religious/spiritual concepts are reflected through a certain fashion. upper class only (at least till the end of the 1990s). Being founded by the
From the late 1960s to the early 1980s, this fashion is supported by grandson of Mark Twain, Fabindia was fast in understanding the necessity
styles worn by the Beatles, when the first generation of twentieth-century
dropouts and anti-intellectual Western elites hit the subcontinent. Using 12 See Sreya Basu, “India Never Goes Out of report/2009/sep/10/glamour-ritu-kumar-
the bought clothes, they designed their own understanding of Indian Fashion,” http://getahead.rediff.com/ at-kolkata-fashion-week.htm.
to cater and create a new Indian style that was not bound to colonialism the glee of the Indian public conquered the heights of former colonial powers,
and the fight for independence, but brought in a new understanding of supposedly designing and formulating their style and fashion. Running a
the customer’s role in a globalized world. The fashions also reflect a market global brand against neo-colonial waves of enterprise such as the sari collection
niche which gapped between those wearing the 1960s Nehru jackets by Hermès,14 which copy the exact marketing strategies applied by Cartier
and those admiring Western dropouts. With the change of Indian Central and others a century earlier on the Indian princes. Indeed, the styles used by
government export policies in the mid-1990s Fabindia also began expand- Arora as well as Western/global labels to lure consumers are flippantly alike;
ing to Europe and North America. Here, the company not only catered only the market strength differs. While Indian designers cater to a larger inter-
to the needs of the international Indian elite, but also to customers which national Asian and Oriental market and not yet global masses, they do reach a
would consume high end exotic fashion such as Burberry’s eclectic certain string of confused twenty-first century nationality and regionality that
styles, Etro, Ermengildo Zegna, but also more sober and minimalist schools builds on the opposition and survival of former colonial times. Thus very of-
such as the Antwerp Six, etc., thus also reflecting or quoting the costumes ten, even stylistic racisms go unnoticed by the Western politically aware eyes.
developed in the early 1820s by the colonial powers and local elites to
manifest certain styles. The often quoted Nehru jacket with its mandarin Nevertheless, how is this development supported by governmental regional
collar is after all the modernist outlook on a Farsi/Punjabi achkan or politics? In 1992, the Indian central government decided that they would greet
Mughal court sherwani. Further, the clothing line and interests developed capitalism and related market formats and end socialist market principles on
and broadcasted by Fabindia for a larger audience were picked up by the subcontinent, furthering production conditions in textiles and fashion
designers such as Rohit Bal to design sherwanis for the cabin crew of that are closely interlinked with those pre-Independence situations which were
British Airways on the route to South Asia. fought for by Gandhi and his principles. Rural manufacturing became even
more marginalized and had to escape to such niches as described by Suraiya
Now, what is the difference between today and the 1940s? The biggest differ- Hasan Bose for NorBlack NorWhite in 2011: new high-end fashion labels pick
ence is not the change in an outside perception, which still plays off the up on them temporarily, and government run emporia still support hand loom,
image of India as the destination of dreams, but the change in self-perception. but high street consumers are unwilling to invest in everyday hand loom
India is no longer a country as designed by the outside, or as described by products.15 This very much brings us back to Gandhi’s dilemma in the 1920s
such movements as Jute statt Plastik (which propagated in Germany in the and 1930s. But, as the Indian metropolitan areas are growing and with them
late 1970s and 1980s reusable jute bags instead of plastic shopping bags an eco-friendly and nationalist bourgeoisie, bohemian hand-loomed items as
that not only helped to prevent waste in Europe but that also supported local a carrying material for certain ideas of regional self-empowerment, even
farmers in Bangladesh and elsewhere); or bourgeois goodwill movements though only imagined, survives, having lost the swadeshi’s longing for anti-
which fought a fight against neo-imperial and neo-colonial capitalist (textile) force, at least on a theoretical level.
enterprises but very often used the same trampled marketing paths, with
different product stylistics.
Feeding Back—What are Today’s Expectations?

Looking at the development of these different epochs, the question arises:
How do they differ? And: What is happening today? How did the exchange of
textile and fashion material change in the last twenty years? What is the agenda
of political realism, what is the principle and language of styles hidden and
how are they used?
13 See Manish Arora, “About Manish,” http:// QU2bEev.
These questions can be followed up on all levels of consumed and marketed www.manisharora.com/index.php/ 15 See NorBlackNorWhite, “NBNW does
fashion/textile products, if we take a closer look at Manish Arora’s coopera- about-manish. Hyderabad,” February 24, 2014, http://
14 See Shoba Narayan, “Saris from Paris,” www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0r48
tion with Reebok, Swatch, Nespresso, and Swarovski through the brand http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/6547b042-2a MqtjGg#t=41.
Phish,13 before becoming creative director of Paco Rabanne in 2011. Who to 76-11e1-9bdb-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2j
184 Decolonization and Style Racism in South-Asian Fashion 185
Literature
Arora, Manish. “About Manish.” Accessed Rigsbee, Valerie. “Bombay Dreams.” September
November 1, 2013. http://www.manisharora. 26, 2013. Accessed November 1, 2013. http://
com/index.php/about-manish. www.broadwaymusicalhome.com/shows/
bombay.htm.
Basu, Sreya. “India never goes out of fash-
ion.” Accessed February 26, 2014. http://geta Singh, Radhika. The Fabric of Our Lives: The
head.rediff.com/report/2009/sep/10/glam Story of Fabindia. New Delhi: Penguin Global,
our-ritu-kumar-at-kolkata-fashion-week.htm. 2011.
Benhamou-Huet, Judith. 21st-Century Embroi- Sothebys. “The Mountbatten Jewels.” The

dery in India: In Their Hands, II–IV. London: Royal Magazine, June 25, 2008. Accessed
Prestel, 2009. November 1, 2013. http://www.royal-magazin.
de/england/mountbatten-jewels.htm.
Chakrabarty, Dipesh and Homi Bhabha.
Habitations of Modernity. Essays in the Wake Victoria and Albert Museum. “Indian textiles
of Subaltern Studies. Chicago: University of and Empire: John Forbes Watson. Collections
Chicago Press, 2002. of the Textile Manufactures of India.” Accessed
November 29, 2013. http://www.vam.ac.uk/
Dalrymple, William. The Last Mughal: The Tale content/articles/i/indian-textiles-and-empire-
of a Dynasty: Delhi, 1857. New Delhi: Vintage, john-forbes-watson.
2007.
Völker, Angela. “Die Produktion von ‘Wiener
Jackson, Anna, Amin Jaffer, and Christiane Shawls’ in der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhun-
Lang. Maharaja: Die Pracht der indischen derts.” In Documenta textilia, Festschrift für
Fürstenhöfe. Exhibition catalogue. Kunsthalle Sigrid Müller-Christensen, 409–22. Munich:
der Hypo-Kulturstiftung. Munich: Hirmer, 2010. Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, 1981.
Narayan, Shoba. “Saris from Paris.” Accessed

November 1, 2013. http://www.ft.com/cms/
s/2/6547b042-2a76-11e1-9bdb-00144feab
dc0.html#axzz2jQU2bEev.
Martina Fineder 187
“Jute Not
Time marched on, IKEA and wooden furniture also entered on their
triumphal march; the first man on the Moon had long been a legend, and
ecological problems increasingly dominated daily events. Wood, even
when coated with a layer of plastic and impregnated with highly toxic
Plastic”
media, was ‘in’, plastic was ‘out.’1
—Günter Beltzig, “My Sixties”
These words by the furniture designer Günter Beltzig put in a nutshell a cen-
Alternative
tral complex of problems facing the Western design and consumer culture of
the 1970s, the reciprocal effects arising from environmental crisis in combina-
tion with the quest for an environmentally friendly product culture. The main
impulse behind this development is generally held to be a reawakened love of
Product Culture
“nature.” Starting out from a new systemic understanding of the relationship
between human being and nature, the blue planet was declared to be “Space-
ship Earth” (as coined by Richard Buckminster Fuller) and subsequently con-
ceived as a “boat,” which threatened to sink with everyone in it. This anxiety
about the “repercussions on the life and ‘environmental’ conditions of human
between
beings themselves ensuing from their social utilization of nature” (as de-
scribed by Karl-Werner Brand),2 was projected as a result in consumerist-critical
actions such as “Jute Not Plastic,” and also in random, market-conformist in-
novations such as the IKEA principle. In this charged field between the polari-
Environmental
ties of counter-culture and mainstream, design and anti-design, consumer so-
ciety and its critique, the following essay pursues the question of how the
new social value of nature is negotiated through making and consuming things.
Following design historian Judy Attfield, this essay attempts to reach a dialec-
tical understanding of design and consumption as a process through which
Crisis and
“individuals and groups construct their identity, experience modernity and
deal with social change.”3 According to anthropologist Daniel Miller, this article
sees “the stance to materiality” as “the driving force behind humanity’s at-
tempts to transform the world in order to make it accord with beliefs as to
Fashion
how the world should be.”4
1 Günter Beltzig, “My Sixties,” http://www. Miller, Material Culture and Mass Consump-
beltzig-playdesign.de. tion, 1989, where the focus does not lie—
2 Karl-Werner Brand, “Die Umweltbewegung as in Marxist design critique of the 1970s—
(inklusive Tierschutz),” in Die sozialen Be- on the difference between “good” and
wegungen in Deutschland seit 1945: Ein “bad” design and consumption but on
Martina Fineder Handbuch, ed. Roland Roth and Dieter processes of objectification. See also
Rucht (Frankfurt/Main: Campus, 2008), Daniel Miller, Materiality (Durham, NC:
220. See also Anna Bramwell, Ecology in Duke University Press, 2005), and his
the 20th Century: A History (New Haven, most recent book Consumption and its
CT: Yale University Press, 1990). Consequences (Cambridge: Polity Press,
3 Judy Attfield, Wild Things: The Material 2012).
Culture of Everyday Life (London: Berg, 4 Miller, “Materiality: An Introduction,” in
2000). Attfield’s approach is shaped by Materiality, 2.
the work of British anthropologist Daniel
188 “Jute Not Plastic” Martina Fineder 189
The New Environmental Awareness the exploitation of nature.7 Originating in various milieus in the well-educated
middle class, the new environmental awareness became the determining factor
The emergence of the environmental crisis in the mass media during the 1970s in developing an alternative political sensibility that was strongly influenced
made an intense impact on public awareness. A number of alarmist publica- by questions of lifestyle. The jute bag came to be the most pertinent symbol
tions contributed to this and warned about the ephemerality of the planet from of the alternative lifestyle.
diverse perspectives. In 1971 Schon möglich, dass die Erde sterben muß (The
Earth may have to die), and Müllplanet Erde (Earth planet of trash) were pub- The brown shopping bag with the slogan “Jute Not Plastic” challenges shoppers
lished and in 1972 Die totale Autogesellschaft (The total automobile society) and to replace artificial substances with natural materials and is a declaration of
in 1975 Ein Planet wird geplündert (A planet is being plundered) written by the solidarity with people who have to suffer under unfair trade conditions. Jute
influential politician Herbert Gruhl.5 But a real shock wave broke out after the had always been the main vector in debates on issues of cultural rights and
report of the Club of Rome, published in 1972, on the Limits to Growth in the ownership, hence, during the 1970s with its constant supply of catastrophe
Western industrial nations. Radio, television, and the major German newspapers scenarios, jute united the anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, feminist, and eco-
helped to spread an atmosphere of crisis. The report was borne out by the oil logical critiques of large-scale industry (first and foremost nuclear power).8
crisis of 1973, which drew diverse energy-saving programs and car-free Sun- For Manon Maren-Grisebach, the executive of the Green Party, the sale of
days in its wake, and it provided for severe cracks in the model of progress “jute bags made for example by the poorest of the poor in Peru” were the “ex-
and the related expectations of prosperity that were anchored firmly in the pression of our hatred of environmental destruction as well as our love of
mindset of West German citizens.6 The new understanding of global resource these suffering under the yoke of conniving money sharks.”9 “The bag,” remem-
contexts and the fear of the planet’s ephemerality intensified the awareness bers Gert Nickoleit, project manager of the action “Jute Not Plastic,” “stood
aroused by reports of human and ecological catastrophes in countries of the for a different way of life.” “With it you were saying: I care for the environment
so-called Third World. and I’m doing something for the poorest of the poor.”10 This ethical attitude
toward consumption is also embodied in the self-knitted jumper and linen
From the political perspective, a paradigmatic change took place after the failure sandals, as well as rattan furniture, Japanese balloon lamps and untreated,
of 1968: the focus of the social movement in the fight against exploitation of do-it-yourself wooden furniture. To reiterate the words of Maren-Grisebach:
the working classes by capitalism shifted rapidly towards the protest against “The appearance is the sole sign of the inside.”11 The origin and manufacture
5 Christian Schütze, Schon möglich, dass Counter-Culture Movements against Mo-

die Erde sterben muss: Anfänge öffentli- dernity: Nature as a New Field of Class
cher Meinung zum Thema Umweltschutz, Struggle,” Theory, Culture & Society 7, no.
Merkur, no. 25 (1971), 470–85; Hans Re- 4 (1990): 21–47.
imer, Müllplanet Erde (Hamburg: Hoff- 8 Cf. Susanne Küchler, “Materials and De-
mann und Campe, 1971); Hans Dollinger, sign,” in Design Anthropology: Object Cul-
Die totale Autogesellschaft (Munich: Carl ture in the 21st Century, ed. Alison J.
Hanser Verlag, 1972); Herbert Gruhl, Ein Clarke (Vienna: Springer, 2011).
Planet wird geplündert: Die Schreckensbi- 9 Manon Maren-Grisebach, Philosophie der
lanz unserer Politik (Frankfurt/Main: S. Grünen (Munich: Günter Olzog, 1982),
Fischer, 1975). A detailed summary of this 21–23.
literature can be found in Jost Hermand, 10 The action was supported in the Federal
Grüne Utopien in Deutschland: Zur Ge- Republic by the trade organization of
schichte des ökologischen Bewußtseins Gepa (Gesellschaft zur Förderung der
(Frankfurt/Main: Fischer Taschenbuchver- Partnerschaft mit der Dritten Welt / Soci-
lag, 1991). ety for Promoting Partnership with the
6 Cf. Brand, “Umweltbewegung”; Arne An- Third World). See the interview with Gert
dersen, Der Traum vom guten Leben: All- Nickoleit by Jörg Burger, “Plastik statt
tags- und Konsumgeschichte vom Jute,” Zeit online, no. 24 (June 8, 2006);
Fig. 46 Wirtschaftswunder bis heute (Frankfurt: http://www.zeit.de/2006/24Selbst-schuld
A shopping bag made of jute bearing Campus, 1999); Hermand, Grüne Utopien -Jutetuete_xml.
the words “Jute Not Plastic“ and the in Deutschland. 11 Maren-Grisebach, Philosophie der
sub-line “Handmade in Bangladesh,” 7 A detailed study of this paradigmatic shift Grünen, 21.
ca. 1978. can be found in Klaus Eder, “The Rise of
of clothing, utility objects, and furnishings ought to be able to manifest this

attitude and be “more committed to the heart than to the purse.”12
A New Lifestyle Needs a New Style of Product

In 1973 the Des-In group was formed at Germany’s Offenbach School of Design.
In contrast to many young people working and studying in this branch who
rejected product design, the group members wanted to use products to take
a stand against “the negative situation of our society and the diverse reasons
Fig. 47
for this.”13 Their aim was to pursue a “post-industrial,” decentralized and self- Des-In, lampshade crafted of recycled
determined, sensuous method of production, based among other things on jute, ca. 1977.
the critique propagated by Robert Jungk of large-scale industry and the con-
ditions of ownership related to it. According to Jungk, a “humane and demo- Rosebrock, founding member of the Des-In group, calls the stickers “the true
cratic society […] should create a new technology that corresponds to its plague of the times” and “pseudo-ornament.”19 Her description seems to tally
concepts.”14 The group therefore sought a product style capable of combining with the fears of the influential designer and former director of the University
an ethical yet sensuous and hedonistic lifestyle with socially and ecologically of Ulm, Tomás Maldonado; in his essay “Umwelt und Revolte” (“Design, Nature,
acceptable methods of production. A new lifestyle needs a new “style of and Revolution”) of 1972, he fears that the new environmental awareness
product,” Jochen Gros, founding member of the Des-In group, stated in form could become high fashion and thus might miss its purpose.20 Countering this,
magazine.15 Des-In uses a language of forms and symbols that does more justice to the
new appreciation of nature than pop flowers designed for the market.21 They
With the motto “Small series make you free,” they cultivated the rediscovery developed their ornamental vocabulary mainly from the recycling of everyday
of handicraft. The combination of “head and hands” was seen as a key weap-
on in combating alienation from the social and natural environment.16 The de-
mand of “More sensuousness through ornament” manifests the group’s reac- 12 Ibid., 23. 16 See Jan Kotig, “Neues Gewerbe—Neues
13 Lothar Müller, “Des-In & Entwurfsbeispiele Leben: Zur Versöhnung von Handarbeit
tion not only to functionalism’s prohibition of ornament, which they für eine alternative Produktionsform (Des- und Industrie,” Werk und Zeit, no. 3 (1978):
provocatively reformulated into “Form Phallus Function,” but also their quest In & Design Examples for an Alternative 37–39. This Werk und Zeit edition is enti-
for a procedure to “make fundamental ways of thinking palpable to the sens- Form of Production),” (typewritten diplo- tled Kopf und Hände (Head and Hands).
ma thesis, Offenbach School of Design, 17 Müller, “Des-In & Entwurfsbeispiele,” 24.
es, to the eyes, and enable them to be grasped by brain and hand.”17 This
Department of Product Design, 1977), 4. 18 Jochen Gros, “Mehr Sinnlichkeit im
search is also characterized by feelings of belonging to nature and the preoc- Müller is co-founder of the Des-In Group, Produkt-Alltag: Funktionalismus und äs-
cupation with appropriate symbols of nature, which could be corresponding- formed of a core of twelve male and fe- thetische Aspekte des Produktdesigns,”
ly mediated, visualized and (re-)imagined through nature and naturalness: male students surrounding the young Pro- hfg forum 1: Zeitung der Hochschule für
fessor Jochen Gros at the School of Design Gestaltung Offenbach am Main 1, no. 1
in Offenbach/Main. In the years between (Winter 1976/77); n.p.
Nothing in the range of technical products reminds us today of the 1973 and 1978 among the members were 19 Beate Rosebrock, interview with Martina
prime model of harmonious sensuousness in nature. On the other hand, (in alphabetical order): Philine Bracht, Fineder, Frankfurt/Main, 2011.
Bernd Brokhausen, Ingrid Ute Ehlers, 20 Maldonado was not alone with this anxi-
symbols expressing the memory of nature have never been completely Klaus Gebauer, Jochen Gros, Michael ety. The French Group (among them Jean
eradicated from our daily life. On the contrary, we seem to be clinging to Kurz, Eberhard Lacher, Baudrillard) warned of the dangers of a
them more than ever, the less nature—destroyed, poisoned and de- Irmtraud Hagmann, Lothar Müller, Beate “mythologizing of nature” as early as 1970
Rosebrock, Dieter Rosenburger, Norbert at the international design conference in
spoiled—still corresponds to what we seek in it. We can see this in such
Wagner, and Michael Walz. Aspen. In their statement “The Environ-
things as the growing popularity of room plants, floral stickers, rustic de- 14 Robert Jungk, Berliner Extradienst 3, no. mental Witch-Hunt,” French intellectuals
signs, Chinese imports, etc.18 40 (1969): 4; as quoted in Müller, “Des-In and artists saw an instrument in eco-hys-
& Entwurfsbeispiele,” 3. teria that might actually drown out politi-
15 Jochen Gros, “Eine Design-Initiative: cal problems.
The floral stickers are the so-called “Pril flowers” invading households on liquid des:in,” FORM. Zeitschrift für Gestaltung, 21 See Müller, “Des-In & Entwurfsbeispiele,” 6.
detergent bottles to spread gaiety on kitchen and bathroom tiles. Beate no. 79 (1977): 15.
Out of the blue we now discover that the blue sky—at least above our
big cities and industrial zones—is no longer blue but gloomy, coal-black
and threatening; the sky, a reservoir of air, has now been transformed
into a reservoir of poison. In other words, the sky, heaven, is no longer
heavenly, and we are not really sure today whether we can go on living
under such an inhospitable roof. A short time ago I saw the following
sentence written on a poster showing the marching protest movement:
“Don’t breathe.” Consequently the next slogan might very well be: ‘Don’t
drink anything.’ And the one after that ‘Don’t walk anywhere.’24
The critical confrontation with the environmental situation in design is not an

invention of the 1970s, but was already heralded in the design world in the
late 1950s at the Werkbund Conference “Die große Landzerstörung” (The
Fig. 48
Des-In, series of lampshades crafted of a discarded offset printing plates, ca. 1977.
objects. Using simple tools and devices, the young designers refashioned
printed metal packaging, discarded car tires, offset printing plates and tea
chests from ocean transport into new utility objects and furniture. In a series
of lampshades made by hand from discarded offset printing plates and print-
ed metal food packaging they experimented with butterfly and moth forms
and various blossoms.22
The printing plates previously used for printing travel brochures, art catalogues,
and food packaging are likewise rich resources for pictures, patterns, and
texts, as are the metal food containers. By using such materials the group
propagated a kind of ornamental richness of poor materials.23 A lampshade
from the series shows the picture of a dreamy little town nestling harmoni- Fig. 49
ously between riverbank and well-manicured landscape. Des-In, lampshade crafted of a discarded offset printing plate, ca. 1977.
Above the little town, as far as we can see without color, the sky is blue—no
22 For more on Des-In recycling products, 23 See, for instance, Müller, “Des-In & Ent-
chimney stacks, no smoke, no smog, a hospitable sky, under which you can
see Martina Fineder, “Recycling-Design wurfsbeispiele,” 29.
go fishing directly at the gates of the city. This image of bygone days con- revisited: Mit der Des-In Gruppe auf der 24 Tomás Maldonado, untitled contribution,
trasts the depressing scenarios such as were circulated by critical voices from Suche nach einer sinnlichen produktkultur in Design? Umwelt wird in Frage gestellt,
the design scene back in the early 1970s. Among others, Tomás Maldonado (1974–1978),” in: de Towards Postcolonial ed. Der Themakreis, Internationales
Fashion, ed. Elke Gaugele, Sabina Muriale, Design Zentrum Berlin (Berlin: Internatio-
has outlined such scenarios in the publication Umwelt? Design wird in Frage and Ruby Sircar (Weinheim: Beltz Verlag, nales Design Zentrum Berlin, 1970), 88.
gestellt (Environment? Design under Question) as early as 1970: 2014).
great land destruction). In 1959 the Werkbund president Hans Schwippert Another lampshade fashioned out of a honey jar shows busy bees flying be-
gave people food for thought by saying in his opening talk that although tween flower and hive. The hive, which forms the center of the lovingly de-
modern design had produced a great number of high-quality drinking glass- signed advertisement illustration, is surrounded by a radiant aura. On one half
es, unfortunately, actual enjoyment of the drink had been missed out on. This of the shade we can read the words “Genuine,” “Bees,” “Honey,” “Medicine,”
was not so surprising, he said, because in the meantime wine was deteriorat- “Whole,” “Nature.” The side half of the jar reveals that it is bees’ honey from
ing and water was scarcely drinkable.25 Wine—as seen on one of the Des-In Germany.
lampshades—sparked off far-reaching environmental protests in the
nineteen-seventies.
Fig. 51
Des-In, papier-mâché lampshade with the laughing sun of the anti-nuclear movement, ca. 1976.
Fig. 50
Des-In, lampshade crafted of a discarded offset printing plate, ca. 1977. What’s more, German beekeepers vouch for the genuineness of the product,
lending it authenticity. Aura and rhetoric promise good health and harmony
The resistance of winegrowers in Whyl on the Rhine against the construction for body, mind and soul, which can be consumed through the product. In ad-
of a nuclear power station in the Kaiserstuhl winegrowing area whipped up dition, we may mention at this point that a connection was already being
momentous anti-nuclear demonstrations with international impact. The fear made in the first half of the twentieth century between a healthy bee population
of the destructive force of atomic energy united the farmers with political ac-
tivists from the most diverse camps and with anxious citizens throughout the 25 Hans Schwippert,“Die Große Landzer- pendix to the special edition. The physi-
störung,” Werk und Zeit 8, no. 12 (Decem- cist, who lives in the USA, mentions that
Federal Republic. “Better active today than radioactive tomorrow,” was a slo-
ber 1959): 1–2; as quoted in Paul Betts, the slogan was popular even in the USA.
gan of the Whyl winegrowers, who attained popularity well beyond the na- The Authority of Everyday Objects: A Cul- 27 A detailed description of the development
tional borders.26 The anti-nuclear movement caused the topic of environmen- tural History of West German Design of the anti-nuclear movement in Germany
tal protection to grow in public interest from the mid-1970s onwards.27 At the (Berkeley: University of California Press, can be found in Roland Roth and Dieter
2004), 255. Rucht, eds., Die sozialen Bewegungen in
time Des-In produced a papier-mâché lampshade with the yellow-and-red 26 Fritjof Capra, Wendezeit: Bausteine für ein Deutschland seit 1945: Ein Handbuch
logo of the anti-nuclear movement—the laughing sun. neues Weltbild (Munich: Knaur, 1988); ap- (Frankfurt/Main: Campus, 2008).
Designing and Consuming Nature

The alternative movement’s affinities with nature are strongly influenced by
its knowledge about these contexts. Thus, the visual and material culture is
correspondingly symbolic and psychologically loaded. Trees, floral and faunal
motifs are used to express the new values of alternative interest groups and
their forums: The left-wing Munich newspaper Blatt (Leaf), for instance, chose
a large, evidently not artificially trimmed tree for its logo. The editorial team
used this logo to express the newspaper’s open and democratic ethos.29 The
Pflasterstrand (Concrete Beach), one of the most influential alternative maga-
zines of the Federal Republic, alludes with its floral, art nouveau lettering to
the history of the alternative movement. The feminist network Selbsthilfe e.V.
(Self-Help) has the wild boar as logo. The alternative Nuremberg newspaper,
Fig. 52–53
Des-In, lampshades fashioned the Plärrer (which means bowler), has a perky beaver advertising the “genuine
out of a honey jar, ca. 1977. hand-made” Roots shoes from Canada.
Designer Dorothee Becker who in 1975 opened the legendary design boutique
“Utensilo” in the chic Munich suburb of Schwabing, chose a cricket for her
logo. Dorothee Becker loves the beautiful, natural noise made by the insect
and simultaneously marvels at its efficient locomotion. This combination of
emotion and functionality is a manifestation of her fondness for practical and
beautiful things.30 In elaborately arranged shop window decorations she
manages to combine the value of good design with the new ideas of good
consumerism. In doing so, the range of products she has compiled remains
faithful to principles of classical modern design— functionalism, longevity,
material simplicity, modest elegance. Nevertheless, she indulges in a certain
sensuous frisson with decorative objects, even bibelots. This approach can
indeed be compared to the Des-In work method. But it can also be seen in the
context of “humanizing modernism” as cultivated by the US designer couple
Charles and Ray Eames.31 Like the Eameses decorating their home in California,
Becker frequently implements figures, materials, pictures, and other home
accessories, which either derive from nature or evoke associations of it. She
draws on material culture of Asia, especially Japanese tea culture as the
epitome of elegance, simplicity, functionality and the respectful treatment of
natural resources, and is blended with examples of European product culture.
In window display views we find postcards that convey impressions of the har-
and the preservation of the human living environment, by the anthroposo- monious relationship between the human being and nature in the Far East.
phist, designer and architect Rudolf Steiner among others. As the century ran
its course, bee mortality became the harbinger of the end of mankind.28
28 Albert Einstein would famously say: “When 30 Dorothee Becker, interview by Martina
bees at last disappear from the Earth, Man Fineder, Munich, 2010.
has only four more years to live. No more 31 Pat Kirkham, “Humanizing Modernism:
bees, no more pollination, no more plants, The Crafts, ‘Functioning Decoration’ and
no more animals, no more people.” the Eameses,” Journal of Design History 11,
29 See Blatt 1, no. 1 (July 1973): editorial no. 1 (1998): 15–29.
statement.
promise to find elsewhere what is meant as lost in the Western industrialized

world.33
Such remediations, no matter how topical they are, are influential in shaping
our imaginations of a thing’s origin and its relation to nature. As they mediate
particular ideas of nature, they may also contribute to the authentication of
products and materials. The Swedish furniture company IKEA seems very
much aware of this. For instance, the German edition of the 1978–79 catalogue
shows a simple set of wooden shelves standing in the midst of a forest.
A friendly, grunting elk sits in front of it. The shelves appear to have been
made directly on site. The happy elk communicates to us that his living envi-
ronment is in no way endangered by the manufacturing of the shelves; quite
the contrary, the animal seems to take part in making use of it. According to
Jan Kotig, here the human-nature relationship is embodied enduringly
through such shelves: “Because the tree always remains inherent in a shelf,
which is yet again part of the forest with its plants and animals, and of course
the human beings who make use of it.”34
For the educated middle class the reasonably priced IKEA furniture has been
regarded as the epitome of alternative consumer culture ever since the open-
ing of the first West German branch near Munich in 1974. The do-it-yourself
furniture made of bright pinewood stands for an environmentally friendly pro-
Fig. 54–57 duction method and a democratic business enterprise and consumer culture.
Dorothee Becker, Details of a shop window in Dorothee Maurer’s shop “Utensilo,” 1976. Another edition of the 1978–79 catalogue promotes the concern with the words
Unser Stammbaum ist die Kiefer (Our family tree is the pine). The younger
The postcard in the display window shown here has a woman in traditional generation utilized the pine wood furniture for their symbolic protest against
Japanese costume with a paper umbrella over her head, walking through a the small-town, stuffy home-living style of their parent’s generation, associat-
bamboo forest. The second postcard shows a woman with two small children ed with heavy oak furniture. Moreover, the Scandinavian pine acted as an ex-
at an open fireplace. We see an imposing mountainous massif in high-altitude cellent demarcation line for keeping out the historically negative connota-
Tibet spread out in the background. tions of the German forest. The German forest, intimately connected with
German cultural history and likewise a fundamental part of the romantic fairy-
Here, any further context is left open to the audience’s imagination. Those im- tale and spiritual landscape, was loaded heavily with negative significance
ages serve as necessary counterparts to the modern world. In combination
with other elements of the window displays, such as dried plants, stuffed ani-
mals, ginger roots, pine cones, tropical fruits, shells, stones and eggs, herbs 32 Compare the work of Sarah Franklin, Celia Franklin, Celia Lury, and Jackie Stacey
and flower-based soaps, also traditional glass jewelry, the postcards are woven Lury, and Jackie Stacey, Global Nature, (London: Sage, 2000), 112.
skillfully into landscapes of longing and desire. Wallowing in nostalgia, fantasy Global Culture (London: Sage, 2000). 34 Jan Kotig, “Das neue Gewerbe” (The New
Here as elsewhere, the examination of the Crafts), page three of a manuscript from
trips to the “exotic” Far East (and as introduced in the following, imaginings
Westerners’ longing for the “exotic na- the unpublished collection of documents
about the untouched wilds of Scandinavia), also all promise romantic and ex- ture” of the Far East is shaped by Edward accompanying the exhibition “Neues
traordinary encounters and experiences of nature.32 These products and Said’s book Orientalism: Western Concepts Gewerbe und Industrie” (New Crafts and
product scenarios offer “landscapes of longing” for the modern Westerner of the Orient (New York: Pantheon, 1978). Industries) at the International Design
33 Jackie Stacey, “The Global Within: Con- Centre Berlin, November 2–December 31,
harassed by feelings of alienation. For sociologist Jackie Stacey, who compre- suming Nature, Embodying Health,” in 1977, (2nd edition), composed by Kay
hensively examines the Easternization of nature, idealized ideas of nature Global Nature, Global Culture, ed. Sarah Klockenhoff.
through the fascist Blut-und-Boden (blood and soil) ideology. The Scandinavian
forest, in contrast, is a democratic forest for the young generation. It is there-
fore better suited to assimilating the new feelings of belonging to nature.
The variety of products and product scenarios introduced here illustrate how
furnishing and decorative objects, self-knitted jumpers and linen sandals, and
also other articles of everyday use convey the new social and cultural value of
nature, but likewise create new feelings of belonging to nature. Thus, the new
yearning for nature is simultaneously the driving force for avoiding and com-
batting consumerism, and also the impetus for a new form of consumption
and new design. These reciprocal processes generate a field charged between
the polarities of consumerism and its critique, design and anti-design, alter-
native culture and mainstream. In fact, in daily life it was (and is) difficult to
distinguish between environmentally friendly and environmentally harmful
products. In this context we remember the formaldehyde scandal surrounding
the Billy shelves or the uproar over the jute bags, which were proved to con-
tain an excessive concentration of dangerous and toxic chemical residues.
But, corresponding to the dialectical way of observing design and consumerism
introduced at the beginning of this essay as processes through which individ-
uals and groups define their relationships to the social and natural environ-
ment, these objects—from the jute bag, the Des-In lampshades to the IKEA
shelves—are the physical manifestations of the new alternative stance to pro-
duction and consumption in the 1970s.35
Fig. 58
IKEA, cover of the German catalogue edition, 1978/79.
35 This essay is a development of the paper

presented in 2011 in Barcelona at the con-
ference Design Activism and Social
Change, “Jute, Not Plastic! Designing and
Consuming Nature,” and part of my thesis
project “The Promise of the Alternative:
Environmentally Critical Design and Con-
sumption in 1970s West Germany.”
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Attfield, Judy. Wild Things: The Material Cul- Grünen, Munich: Günter Olzog Verlag, 1982. nung zum Thema Umweltschutz.” Merkur, no.
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Elke Gaugele 205
On the
“The Earth is in an environmental crisis,” announced Antwerp fashion design-
er Bruno Pieters at the opening of his fashion label, Honest By, in 2012. Dame
Vivienne Westwood held up the phrase “Climate Revolution” on a banner for
her 2013 spring collection at the London Fashion Week. Performing as a cli-
Ethical Turn in
mate warrior on the stage at the Paralympics, she even challenged the audi-
ence to “Buy Nothing.” An “honest buy” at Honest By—the “world’s first trans-
parent company” by Bruno Pieters—on the other hand is a question of honor
and honesty. His enterprise, based on the mission of transparency and trace-
ability, offers consumers the chance to “do something good” through ethical
Fashion
spending.
Policies of
Governance and
the Fashioning
Fig. 59
Vivienne Westwood,
Climate Revolution, 2012.
Fashion set up a new arena of aesthetic politics, where designers and labels
of Social
seem to compete as activists demonstrating and struggling against climate
change, the ecological crisis, overconsumption, and exploitation of labor.
Therefore, a new paradigm of fashion has to be outlined. After many small
fashion labels followed models of social entrepreneurship and introduced al-
Critique
ternative production, material, and consumption strategies ranging from “up-
cycling,” “cradle to cradle,” “social design,” “eco-textiles,” “vegan” clothes and
“D.I.Y.,” ethics entered contemporary fashion. As eco fashion activist Katherin
Hamett states, for mainstream brands, ethical fashion became “an economic
imperative, not just a moral one.”1
Elke Gaugele Ethical claims on the global fashion industry have taken two routes. On the
one hand, there is the rise of a commercial alternative production chain of
green, ethical, and organic products that demands an ethical commitment of
1 Nathaniel Dafydd Beard, “The Branding of Culture 12 (2008): 447−68; cit. Kathrin
Ethical Fashion and the Consumer: A Luxury Hamnett from Jessica Brinton, “The Green
Niche or Mass-Market Reality?,” Fashion Dream,” Sunday Times Style Magazine,
Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body and May 11, 2008, 26–29.
206 On the Ethical Turn in Fashion Elke Gaugele 207
cal frameworks and juxtapose these in opposition to an analysis on contempo-

rary politics of human rights cultures, as Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak has out-
lined.7 Consequently, I will follow the redeployment processes of social
differences, global hierarchies, and economic capital that are reflected by the
ethical turn in fashion, exploring how they are produced within the economic
and political networks that reclaim ethical fashion as their eco-governmental
tool. Therefore, three strands of the new ethical regime of fashion will be out-
lined: the Western commodification of trust and honesty after the global fi-
nancial crisis in 2007−08 and its modes of othering; the UN’s shift from blue
helmets to ethical fashion as a political tool for governance and development
policy in Africa and its embracement of the luxury industry; and the integra-
Fig. 60
Honest By, Bruno Pieters’s Spring 2012 tion of social critique as ethical capital and a new spirit of global capitalism.
collection.
its members. On the other hand, ethics have been incorporated into the tradi- Crisis, Commodification, and the Fashioning of Trust and
tional segments of the garment industry.2 In parallel with their fast fashion Honesty
production, the apparel industry launched double strategies trying to change
their image by also coining the new terms of “social fashion,” “ethical fashion,” Since the mid-1980s Honest Fashion has been associated with Dries van Noten
“eco fashion,” “sweatshop-free fashion,” or “planet-friendly” fashion. Since the and his modest, untheatrical design as one of Antwerp Six. The term is said to
1980s, organizations and consumers increasingly directed pressure on garment have been brought into circulation by Suzy Menkes, fashion critic of the Inter-
retailers to trade and produce more ethically. NGOs such as Clean Clothes national Herald Tribune.8 Labeling his enterprise Honest By, Pieters—who grad-
Campaign (CCC) or the International Labor Organization (ILO) had been fighting uated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp in 1999—builds on this
for more than a decade for solidarity and better working conditions for the tradition. While protest movements against fast fashion and NGOs had been
workers in the sweatshops of the global fashion industry, until in 1999 the reclaiming social, ethical, and ecological guidelines for the fashion industry
United Nations opened its Global Compact as a strategic policy initiative for for over twenty years, Pieters himself explained in a completely relaxed mood
businesses. Although the UN Global Compact’s aims for a global standardiza-
tion of ethical codes has been heavily also criticized for its neoliberal blue- 2 Patrik Aspers, “Ethics in Global Garment Culture 12 (2008): 511–24; Pamela Church
washing effects, the United Nations began to discover ethical fashion as its Markets,” in The Moralization of Market, Gibson, “Sustainable Fashion in the Age of
ed. Nico Stehr, Christoph Henning, and Celebrity Culture,” in The Sustainable
political tool for global governance. Fulfilling a political “jump […] from blue
Bernd Weiler (London: Transaction Press, Fashion Handbook, ed. Sandy Black (Lon-
helmets, to food aid to fashion,”3 the United Nations intensified programs on 2006), 287–307. don: Thames & Hudson, 2012), 20–24; Sue
ethical fashion as an instrument of global governance and development policy 3 Natalie Domeisen and Prema de Sousa, Thomas, “From ‘Green Blur’ to Ecofashion:
by teaming up with the luxury industry. “Why Is the United Nations Working in Fashioning an Eco-Lexicon,” Fashion The-
Fashion?” International Trade Forum ory: The Journal of Dress, Body and Cul-
Magazine, no. 3 (2006); http://www.trade ture 12 (2008): 525–40; Beard, “Ethical
“Ethics is a fashionable word,” the French philosopher Jaques Rancière diag- forum.org/Why-is-the-United-Nations Fashion and the Consumer.”
nosed in his essay “The Ethical Turn of Aesthetic and Politics.”4 Various fashion -Working-in-Fashion. 6 Rancière, “Aesthetics and Politics,” 16.
4 Jacques Rancière, “The Ethical Turn of 7 Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, “Righting
theorists have focused on ethical fashion, characterizing it from a paradox Aesthetics and Politics,” Critical Horizons Wrongs,” The South Atlantic Quarterly
(Black 2008) to a utopian promise (Clarke 2008); as celebrity activism (Winge 7, no. 1 (2006): 1−20. 103, no. 2/3 (Spring/Summer 2004): 523–
2008; Church Gibson 2012), an oxymoron (Clarke 2008), a green commodity 5 Sandy Black, Eco-Chic: The Fashion Para- 48; http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/saq/
dox (London: Black Dog, 2011); Hazel summary/v103/103.2spivak.html.
fetish (Winge 2008), a precarious pedestal (Thomas 2008) and a necessity
Clarke, “Slow+Fashion – an Oxymoron – or 8 Peter Bäldle, “Mode aus Belgien: Dries
(Beard 2008).5 Drawing on Rancière’s distrust in the “overturning of aesthetics a Promise for the Future…?,” Fashion The- Van Noten - Der stille Revolutionär,” Süd-
into ethics”, my essay traces the disciplinary, riving, and hierarchizing func- ory: The Journal of Dress, Body and Cul- deutsche Zeitung Online, February 25,
tions of the “ethical regime” within the aesthetic and political dimensions of ture 12 (2008): 427–46; Theresa M. Winge, 2011; http://www.sueddeutsche.de/leben/
“‘Green Is the New Black’: Celebrity Chic mode-aus-belgien-dries-van-noten-der-
the contemporary ethical turn in fashion.6 By investigating examples from and the ‘Green’ Commodity Fetish,” Fash- stille-revolutionaer-1.1032934-3.
both labels Honest By and Vivienne Westwood, I will contextualize their politi- ion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body and
that he had been enlightened to honesty in fashion during his sabbatical year “Trust is the New Currency,” correspond in a broader way to that of Honest By
in South India. From that time on, the former art director for Hugo Boss ex- using the materiality of clothes as a symbol to create presence for a sensorium
plains, Mahatma Gandhi’s mantra: “Be the change you want to see in the of trust. Honest By uses fashion as a fabric to enforce a presence of socially,
world” became his driving force.9 Beforehand, economists had in fact prog- ethically, and ecologically controlled relations.12 As part of a new commodifi-
nosticated the growth of ethical markets as a driving force and had given ad- cation originating from crisis, fashion becomes the carrier of emotions like
vice on how to green and to even spiritualize commodities. Furthermore, the trust or of virtues like honesty. In response to that, honesty has become highly
global financial crisis in 2007−08 has actually evoked a Western debate on relevant in Western consumer decisions, just as social responsibility and envi-
Trust Design. Premsela, the Dutch Institute for Design and Fashion, for example, ronmental consciousness.
started working on solutions for how design could answer the contemporary
crisis.10 Trust Designers summarize: “When the global financial crisis hit in For his first honest collection for women and men, Pieters created a minimal-
2009, trust catapulted from a personal thought during a handshake to a defin- istic line consisting of fifty-eight clear, purist pieces in black, white, gray, and
ing ingredient of our daily lives and business.”11 Their approaches, such as beige. Upright pleated trousers, slim shirts and tees, frank bomber jackets
and sweaters, prissy wrap dresses; virtuous jersey pants and pullovers with
honorable epaulettes became available as limited editions.13 Thus the fashion
Fig. 62
Honest By, Lookbook I, Autumn/Winter 2012
collection.
9 Tamsin Blanchard, “Bruno Pieters’s Honest 11 Ibid.

By: The Only Way Is Ethics,” Telegraph, 12 Hans-Georg Soeffner, Auslegung des
March 9, 2013; http://fashion.telegraph. Alltags: Der Alltag der Auslegung; Zur
co.uk/columns/tamsin-blanchard/ wissenssoziologischen Konzeption einer
TMG9918892/Bruno-Pieterss-Honest-By- sozialwissenschaftlichen Hermeneutik
The-only-way-is-ethics.html. (Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1989), 162.
10 Scott Burnham and the Netherlands Insti- 13 Bruno Pieters, “Lookbook I,” Honest By,
tute for Design, Premsela, “Trust Design: January 2012; http://www.honestby.com/
Fig. 61 The Relationship between Design and en/page/92/bruno-pieters.html
Honest By, Lookbook I, Autumn/Winter 2012 collection. Trust,” Trust Design; http://trustdesign.org.
As a web platform, Honest By invites other designers to present their “ethical,”

“vegan,” or “green” looks, so that, besides from Bruno Pieters’s designs, the
whole palette of fashion and accessories is offered: garments by Calla, Muriée,
and Nicolas Andreas Taralis, jewelry from Heaven Tanudiredja and vegan
shoes by Maison des Talons. All products are showcased with an undertone of
revelation: 100 percent transparency about “material information,” “manufac-
turing details,” “price calculation,” and even about the “carbon footprint”—
fashion’s CO2 emission. We not only get to know that a sweater produces an
output of 2.31 kg of CO2, corresponding to 14.44 car kilometers or burning a
light bulb for 88.85 hours, but we also are taught that a tree would need
about 259 days to neutralize the emissions. The label presents itself as sus-
tainable by offering this information about every garment right up to the
smallest button and the thinnest thread. In addition, it also names the manu-
facturers of its threads and buttons.18
Fig. 63
Fidus and Gusto Gräser, activists of the German
Reform Movement, ca. 1900.
collection gives expression to the whole palette of conservative middle-class

virtues. Asymmetry is to be found only in the women’s fashion, under the hon-
est linen tops and wrap skirts. The collection makes references to the black
and white contrasts of modernity. But at the same time, natural colored piec- Fig. 64
es do also refer to the material history of anti-fashion and the styles of the re- Bruno Pieters, Honest By, Filter By, 2012.
form dress area from around 1900. Other styles resemble the stereotypical
body images associated with hippie subculture and its sociopolitical values of Beside such information, the web page offers filters to search the collections
animal and human rights and environmental issues.14 by the following categories: organic, vegan, recycled, skin-friendly, and
European.
The firm therefore designs dogmas starting with “we believe in” or “we re-
spect.” Correspondingly, the debate on Trust Design regards ecology and Honest By classifies cloth in a specific manner that draws analogies between
sustainability as promises based on religious belief: “Faith is trust. Faith is the materiality of ethical fashion and organic or even vegan food, grown from
connection to a promise. Trust is a promise. Sustainability is a promise. Green ecological plants by regional farming. Additionally, the self seems to be capable
design is a promise. The object may not hold the promise in itself, but it is a of swallowing up and incorporating feelings of trust, safety, and placing. Pieters
connection to a promise.”15 Asking Nicolas Taralis “How green are you in your even emphasizes this in press interviews: “Like organic food, the quality is ac-
daily life?” Bruno Pieters receives the following answer: “To quote a famous
friend: it ain’t easy bein’ green.”16 Sue Thomas confirms in her book From
14 Winge, “Green Is the New Black,” 512. 17 Thomas, “Fashioning an Eco-Lexicon,” 533.
“Green Blur” to Ecofashion that ethical fashion has a quasi-religious implica- 15 Burnham, “Trust Design.” 18 Honest By, “Carbon Footprint and Manu-
tion “in which ethical referred to philosophically guided actions and behav- 16 Bruno Pieters, “A Man of Mystery: An In- facturing Details,” http://www.honestby.
iors as determined by their impact on others.”17 terview with Nicolas Andreas Taralis,” com/en/product/66/jersey/flecked-grey-
Honest By News, July 15, 2012; http:// unisex-cotton-jersey-puzzle-crew-neck-
www.honestby.com/en/news/64/a-man- sweater.html.
of-mystery.html.
tually better, the organic cotton is better.”19 “We believe in animal welfare,” is
another dogma of Honest By. The label abstains from animal fiber by distrib-
uting vegan shoes and by sourcing most of the woolen textiles either from re-
cycling or from regional organic animal farming. Such decisions may give rise
to new sartorial lifestyles: as a fashion vegetarian who never wears anything
animal, such as leather, fur, or horns. It might also create a consumer behav-
ior as a fashion flexitarian, who asks only now and then for wool or silk—and
even then it should be consumed in the most modest way. In an exemplary
manner, Pieters shows how this should come from recycled materials or from
certified regional organic animal farming. The design theorist Hazel Clarke
had also pointed out parallels between the slow food movement and sustain-
able solutions for fashion. In this context, she described three lines: “The valuing
of local resources and distributed economies; transparent production systems
with less intermediation between producer and consumer; and sustainable and
sensorial products that have a longer usable life and are more highly valued
Fig. 65
than typical ‘consumables.’”20 Honest By, Othering: Green-Faced
Black Model, 2012.
Apparel is regarded, right after food, as the key market of green economics
and its sales increased tenfold since 2000. In 2012 the Ethical Consumer Mar-
kets Report refers that sales in ethical clothing have risen in the UK from £5
million in 2000 up to £150 million in 2012.21 In the interest of ethical consum-
erism, market researchers also recommend the neo-regionalization of prod-
ucts because this should foster the meaning and sensuality of commodities.
Green Styles of Othering: Bruno Pieters and Vivienne

Westwood
Honest By introduces the category “European” as a material classification of
its collection. From a culture-historical perspective, the interconnection of
fashion and European draws on the spatial policies of Western costume history
as well as on the epistemologies of fashion theories of the late Enlighten-
ment. Here, fashion had been classified as a Western phenomenon of enlight-
Fig. 66
ened and advanced societies. In modernity fashion has been defined as an Vivienne Westwood, Green Othering,
expression of culture, civilization, and communization and in a colonial mean- 2012.
ing as a phenomenon of “advanced nations,” respectively a genuine European
appearance.22
19 Blanchard, “Bruno Pieters’s Honest By.” Moral, der Literatur und dem gesellschaftli-
By coding white bodies as “European” on the website’s filter, in 2012, Honest
20 Clarke, “Slow+Fashion—an Oxymoron,” 429. chen Leben (Breslau: Wilhelm Gottlieb Korn,
By accentuates the construction of the European through race and through 21 The Co-operative, Ethical Consumer Markets 1792; Frankfurt/Main: Insel, 1987), 23. Cita-
dress. In resemblance to colonial strategies of othering, these are contra- Report 2012, http://www.ethicalconsumer. tions refer to the Frankfurt/Main edition.
positioned by a black model visualizing the column “the world responds.”23 The org/linkclick.aspx?fileticket=96yXzu8nyrc 23 Honest By, “The World Responds,” Honest
%3D&tabid=1557. By News, January 30, 2012, http://www.
model’s green-painted black face contrasts the white bodies categorized as 22 Christian Garve, Über die Moden: Versuche honestby.com/en/news/18/the-world-re-
“European” through fashion. Made up with green color, the black face seems über verschiedene Gegenstände aus der sponds.html.
to represent a model of the noble savage expressing Western ecological con- “Gaia and her life-forms have evolved together in a self-regulating system, and
sciousness. This pattern was repeated in autumn 2013 when Honest By intro- together they create the atmosphere which keeps her cool. If this harmony is
duced the collection of South African fashion designer Pholoso Selebogo, broken then Gaia can no longer sustain or tolerate those same life-forms; she,
naming her a “native” and a “true fashion princess.”24 herself will find a new equilibrium by moving to a hot-state.”26
Similar green-facing strategies could also be observed at Vivienne Westwood’s Westwood’s T-shirt thus highlights the centrality of the Western world by ex-
Show, “Climate Revolution” at London Fashion Week in September 2012. pressly underlining the graphic design of a green Northern Europe and America
Again the green make-up on the black skin of the models generated associa- by the term “peace” and the word “yes” that is even enhanced by a checkmark.
tions of a green colonization that makes and marks black bodies green. Howev- These landmarks of her politics of style transport a Western mission to green
er, by presenting various faces made up in different colors from blue to pink, up and thereby pacify the southern hemisphere. This supremacy could be set
Westwood breaks this style of “black skin—green mask” and deconstructs in also in the political context both of Agenda 21 and the United Nations fashion
opposite to Pieters’s ethnification and racialization. Nonetheless Westwood programs. Their Marrakesh-Process had started in 2003 with seven task forces
also reiterates figures of green colonization on her active resistance blog. Re- for sustainable consumption and production trying to implement eco-labeling
ferring to James Lovelock’s Gaia theory, Westwood terms the “the Human and sustainable lifestyles and education in Africa.27
Race” an “endangered species” and offers enlightenment, on how to “Get A
Life.”25 Clearly she’s tapping the self-help market.
From a closer perspective, her Climate Revolution Shirt reveals the sketch of a
map outlining a global order, where the northern European and Northern
American space is marked as green. Here the climate of the green Northern
space seems to be threatened by global warming, represented by a much
bigger South which is coded as red hot, explosive, and politically charged. This
also refers to James Lovelock, whose green world order is based on environ-
mentalist activism in favor of nuclear energy and with it on nucleonic metaphors:
Fig. 68
Honest By, website, 2012.
24 Bruno Pieters, “An African Princess of Get a Life: Vivienne Westwood (blog),
Style,” Honest By News, September 2013, January 20, 2012, http://www.activeresis-
http://www.honestby.com/en/news/153/ tance.co.uk/ar/?p=1354.
an-african-princess-of-style.html. 27 United Nations, “The Marrakech Process:
25 Vivienne Westwood, “The Human Race: Our Issues – Sustainable Lifestyles & Educa-
Survival,” 7 Wonders. Get a Life: Vivienne tion for Sustainable Consumption,” http://
Fig. 67 Westwood (blog), January 20, 2012, http:// esa.un.org/marrakechprocess/pdf/Issues_
Vivienne Westwood, Climate Revolution T-shirt, 2012. www.activeresistance.co.uk/ar/?p=1354. Sus_Lifestyles.pdf
26 James Lovelock, “Gaia Theory,” 7 Wonders.
Bruno Pieters and Vivienne Westwood are both players within the new supra- War on Terror after 2001.28 One could also speak of a third form of these ethical
national political and economic fashion networks that support ethical fashion regimes: trying to develop governance by an Ethical Fashion Initiative. The
and pursue the development of luxury markets. While Vivienne Westwood be- contemporary ethical discourse, Rancière summarizes: “is only the point of
came an actor for the United Nations Ethical Fashion Initiative, Pieters also honor given to the new forms of domination.”29 That human rights culture
shares governmental networks himself. Shortly after the opening of his label, runs on an unremitting Northern-ideological pressure, even when it is from
his website announced that he will participate at the Copenhagen Fashion the South, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivaks points out in Righting Wrongs.30 Con-
Summit in May 2012, where more than a thousand key stakeholders from the temporary ethical discourses based on the idea of human rights could act as
fashion industry, CSR experts, and EU politicians gathered, and also the new forces of hierarchization as they “may carry within itself the agenda of a kind
ethical fashion code had been introduced by the UN. of Social Darwinism—the fittest must shoulder the burden of righting the
wrongs of the unfit—and the possibility of an alibi.”31 According to Spivak,
ethical practices create hierarchical orders, where the subjects and dispensers
From Blue Helmets to Fashion—Policies of Governance of the work of righting wrongs “shared above a class line that to some extent
and unevenly cuts across race and the North-South divide.”32
Hosted by the International Trade Center (ITC)—a Joint Body Initiative of the
United Nations and the World Trade Organization located in Geneva—the UN The United Nations started to set up its ethical fashion program for countries
Ethical Fashion Initiative had been established in 2006. A leading article from that have suffered from civil conflicts such as Ivory Coast, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia,
2006 entitled “Why is the United Nations Working in Fashion?” outlines the and Mozambique. Aiming to bride “the work of development and the fashion
UN’s move from Blue Helmet interventions and humanitarian assistance to system” the initiative is mainly focused on bringing off a new niche market for
fashion as a political tool for governance and development aid. Following luxury fashion: “We connect the poorest of the poor to the markets of the
Rancière’s notions of the ethical turn of aesthetics and politics from 2006, he world via fashion.”33
describes the emergence of a new international landscape, where ethics has
established its reign chancing from its initial form of the humanitarian into Since then the new ethical regime of fashion has been built up to an economy
the form of “infinite justice against the axis of evil” that should legitimize the in Africa involving more than 7,000 artisans and establishing trading bases in
Haiti, Kenya/Nairobi and Ghana/Accra. They are mainly producing for Western
luxury labels including Venturini Fendi, Sass & Bide, Stella McCartney or
Hollywood’s Jeweler Chan Luu’s and three additional major brands: United
Arrows, Macy’s (USA), Manor (CH), and Myer (AU). In 2010 even a second UN
fashion initiative titled Fashion4Development (F4D) started under the patron-
age of Bengal supermodel Bibi Russell. On the one side, F4D gives start-up
assistance for African designers. On the other side, it educates unemployed
women in sewing and tailoring for the garment production on orders from
fashion outlets.34 As a political tool to push the UN’s F4D developmental targets,
a marketing website was launched in June 2012 for African designers: “a global
platform to advance the millennium development goals.”35 Niche markets and
28 Rancière, “Aesthetics and Politics,” 7. “Press Conference on ‘Fashion 4 Develop-

29 Ibid., 18. ment, A Global Platform to Advance the
30 Spivak, “Righting Wrongs,” 527. Millennium Development Goals,’” New
31 Ibid., 524.1 York, June 28, 2012, http://www.un.org/
32 Ibid. News/briefings/docs/2012/120628_Fashion.
33 Domeisen and de Susa, “Why Is the United doc.htm.
Nations Working in Fashion?” 35 Fashion4Development, Store Website,
Fig. 69 34 United Nations, Department of Public In- http://store.fashion-4-development.com.
Trading bases of the Ethical Fashion Initiative, 2014. formation, News and Media Division,
especially crafts, named as “the skills of the artisans”36 are rated high within
the UN initiatives as strategies for developing countries that are not set up to
compete with high-volume, low-cost manufacturing states.
Vivienne Westwood used the economic structures of the UN Ethical Fashion

Initiative when she produced her Ethical Fashion Africa Collection in Kenya.37
Westwood’s collection also worked as a flagship campaign for the Ethical
Fashion Initiative using the same political watchwords “We are not a charity”
or even calling upon women’s emancipation, with a nod to the “white wom-
an’s burden of the fittest”:38 “Our overarching goal is to empower women.”39
Simone Cipriani, the leader of the UN-Fashion initiative keeps the notion of
this ethical added-value in mind, when he speaks about a mutual benefit for
luxury designers: “We connect the most marginalized people to the top of
fashion’s value chain for mutual benefit.”40 As her part of this swap Westwood
receives the status of a do-gooder. “It’s quite incredible to think that we
might be able to save the world through fashion,” Westwood spread in press
interviews.41
Fig. 70
The same sentiments are echoed by artist Jürgen Teller who had photographed Jürgen Teller, Vivienne Westwood, Ethical Fashion
the Ethical Fashion Africa Collection in Kenya: “We had been part of some- Africa Collection, 2011.
thing good, not such fashion-idiots.”42 Following Spivak’s diagnosis at that point,
one could see connections between world governance and a self-styled inter-
national society.43 ITC’s executive director Patricia Francis even enhances That is what it means to be a subaltern.”46 The “subordinate subaltern,” Spivak
political interconnection between ethical fashion and governance on her level: writes, is as diversified as the “recipients of Human Rights activity.” 47
“The glossy world of fashion is far removed from blue helmets, food aid, or
peace treaties—but it is also part of the United Nations’ work to ensure the I use the word subordinate here because they are the recipients of human
world’s people have better, safer lives.”44 Spivak, however, gives her voice to rights bounty, which I see as ‘‘the burden of the fittest,’’ and which […] has
the concerns about global social movements:
36 International Trade Center, “Ethical Fashion helps-artisans-find-luxury-jobs.html?_r=0.
The leaders from the domestic “below”—for the subaltern an “above”— Initiative,” http://www.intracen.org/ex- 41 Olivia Bergin, “Vivienne Westwood’s Mis-
not realizing the historically established discontinuity between them- porters/ethical-fashion/the-initiative. sion to Save the World, One Handbag at a
selves and the subaltern, counsel self-help with great supervisory benev- 37 Vivienne Westwood, “This Is Not Charity, Time: The British Designer’s New Range of
This Is Work,” Vivienne Westwood Ethical Handbags Will Benefit the People of Kenya
olence. This is important to remember because the subalterns’ obvious Fashion Initiative Collection, January 28, Who Handmake Them,” Telegraph, August
inability to do so without sustained supervision is seen as proof of the 2011, http://www.viviennewestwood.co. 9, 2011, http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/
need for continued intervention.45 uk/w/news/ news-features/TMG8691362/Vivienne-
this-is-not-charity-this-is-work. Westwoods-mission-to-save-the-world-
38 Spivak, “Righting Wrongs,” 524. one-handbag-at-a-time.html.
With its slogan “This is not charity, this is work” the UN initiative aims for both: 39 International Trade Center and Ethical 42 Elisabeth Raether, “Es sieht gut aus in Af-
pacification strategies and a working business where—using Spivak’s term, Fashion Initiative, “We Use Fashion as a rika,” ZEITmagazin, no. 41, October 6,
Vehicle out of Poverty, at the Same Time 2011, http://www.zeit.de/2011/41/
“subaltern”—artisans and textile workers produce an ethical capital as an add-
Fulfilling Fashion’s Desire to Be More Fair,” KollektionWestwood.
ed value for Western consumers as well as for the global fashion industry. It is http://www.intracen.org/exporters/ 43 Spivak, “Righting Wrongs,” 550.
remarkable that “Righting Wrongs” uses textile metaphors to define the sub- ethical-fashion/. 44 Domeisen and de Susa, “Why Is the United
altern at the same time also emphasizing their removal from the “dominant 40 Suzy Menkes, “A Matchmaker Helps Arti- Nations Working in Fashion?”
sans Find Luxury Jobs,” New York Times, 45 Spivak, “Righting Wrongs,” 535.
loom” at a historical moment: “[…] see the same knit textile as a torn cultural November 14, 2012, http://www.nytimes. 46 Ibid., 544.
fabric in terms of its removal from the dominant loom in a historical moment. com/2012/11/15/fashion/a-matchmaker- 47 Ibid., 546.
the ambivalent structure of enabling violation that anyone of goodwill as- The New Spirit of Global Capitalism and the Fashioning of
sociates with the white man’s burden.48 Social Critique
Ethical Fashion with its value added chain of “ethical capital” as a new sort of In their essay “Le couturier et sa griffe” Pierre Bourdieu and Yvette Delsaut
capital produces new fields of producing social and global hierarchies. Under (1975) highlight that reorganizations in the field of fashion can be seen as an
the signs of a so-called mutual benefit a new “fashion’s value chain” emerged equivalent of restructurings in the field of power.56 The reorganization of the
fabricating a class of ethically better people and morally superior consum- hegemonies of labor division is accompanied by a social transformation, where
ers.49 Correspondingly, a definition of luxury highlighting the accumulation of altered groups shape their access to the profit and prestige of the bourgeoisie
ethical capital had been distributed by the networks of the Ethical Fashion Ini- through novel modalities. As debated above ethical fashion as well as ethical
tiative and its partners of the global luxury industry: today’s luxury should be consumption with its modes of producing ethical capital can be seen as part of
socially responsible and ethical; true luxury should be sustainable also under a new spirit of global capitalism characterized by ethical, political, and moral
economic viewpoints. This definition had been also disseminated at the Inter- values, which at the same time creates new forms of supremacy. Luc Boltanksi
national Herald Tribune 2012 Luxury conference entitled “Empowering African and Ève Chiapello had introduced the concept of The New Spirit of Capitalism
Artisans” in which actors of the Ethical Fashion Initiative such as Cipriani, as the respective ideology that justifies engagement in capitalism.57 They argue
Fendi, and Westwood had been invited as speakers under the patronage of in continuation of Max Weber, who defined ethos as the center of the “spirit of
fashion critic Suzy Menkes. At the same time the conference contributors capitalism” and as a set of ethical motivations, which although their purpose
also discussed Africa’s potential as an ultimate consumer of luxury goods.50 might at first sight be foreign to capitalist logic, inspire entrepreneurs to accu-
mulate capital.58 Weber stresses that rational modern capitalism just exists
Global capitalism is defined as profit making in global markets.51 In an effort though the ethical restriction of the legitimate forms of monetary acquisition.59
to accumulate ethical capital, contemporary global luxury fashion brands de- Concepts of Honest Fashion can be seen as part of such a “new spirit” an-
velop communication strategies not only for transparency and traceability, but chored in: a social and artistic critique on the obscurity of financial capitalism
also presenting themselves as do-gooders giving development aid and charity. after its 2007−08 crisis and in reference to class-specific values of earlier capi-
Also, Honest By donates twenty percent of its profit to humanitarian aid proj- talist stages of nineteenth-century liberalism.
ects. From a historical perspective, these practices of ethical fashion stand
both in the colonial tradition of White Charity and in a history of industrialization In 1904 Georg Simmel had already formatted an analogy of fashion and honor
in which textile labor had been a social instrument of gender and class dis- for the modern age by underscoring the class-formative function of both:
tinction. Currently these practices of a hierarchical structuring are redefined “Fashion [...] is a product of class distinction and operates like a number of
and adapted by the neoliberal global economy under the signs of ecology, other forms, honor especially, the double function of which consists in revolving
social justice, and ethical consumption. At the same time, this is historically
connected to class-specific gestures of doing good and welfare practices of 48 Ibid., 544. Neocolonialism. Oxford Literary Review 13
early stages of modern, Western-liberalist capitalism in which women in need 49 Menkes, “Matchmaker Helps Artisans.” (1991): 220–51, online at hhtp://www.
had been taught and employed for textile workshops and housework. Thus 50 International Herald Tribune, “The Prom- roberttjcyoung.com (2007), 2.
ise of Africa. The Power of the Mediterra- 56 Pierre Bourdieu and Ivette Delsaut, “Le
the UN Ethical Fashion Initiative calls upon “female empowerment” and em- nean,” Luxury Conference Rome, Novem- couturier et sa griffe: Contribution à une
phasizes that their employees live in “slums” and “rural areas.”52 The simple ber 15–16, 2012, http://www. théorie de la magie,” Actes de la recher-
economic act of remunerating people acceptably for their labor is transformed ihtconferences.com/luxury-2012/press- che en sciences sociales, no.1 (January
coverage.aspx. 1975): 736.
into a performative ethical act of class hierarchy. Therefore Simone Cipriani, 51 Patrik Aspers, “A Note on Global Capital- 57 Luc Boltanksi and Ève Chiapello, The New
Head of the United Fashion Initiative, claims to create a new business model: ism,” in Global Capitalism: The Road Spirit of Capitalism (London: Verso,
“a system to organize employment and therefore give dignity to people. Another Ahead, ed. Bharti Thakar. (Hyderabad: Ic- 2005), 9.
fai University Press, 2008), 13. 58 Ibid., 8.
kind of fashion is possible, bringing social and environmental sensibility.”53
52 International Trade Center and Ethical 59 Gabriele Wagner and Philipp Hessinger,
Global capitalism is still in an early stage, states sociologist Patrik Aspers, “and Fashion Initiative 2013. “Max Webers Protestantismus: These und
in the same way as capitalism caused social commodities in the West during 53 Menkes, “Matchmaker Helps Artisans.” der neue Geist des Kapitalismus,” in Ein
its early phases, global capitalism does in the developing world.”54 In parallel 54 Aspers, “Note on Global Capitalism,” 13. neuer Geist des Kapitalismus? Paradoxien
55 Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, “Neocolonial- und Ambivalenzen der Netzwerkökonomie,
the idea of a Third World itself is part of a neocolonial process as neocolonialism and the Secret Agent of Knowledge: ed. Gabriele Wagner and Philipp Hessinger
ism was basically defined by economics rather than by territory or culture.55 An interview with Robert J.C. Young,” in (Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 2008), 9−40.
within a given circle.”60 Relating to Simmel, honor is originally a “class standard” Ethical Fashion definitely signifies a shift towards a new spirit of capitalism,
(Standesehre) and with that a successful stabilizer of corporate formations where global capitalism aims to integrate social critique into its system. As
of modernity that aims for cohesion against other circles or states.61 Also the Boltanski and Chiapello outlined, capitalism cannot be generated exclusively
transference of social duty in individual welfare is according to Simmel a criterion out of its own resources and needs an orientation toward the common good,
that constitutes honor, and makes it an extremely successful stabilizer of as it requests reasons for committed engagement.72 Ethical fashion is a product
estate-based societies controlling and standardizing its corporate formations. of a dialectics operation, where global capitalism needs and uses the opponents
Honor supports respect and does stabilize the regularity and fostering within of globalization to generate its ethos: “As a result, it needs its enemies, people
the life processes of a specific class, Simmel argues: whom it outrages and who are opposed to it, to find the moral supports it
lacks and to incorporate mechanisms of justice whose relevance it would other-
… [H]onor owes his character, and above all its moral rights, or the fact that wise have no reason to acknowledge.”73
the individual in his personal honor at the same time represents and main-
tains that of his social circle and his class. These moral rights, however, are But during the last decades there has also been built up analogousness between
frequently considered unjust by those without the pale. Thus fashion on the the mobility of new protest movements and capitalist structures, so that
one hand signifies union with those in the same class, the uniformity of a many NGOs took root where traditional humanitarian organizations had lost
circle characterized by it, and uno actu, the exclusion of all other groups.62 ground.74 Ethical fashion mirrors this dialectic and ambivalently incorporates
social critique in contemporary discourses of global capitalism.75 In the
Generating the prestige and the profit of its ethical capital, Honest Fashion course of this, the networks in which fashion producers such as consumers
interweaves both class distinctive and cohesive strategies of honor and fashion and even their critics are involved become a presentation surface where new
and thereby initiates a symbolic transubstantiation.63 Ethical consumers paying economic power relations as well as a new spirit of capitalism is negotiated.
for sustainable materials, fair wages and charity, show off a more or less luxu- Fashion designers such as Vivienne Westwood or Bruno Pieters are part of
rious distance from economic needs. Hence the ostentation of a negative this new spirit of global capitalism focusing on the fashioning of social critique
economical conditionality redefines economic power structures and its related by teaching benevolence as well as cultural relativism and with it cultural
class-specific habitus.64 Even ethics consultants and fashion academics like absolutism at its best. What is formulated as a conversion of political debates
Sue Thomas point out the riving social structures underlying ethical fashion over methods is at the same time part of the sensorium of a green economics,
as a term with its imposed correctness: “A polarizing disjuncture exists between which meets the “crisis” with the design of “trust in trust,” and not least also
ethical and unethical clothing, and therefore it can be a precarious pedestal in its “ethical regime” of global governance.
when clothing is described as ethical.”65 Following Rancière’s concept of the
“ethical regime” the pedagogical role of the arts lies in the assimilation of
people to the modes of existence. Under the perspective of the “ethical regime”
art operates as a normative entity that introduces individuals into an authoritarian 60 Georg Simmel, “Fashion,” International overlaps with Bourdieu’s habitus model
structure of class hierarchies.66 As stylization of life, Ethical Fashion had become Quarterly no. 10 (1904): 133; http://www. that conceptualizes the habitus as an orga-
part of the habitus of socially conscious, upwardly-mobile people performing modetheorie.de/fileadmin/Texte/s/Simmel- nizing practice for the internalization and
Fashion_1904.pdf. production of hierarchical class division.
new lifestyles of health and sustainability: as an ethos of involvement, respon- 61 Georg Simmel, “The Persistence of Social Bourdieu, Die feinen Unterschiede, 278.
sibility, and social justice.67 Groups: I,” American Journal of Sociology, 67 Bourdieu, Die feinen Unterschiede, 102;
no. 3 (1897): 681; http://www.brocku.ca/ Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative
MeadProject/Simmel/Simmel_1897a.html. Class: And How It’s Transforming Work,
The spirit of capitalism itself is characterized by historically alterable patterns of 62 Simmel, “Fashion,” 134. Leisure, Community and Everyday Life
values, which mainly result from a dynamic relationship between capitalism 63 Bourdieu and Delsault, “Couturier,” 29. (New York: Perseus Book Group, 2002).
and critique.68 Boltanski and Chiapello point out two forms of critique leading 64 Pierre Bourdieu, Die feinen Unterschiede: 68 Boltanski and Chiapello, New Spirit of
Kritik der gesellschaftlichen Urteilskraft, Capitalism, 4.
historically back to the nineteenth century: “the artistic critique, which elaborates
trans. Bernd Schwibs and Achim Russer 69 Ibid., 346.
demands for liberation and authenticity, and the social critique, which denounces (Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1992), 102. Dis- 70 Ibid., 28.
poverty and exploitation.”69 Critique has got the role of a motor in changes of tinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment 71 Ibid., 346.
the spirit of capitalism.70 While themes from the artistic critique were integrat- of Taste, trans. Richard Nice (Cambridge, 72 Ibid., 28.
MA: Harvard University Press, 1984). 73 Ibid.
ed into the discourse of capitalism and therefore have been partially satisfied 65 Thomas, “Fashioning an Eco-Lexicon,” 533. 74 Ibid., 389.
during the 1990s, we see a revival of social critique in the twenty-first century.71 66 Rancière’s concept of the “ethical regime” 75 Ibid., 346.
224 On the Ethical Turn in Fashion 225
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Birgit Haehnel 229
“Performing
Whiteness in Fashion
This text focuses on performances of whiteness as an aesthetic politics in
fashion, art, and visual culture. How can the semantic of white clothes in
Whiteness”
fashion be understood as a visual signal of whiteness and which strategies
are used to subvert this ethnicized representations of dominant culture? First
of all I like to emphasize that in general, white textiles do not have this sym-
bolic meaning, but the discursive and institutional contextualization is re-
sponsible for the aesthetic production of whiteness by white dresses. For
Revisioning
this reason it is necessary to have a closer look not only at the dresses’ visual
representations but also at the textual framing. As a reaction to the constan-
cy of structural racism in spite of public and political consciousness-raising
actions, the Critical Whiteness Studies, or Kritische Weißseinsforschung in
White Textiles in
German-speaking countries, puts weight on the construction of the domi-
nant culture in a process of becoming white as an ethnic performance and
political attribution.1
Referring to Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, who analyzes the permanent staging
Visual Culture
of whiteness in Hollywood films, I would like to speak of “performing white-
ness.” In respect to Judith Butler, this phrase points to the realization of
whiteness as an ongoing process of creating meaning which fixes mental im-
ages and stereotypes in the collective memory. Recognizing the performative
character of becoming white would help to change dominant power
Birgit Haehnel relations.2
Critical analysis of classical Hollywood cinema had already brought into mind
that whiteness is a simulacrum without a beginning. The failed search for a
pure white “race,” which was shown to not exist, generates the simulacrum
and, through myriad ways and means, still allows the vision to become real.
Special cinematic technologies such as light exposures, measurement of the
degree of light reflection on the skin, and white makeup as a concept of
whitefacing were developed in order to whiten performers and actresses who
were thought to be never white enough. I will show how white clothes are
1 See also Maureen Maisha Eggers et al., und Antisemitismus in der weißen Mehr-
Mythen, Masken und Subjekte: Kritische heits-gesellschaft (Vienna: IG Bildende
Weißseinsforschung in Deutschland Kunst, 2005); Eske Wollrad, “Getilgtes
(Münster: Unrast-Verlag, 2005); Gabriele Wissen, überschriebene Spuren: Weiße
Dietze et al., Weiß—Weißsein—Whiteness: Subjektivierungen und antirassistische
Kritische Studien zu Gender und Rassis- Bildungsarbeit,” in Rassismus bildet, ed.
mus (Frankfurt/Main: Lang, 2006); Ruth Anne Broden and Paul Mecheril, 141–62
Frankenberg, White Women—Race Mat- (Bielefeld: Transcript, 2010).
ter:. The Social Construction of Whiteness 2 Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, Performing
(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Whiteness: Postmodern Re/Constructions
Press, 1993); Rosa Reitsamer and Jo in the Cinema (New York: State University
Schmeiser, Born to Be White: Rassismus of New York Press, 2003).
230 “Performing Whiteness” Birgit Haehnel 231
used in visual media for similar reasons.3 I like to investigate, in which context beginning of the twentieth century, advertising that employed images of
the semantics of white dresses become markers of whiteness in fashion poli- women in white dresses became popular, especially in the context of an exotic
tics. Forster’s analytical term “performing whiteness” is very useful for analyz- setting. The noblesse of European ladies in white garments symbolized “notions
ing the theatrical presentations within the fashion industry. Furthermore, it is of purity in the fragrance given off by the snow white linen of a clean house-
an apt measure to determine when modish styles transform into bizarre rep- hold, an amalgam that reached into the colonies. The white dress ennobles
resentations of whiteness, exposing the perfidious masquerade as a fake. Art every social setting overseas and thus draws a clear line between rich and poor,
is particularly suited, in a postcolonial context, for exposing visual structures between European and indigenous cultures.”5
of dominant culture in a critical way. For this reason, the following introduces
examples that create a parody of whiteness or which, by intervening into the During the Weimar Republic, fashion- and self-conscious women in white suits
performance of whiteness, even overcome the marker of racial dominance. symbolized the Modern Age, usually in combination with the representation
of new technologies such as automobiles and modern architecture. “Liberated
from all the frills, this clothing represents most radically the reformist goals of
Ladies in White Costumes dynamism and progress, based on a logical rational design of the world.”6
This rationalism of the world was also attributed to European culture to define
Reinventions of white supremacy through photos are used playfully in fashion. its superior civilization against wilderness and barbarism in other continents.
From time to time, lifestyle magazines pick up the semantic of the European
Grand Dame dressed in white, such as the Vogue Magazine in 1990, showing
photos of the model Christy in Africa. German National Costumes as After-Images
With the headline “Tropical Whites,” it refers to European colonial fantasies. In 1990 the fashion journal Elle represented diverse collections with descrip-
With respect to Roland Barthes’s “Written Clothing,” text and pictures produce tions of different ethnical stereotypes. Interestingly, Germany is presented as
a special fashion context which allusively defines white clothes belonging to a multicultural nation with the headline Deutschland bunt—wir und die Aus-
the former colonial oppressors and therefore as markers of whiteness.4 At the länder (Germany multicolored—we and the foreigners). The well-meant inten-
tion turns immigration and conflict-ridden diversity in Germany positive by
using colorful clothing. But it simultaneously evokes a latent mental image of
a monochrome or less colorful dress code for Germany without foreigners.
Fifteen years later, multiculturalism re-emerges. In 2005 the fashion journal

Petra published an article about the history of German fashion with the collection
3 See Eva Warth, “Die Inszenierung von Woman between Fashionable Change and
Unsichtbarkeit: Zur Konstruktion weißer Constancy,” in Anziehen – Transkulturelle
Identität im Film,” in Projektionen: Rassis- Moden // Dressed up – Transcultural Fashion.
mus und Sexismus in der Visuellen Kultur, Querformat. Zeitgenössisches, Kunst, Pop-
ed. Birgit Haehnel et al. (Marburg: Jonas ulärkultur 6, 2013 (Bielefeld: Transcript,
Verlag 1997), 125-30. Barbara Schrödel, 2014), 117-22.
“Strahlendweiße Wäsche, weibliche Un- 6 Ibid., 121. For the photo montages of mod-
schuld, das Wirtschaftswunder und der ern-styled women and technological inno-
Tod: Weibliches Sterben in einem vations, see also Christiane Keim, “Anord-
deutschsprachigen Spielfilm der 1950er nungen und Gegenüberstellungen:
Jahre,” in Das letzte Hemd: Zur Konstruk- Weiblichkeit und Mode im medialen Diskurs
tion von Tod und Geschlecht in der mate- der Architekturavantgarde,” in Erblätterte
riellen und visuellen Kultur, ed. Karen Ell- Identitäten: Mode—Kunst—Zeitschrift,
wanger (Bielefeld: Transcript, 2010), Stadthaus Ulm, ed. Katharina Ahr, Susanne
193-214. Holschbach, and Antje Krause-Wahl (Mar-
Fig. 71 4 Roland Barthes, Die Sprache der Mode burg: Jonas Verlag, 2006), 81–88 exhibi-
Hans Feurer, “Tropical whites”—Christy in Africa, (Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1985), 13–27. tion catalogue.
American Vogue, May 1990. 5 Birgit Haehnel, “Lady in White: A Type of
in order to gain a positive national image. Besides party politics, this event
was sponsored by the economy only. The call for the individual to improve
Germany is entirely in line with the neoliberal ideology of “anything goes.”11
Gronbach’s “confession design” corresponds with the need for a new national
feeling after German reunification in 1989. What seems to be at first hand
apolitical was soon defined as positiv politisch engagiert (positively politically
involved).12 The positive image of a peaceful and at the same time highly ef-
ficiency-driven new Germany is ideally reflected in Gronbach’s corporate
identity and her product lines.13 The gloomy burden of history and the dullness
of actual right-wing symbols were highlighted by white clothes. Textual dis-
course charges the stylish laxity of patriotism with meaning: current Germano-
mania is coupled with experienced tolerance for foreigners gained by a suc-
cessful coming to terms with the past. It is declared that this mentality is
hardly found in other countries and therefore could represent the whole
nation.14
Fig. 72
Eva Gronbach collection, mutter erde While Barthes focuses on the “language of fashion,” I would like to emphasize
vater land, 2003. additionally the “represented clothing.”15 In visual history, as I have mentioned
above, there still exists a discourse about white clothes underlining national
“mutter erde vater land” (mother earth father land) of the designer Eva Gronbach and colonial interests. In contrast to the direct language, pictures are less
on top of the development.7 clear and more complex. Nevertheless, they provoke visual analogies—coming
into the mind as after-images. In cultural production, the effect is used as a
Two models dressed in white are posing in front of a white curtain. Against metaphor to describe the after effect of pictures over history. Thus, using
this blended setting the colors of the belt become more obvious. The accom- white dresses in a German national context is not by chance since pictures of
panying text addresses them as accessoires in the German national colors and the past are still effective in the present as after-images.16
identifies the white emblem on the breast of the foregrounded woman as the
national heraldic animal. The author of the fashion article, Christa Thelen, in- 7 Cf. Christa Thelen, “Der neue Höhenflug 13 See Petra Engelke, “Eva Gronbach: Die
der deutschen Mode: Schwarz-Rot-Gold,” Köpfe zu erreichen ist ein großes Gefühl,”
strumentalized national symbols on white dresses, appealing to a supposed
Petra (January 2005): 46–49. interview at Cafe Hallmackenreuther on
German team spirit. In the place of multicolored fashion for a hybrid nation, 8 See Barthes, Die Sprache der Mode. May 19, 2004 in Cologne, Galore 3 (2004):
now the white textile with national symbols unifies diversity into one people. 9 Ina Soetebeer, “Mode in Schwarze-Rot- 140–45; http://www.evagronbach.com/
Instead of creating a playful and sneering fashion design, national symbols Gold,” Deutsche Welle, March 31, 2009, pdf/galore.pdf.
http://www.dw.de/. 14 See Thelen, “Der neue Höhenflug der
are reloaded with new content by the iconic and written form of clothing, to mode-in-schwarz-rot-gold/a-4133612. deutschen Mode,” 49; “Evas Liebe zu
use Roland Barthes’ expressions.8 In 2001 Gronbach had already provoked 10 See “Kampagne: Wir in Deutschland,” FAZ. Schwarz-Rot-Gold,” Süddeutsche Zeitung,
controversy and discussions in the same direction with her statement, Liebes- net, September 24, 2005, http://www.faz. November 17–18, 2001, 6.
net/aktuell/wirtschaft/netzwirtschaft/ 15 Barthes, Die Sprache der Mode.
erklärung an Deutschland (Declarations of love to Germany).9 kampagne-wir-in-deutschland-1256557. 16 See Peter Friese, After Images: Kunst als
html. soziales Gedächtnis, Neues Museum Wes-
What seems at first like a provocation soon fits very well into the public’s 11 Ibid. erburg Bremen (Frankfurt/Main: Revolver,
12 See Ingrid Loschek, “Vielseitig und poli- 2004), exhibition catalogue; Viktoria
general mood, which emerged in the forefront of the FIFA World Cup 2006.
tisch engagiert – Eva Gronbach und ihre Schmidt-Linsenhoff, “On and beyond the
Worn by the dark-skinned model, the combination of white trousers, shirt, Kollektion,” Goethe-Institut e. V. Online- Color Line: Afterimages of Old and New
and a black-red-gold belt turns inevitably to a political plea for Germany, Redaktion, October 2006 / January 2009, Slavery in Contemporary Art since 1990,”
which was advertised by a major publicity campaign in advance of the World http://www.goethe.de/kue/des/prj/mod/ in Slavery in Art and Literature: Approach-
dsg/abc/de4084364.htm; “Eva Gronbach es to Trauma, Memory, and Visuality, ed.
Cup 2006. Du bist Deutschland10 (You are Germany) emphasizes the diversity im Lifestyle Magazine iQ,” May 7, 2003, Birgit Haehnel and Melanie Ulz (Berlin:
of the German population—in view of parentage, skin color, age, and gender— http://www.evagronbach.com/. Frank & Timme, 2010), 64f.
Gronbach’s archetypes become more obvious in contrast to a more critical welfare of the suntanned wellness body in the context of the life reform
approach made by the artist Anselm Kiefer in 1990. movement. This aesthetical setting was used in the context of Nazi propaganda
in order to aryanize white body images. For example, on a calendar sheet of
Kiefer’s piece Lilith on the Red Sea is very well known for its aesthetic command family advertisement in 1938, the designer Ludwig Hohlwein confirms the racial
of German memory. In the recent context of the work, the use of white clothing purity of the adults by using white clothes.
is interesting. On a monumental canvas, the artist attached wavelike curved
sheets of lead on which ash-covered garments with tufts of black hair were As a second skin, it carries the values of civilizational superiority, which are
scattered in smaller and larger sizes. The clothes, which must have been white closely connected with the phantasm of a “white” skin in order to underline
once, now became dirty, drifting without bodies over the leaden heaviness of aryan values. The suntanned bodies are ennobled by the blending white tex-
tiles as pure-bred, whereby a dominant culture of whiteness in the context of
a German nation is performed.18
Returning to Kiefer’s work, the counter image of white garments could be un-
derstood as a metaphorical attribution to Jews who once thought themselves
to be Germans and were very brutally disappointed. The white dresses on
Kiefer’s panel metaphorically point to the assimilation of the Jews into the
German nation, or in other words, to their becoming German. In this context
white textiles stands for German-ness. Against this background the actual
performance of German nationalism in bleaching white clothing and national
symbols in fashion journals makes one suspicious, even if it is not the same
context. As after-images the fashion photos of Gronbach’s collection operate
within a global market earthed in Deutscher Heimat re-inventing white clothes
in a spectacular way of whitewashing.19 The confession belongs to the eco-
nomic ideology of increasing profit, which is enforced by sensation. National
symbols could be easily instrumentalized by it. The focus on a relaxed han-
dling of these symbols propagates a casual lifestyle for those who can effort
it, gained by hard labor. In the image of the “self-made man” or the “self-made
woman,” economic ideology weakens intellectual, particularly critical, expert
knowledge in order to convert it into a market strategy and profit from its im-
plementation. But this actually has nothing to do with either the acceptance
of immigrants in Germany or a national identity as a multicultural, migration
society.
Fig. 73
Anselm Kiefer, Lilith on the Red Sea (detail), 1990.
the greyish sea. They are traces of dead female bodies, adults, and children.
Kiefer allegorized the history of the Jews’ persecution and murder during fas-
cism in the female figures of Lilith and her daughters. Furthermore, their ab-
sence points to the loss of the annihilated Jewish culture and what this means
17 See Lily Fürstenow-Khositashvili, “Anselm 18 Cf. Birgit Haehnel, “Weiße Hemden—Reine
to German culture. The ash-covered clothes carry the traumatic memory of Kiefer—Myth versus History” (PhD diss., Körper: Zwischen Gesundheitskult und Ras-
Nazi Germany’s terror—the Shoah.17 Humboldt-Universität Berlin, 2011), 97–98, senwahn,” in Do It with Others: Postkoloniale
113–15, http://edoc.hu-berlin.de/docviews/ Perspektiven und Alternativen in Mode,
abstract.php?id=39789; Doreet LeVitté- Kunst und Textil (Weinheim: Belz-Verlag,
This picture also evokes ideas of white garments before pollution. In the Harten, Anselm Kiefer Lilith (New York: in preparation).
twentieth century, bleaching white tricots and shirts underlined the health and Marian Goodman Gallery, 1990). 19 See Engelke, “Eva Gronbach.”
Subversions of Whitening Dress Codes

The change of perception from white standardization to the parody of white-
ness through clothing is imprinted in one of Max Abadian’s photos. In 2009
he did photo shoots with US pop singer Lady Gaga for the fashion magazine
944.20 As a portrait it speaks to the many self-inventions of Lady Gaga to a
pop diva controlled by media.21 There is no pure identity, it has already van-
ished in a sequence of simulacrums in media spectacle. Interesting enough,
in 2011 it was the cover of the journal Texte zur Kunst where the artificiality of
the female image dressed in white attracts the eye. The porcelain complexion
with lightly rouged cheeks, the pale lips und reddish blond hairs with rough,
teased curls of a wig play with issues of covering and uncovering. A capri-
cious hat with white laces, feathers, and pearls covers half of the flirting face
like a mask. Indications of this are the black inkings, which corresponds to
the darkly made up eyes and strongly defined eyelashes. Through the embroi-
dered gauze of the white outfit, the skin of the arms appears only partly. The
half-figure portrait hides the lower part of the body. The forward-pushing
pose is taken back by her left arm crossed over her breast. In this change be-
Fig. 75 tween showing and hiding, the question arises: Is there still someone behind
Gerhard Keil, Turner, 1939. the masquerade?
Fig. 76
Gerhard Keil, Die Turnerinnen, 1939. The mask-like appearance of the woman reminds one of Cindy Sherman’s early
photographs from the 1970s. The Untitled Film Stills, for example, deconstruct
the creation of Euro-American femininity in media.22 Sherman’s exaggerated
restagings of white female stereotypes aim to expose voyeurism. But at the
same time the models refuse to be looked at, never entirely showing them-
selves. In this process, conventional female images transform into parody. A
similar aesthetic belongs to the art journal’s cover image. Dressing in white
brings to mind several mental images: marriage dresses, seductive ladies in
white robes of noble European societies, patriarchal fantasies of female purity
and virginity. The eccentric white costume as well as the doll-like appearance
of the female model on the art journal’s cover are performing the image con-
struction of the white diva, while they simultaneously also parody these images
by revealing their aesthetic structures.
20 See Max Abadian, “Photos of Lady Gaga New York Times, March 28, 2010, http://
2009,” http://www.944.com/944/ladyga- nymag.com/arts/popmusic/
ga/; http://gagallery.org/thumbnails. features/65127.
php?album=470. 22 See Gabriele Schor, Cindy Sherman: The
21 See Vanessa Grigoriadis, “Growing Up Early Works: Catalogue Raisonne, 1975–
Gaga: The Self-Invented, Manufactured, 1977 (Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2012), exhi-
Fig. 74 Accidental, Totally On-Purpose New York bition catalogue.
Ludwig Hohlwein, Neues Volk, 1938. Creation of the World’s Biggest Pop Star,”
The work is part of the catalogue ZABAT,where Sulter addresses representation

of Black women in Western culture in studio portraits of creative Black women,
each representing one of the nine muses of classical antiquity.25 In the recent
image the woman artist Della Street performs Terpsichore—the muse of
dance. She created the costume as part of a dance performance and installa-
tion called The Quizzing Glass. It is about the relationship between women
within the power hierarchy of the mistress and the slave. The piece of pyrite
in the hand of Terpsichore, the so-called “fool’s gold,” points to foolish material
values of white European societies which lead to the “gold rush” and slavery
work. But the photo does not show a mere change of roles from white and
Black women. Using visual citations Sulter emphasizes the racist and sexist
implications of Black women’s representations in art history and visual culture.
Many European ladies were portrayed in white robes referring to the white-
ness of antiquity which functions as the ground of European civilization. Ideal
female beauty was connected with the wealth of ownership of white linen and
silk and contrasted with the uncivilized non-owners of these. These pictures,
which have been reproduced so many times, help to construct the difference
between Europe as superior in a process of othering in view of the occupation
of and commercial trading in the colonies. Around 1800, the values and norms
Fig. 77 produced in art were transferred into daily life via the gauzy muslin dresses of
Max Abadian, Lady Gaga, 2011. the Empire style.26
Under the photo a word written in white letters pronounced with an exclamation The wig and particularly the lace-trimmed silk gown in Sulter’s portrait em-
mark guides the interpretation process: Feminism is defined as an overdrawn phasize through their bright white color against the dark background the
form of white femininity like the photo above. The artificial appearance of the beauty of the dark skin. In the catalogue ZABAT, the Terpsichore image is un-
single woman formulates a critique of an aesthetical level, which recalls the derlined by poetical lines that refer to former paintings of black court ser-
strong women of color’s protests of the racism of white feminists based on vants. Following Angela Rosenthal the figurations were used in order to lighten
their privileged positions.23 the skin of white ladies’ portraits. That’s why she interprets this aesthetical
practice by using the words of Valerie Amos and Parmar Pratibha as an exam-
The white lady’s parody in Max Abadian’s photo undercut the order of the reg- ple of “the fundamental way in which white women have benefitted from the
imen of white gazes, identifying not only femininity as a masquerade but also oppression of Black people.”27
the ethnicizing of whiteness. It gives an ironic comment on ethnocentrism
and the racializing gaze within a white feminism.24 Looking at it more closely, 23 See Dagmar Schulze, “Unterschiede 25 See Maud Sulter, ZABAT: Poetics of a Family
something appears awkwardly shaped—the female figure is not as pleasing as zwischen Frauen: Ein kritischer Blick auf Tree (Hebden Bridge: Uraban Fox Press, 1989).
the photo models in fashion journals. Perhaps this photo will offer a perspective den Umgang mit ‘den Anderen’ in der 26 See Angela Rosenthal, “Calliopes Reisen:
feministischen Forschung weißer Frauen,” Maud Sulters politische Collgagen,” in
for a future feminism: No female power in baggy trousers, nor haute-couture Beiträge zur feministischen Theorie und Projektionen: Rassismus und Sexismus in
styled postfeminism—instead the picture could be understood as a critical Praxis 27 (1990): 45; Stanley M. James and der Visuellen Kultur, ed. Birgit Haehnel et
statement to recognize visual structures of performing whiteness including Abena P.A. Busia, ed., Theorizing Black al. (Marburg: Jonas Verlag, 1997), 243–61;
Feminism (London: Routledge, 1993). Viktoria Schmidt-Linsenhoff, Ästhetik der
the gaze, which constitutes fashion politics, too.
24 See Viktoria Schmidt-Linsenhoff, “Weiße Differenz: Postkoloniale Perspektiven vom
Blicke: Bild- und Textlektüren zu Ge- 16. Bis 21. Jahrhundert, vol. 1 (Marburg: Jo-
The last example I wish to introduce is about the empowerment of a Black schlechtermythen des Kolonialismus,” in nas Verlag, 2010), 158–81.
women artist through re-interpreting the white robe. In 1989 Maud Sulter, born Weiße Blicke: Geschlechtermythen des 27 Valerie Amos and Pratibha Parmar, “Chal-
Kolonialismus, ed. Viktoria Schmidt- lenging Imperial Feminism,” Feminist Re-
in Scotland, created the image of a dark-skinned woman dressed in white as a Linsenhoff, Karl Hölz, and Herbert Uerlings view 17 (1984): 5; see also Rosenthal,
direct response to the lack of positive images of Black women in the public. (Marburg: Jonas-Verlag, 2004), 8–18. “Maud Sulters politische Collagen,” 247.
Instead of the white female body, Sulter uses white tools to warm up the dark
skin color of the woman in the portrait. The white robe refers to the wealth of
Western colonialism based on the transatlantic slave trade. The painted tex-
tile material carries European values of pureness, nobleness and ideal female
beauty. The brilliant white clay addresses the European longing to become
whiter than white. But with Della Street in a white robe of the eighteenth cen-
tury Sulter creates an afterimage of the visual history of slavery. She refers to
and transforms the art-historical archetypes into a portrait of a well-known
Black woman. Thus, she intervenes in dominant processes of constructing
public memory on an aesthetic level, which was dominated by white looks
with all its denial of a problematic or even traumatic past. Maud Sulter and
Della Street’s intentions were to decolonize the aesthetic structure of repre-
senting the Black female body. The photo refuses a discriminating white look
on the lady and empowers the critical black look on the strong personality of
Della Street.
The subversiveness lies in the interpictorial structure between this photo and
the standard. Within this structure the white textile play an important part,
because it refers to the ideology of classicism but put a different weight on its
meaning. The white garment on the dark brown female body is not the ro-
manticized counterpart of white femininity, but opens the concept of classi-
cism for transcultural issues.28
To conclude, the aesthetic politics of fashion working on the meaning of the

white dress is not as much untroubled as it seems to be. Often texts and im-
ages in fashion journals re-establish in an apparently playful way national and
colonial contexts but nevertheless transport racializing values of whiteness at
the same time. Critical interventions through art and photography had lead to
new concepts of perceiving white clothing, but still refer to the previous pic-
tures. While stylistic interventions in fashion such as Gronbach’s in Petra and
Christy’s in Vogue recur on former values of colonialism and nationalism to in-
strumentalize them for economic reasons, the more critical photographic
staging of strong Black women’s subjectivity or the construction of white
womanhood break out of the dominant visual structure. The liberation from
discriminating stereotypes by appropriation and transformation intervenes in
the genealogy of hegemonic picture discourse. The aesthetic superscription
constructs afterimages, which as postcolonial images nevertheless transport
ideologies of former times, but disrupts the power-keeping process by trans- Fig. 78
forming them at the same time. The performance in Sulter’s photo lets go of Maud Sulter, Terpsichore (from the ZABAT series), 1989.
the black and white symbolism. Because it focuses on interpictorial struc-
tures in a complex and very critical way, they are going to subvert them and
give way for new politics in fashion.
28 See Schmidt-Linsenhoff, Ästhetik der Dif-
ferenz, 171.
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246 Image Credits 247
Image Credits Aesthetic Economies

It’s All About the Image: The Cooperation
Fig. 10
Bernadette Corporation, Get Rid of Yourself,
between Fashion Industry and Celebrities 2003, videostill, screenshot by the author.
Endora Comer-Arldt (PP. 53–55) Courtesy of artists and Greene Naftali, New
Figs. 1–2 York.
Marie-Laure Djelic and Antti Ainamo, “The Co- Fig. 11
evolution of New Organizational Forms in the Krzysztof Herholdt, Black Block White Riot,
Fashion Industry. A Historical and Compara- 2010, fashion pictorial, Fiasco Magazine, Sep-
tive Study of France, Italy and the United tember 2010. Courtesy of the artist and Fiasco
States.” Organization Science, 1999: 631. Magazine.
Fig. 3 Fig. 12
Marie-Laure Djelic and Antti Ainamo, “The Co- David Vasiljevic, Levi’s ad campaign, 2008.
evolution of New Organizational Forms in the Photo: © the artist and Levi Strauss & Co.
Fashion Industry. A Historical and Comparative Screenshot by the author. Accessed March 1,
Study of France, Italy and the United States.” 2014. http://models.com/work/levis-levis-fw-08.
Organization Science, 1999: 633. Fig. 13
Bernadette Corporation, The Complete Poem,
Andy’s Heritage: Collaborations between Fashion, 2009, installation view at Greene Naftali.
Art, and Louis Vuitton Courtesy of the artists and Greene Naftali,
Monica Titton (P. 66) New York.
Fig. 4 Fig. 14
Takashi Murakami, Eye Love SUPERFLAT White, Bernadette Corporation, Ars Nova, 2009, ink-
2003, acrylic on canvas mounted on board, jet print, 55.9 x 43.2 cm. Courtesy of the art-
120 x 120 x 5 cm. Gift of Takashi Murakami to ists and Greene Naftali, New York.
the Louis Vuitton Collection. Courtesy of Takashi Fig. 15
Murakami and KaiKai Kiki Co., Ltd., © 2003 Richard Avedon, portrait of Andy Warhol and
Takashi Murakami/KaiKai Kiki Co., Ltd. members of the Factory: Gerard Malanga,
poet; Viva, actress; Paul
Life Which Writes Itself: Retrospecting Art, Fashion, Morrissey, director; Taylor Mead, actor; Brigid
and Photography in Bernadette Corporation Polk, actress; Joe Dallesandro, actor; Andy
Ilka Becker (PP. 84–91, 93) Warhol, artist, New York, October 9, 1969,
Fig. 5 Richard Avedon: Murals and Portraits, exhibi-
Bernadette Corporation, Made in USA Issue tion catalogue, Gagosian Gallery, New York
No. 1, Fall/Winter 1999–2000 collection, 1999, 2012. Courtesy of Gagosian Gallery/The Richard
magazine cover, 24.8 x 19.1 cm. Courtesy of Avedon Foundation.
the artists and Greene Naftali, New York. Fig. 16
Fig. 6 Steven Meisel, Kate Moss and Joe Dallesandro,
Bernadette Corporation, Made in USA Issue Calvin Klein ad campaign, 1995. Photo: Steven
No. 3, Spring/Fall 2001 collection, 2001, mag- Meisel. Courtesy of the artist, Calvin Klein.
azine cover, 26.7 x 20.3 cm. Courtesy of the
artists and Greene Naftali, New York. Production of Space
Fig. 7 It All Started with a Bicycle: Spring/Summer
Bernadette Corporation, Get Rid of Yourself, 2013
2003, videostill, screenshot by the author. Tanja Bradarić and Taro Ohmae (PP. 105–111)
Courtesy of the artists and Greene Naftali, New Figs. 17–24
York. Bradaric Ohmae, It All Started with a Bicycle,
Fig. 8 Spring/Summer 2013 collection, 2013. Model:
Bernadette Corporation, Get Rid of Yourself, Michaela Schwarz-Weismann. Photos: Jork
2003, videostill, screenshot by the author. Cour- Weismann. Courtesy of Bradaric Ohmae.
tesy of the artists and Greene Naftali, New York.
Fig. 9 Framing “Saints and Sinners.” Methods of Produc-
Bernadette Corporation, Get Rid of Yourself, ing Space in Fashion Shows: Michael Michalsky’s
2003, videostill, screenshot by the author. Fall/Winter 2009 Collection
Courtesy of the artists and Greene Naftali, Alicia Kühl (PP. 114, 116–18, 120)
New York. Fig. 25
Michalsky, Fall/Winter 2009 collection signet.
Courtesy of Michalsky.
248 Image Credits 249
Fig. 26 9, 2009. Accessed May 9, 2011. www.wsj.com. Alternative Aesthetic Politics honestby.com. Courtesy of Bruno Pieters.
Michalsky, Fall/Winter 2009 collection show. Fig. 37 “Jute Not Plastic”: Alternative Product Culture Fig. 61
Screenshot by the author, taken from the offi- Steven Klein, Arene Homme Plus, 2001/02. between Environmental Crisis and Fashion Bruno Pieters. Lookbook I, Autum/Winter 2012.
cial video. Courtesy of Michalsky. Photo: Steven Klein. Bright, Susan. Face of Martina Fineder (P. 188, 191–96, 198, 201) Screenshot by the author. http://www.honest-
Fig. 27 Fashion. London: National Portrait Gallery Fig. 46 by.com/en/category/4/aw-2012.html. Courtesy
Toni Garrn, Michalsky Fall/Winter 2009 collec- Publications, 2007: 122. A shopping bag made of jute bearing the of Bruno Pieters.
tion. Courtesy of Michalsky. Fig. 38 words “Jute Not Plastic“ and the sub-line Fig. 62
Fig. 28 Richard Avedon, Andy Warhol, 1969. Breitz, “Handmade in Bangladesh”, 1994. © Nikolaus Honest By, Lookbook I, Autumn/Winter 2012
Alicia Kühl, Overlapping of place, location, Candice. Andy Warhol – Photography. Ham- Jungwirth and Gerhard Kromschröder. In: collection. Screenshot by the author. http://
and imaginary space, 2013. Courtesy of Alicia burger Kunsthalle/The Andy Warhol Museum, Nikolaus Jungwirth and Gerhard Kromschröder, honestby.com/en/lookbook/92/4/9.html.
Kühl. exhibition catalogue, Thalwil: Edition Stem- Flokati-Fieber. Frankfurt/Main: Eichborn, 1994: Courtesy of Bruno Pieters.
Fig. 29 mle, 1999: 353. 136–37. Fig. 63
Alicia Kühl, Possible frames in a location, Fig. 39 Fig. 47 Photo of Fidus and Gusto Gräser, ca. 1900,
2013, Courtesy of Alicia Kühl. Anders Edström, Martin Margiela’s Spring/ Des-In, lampshade crafted of recycled jute, http://www.gusto-graeser.info/Diefenbach/
Summer 1994 collection, 1993. Gaensheimer, ca. 1977. © Des-In. Courtesy of private collec- zeittafel_diefenbach.html.
Fashion Film: Spaces of Exclusivity and the Glo- Susanne and Sophie von Olfers, eds. Not in tion of Beate Rosebrock. Fig. 64
balization of Accessibility Fashion. Photography and Fashion in the 90s. Fig. 48 Bruno Pieters, Honest By, Filter By. Screenshot
Sabina Muriale (P. 133) Leipzig: Kerber, 2011. Des-In, series of lampshades crafted of a dis- by the author. http://www.honestby.com/en/
Fig. 30 Fig. 40 carded offset printing plates, ca. 1977. © Des- category/3/collections.html. Courtesy of Bru-
BLESS, Collection 47: The “Pre-sensation” Is Marc Jacobs, Spring/Summer Collection, In. Courtesy of private collection of Beate no Pieters.
the Destination—Wear the Enfolding Past, 2010. Accessed August 1, 2013. www.tumblr. Rosebrock. Fig. 65
Touch the Contemplative Present and Smell com. Fig. 49 Honest By, othering: Green-faced black model,
the Soundperfume of the Time to Come, 2012. Fig. 41 Des-In, lampshade crafted of a discarded off- 2012. Photo: model, 2012. Courtesy of Bruno
Lookstripe. Courtesy of BLESS. Max Ernst, La Vierge corrigeant l’enfant Jésus set printing plate, ca. 1977. © Des-In. Courtesy Pieters.
devant témoins: André Breton, Paul Eluard et of private collection of Beate Rosebrock. Fig. 66
The Waywardness of Fashion: Society in the le peintre, 1926. Spies, Werner. Max Ernst: Die Fig. 50 Vivienne Westwood, Green othering, Climate
Subjunctive Retrospektive, 54. Ostfildern: DuMont, 1999: Des-In, lampshade crafted of a discarded off- Revolution, London Fashion Week September
Michael R. Müller (PP. 147–48, 151–54, 156–57) 54. set printing plate, ca. 1977. © Des-In. Courtesy 17, 2012. Picture detail from Red Label by
Fig. 31 Fig. 42 of private collection of Beate Rosebrock. Vivienne Westwood Spring Summer 2013.
Steven Varble, Soho Street Art, New York, Lucio Fontana, Concetto spaziale, 1964–65. Fig. 51 Courtesy of Vivienne Westwood and Catwalk-
1975. Tannenbaum, Allan. New York in the 70s. Schulz-Hoffmann, Carla. Lucio Fontana. Mu- Des-In, papier-mâché lampshade with the ing.com.
Berlin: Feierabend, 2003: 83. nich: Prestel, 1983: 86. laughing sun of the anti-nuclear movement, Fig. 67
Fig. 32 Fig. 43 ca. 1976. © Des-In. Courtesy of private collec- Vivienne Westwood, Climate Revolution T-
Comme des Garçons, Spring/Summer Collec- Clara Mosch, Aktion Baumbesteigung, Rügen tion of Beate Rosebrock. shirt, Climate Revolution, London Fashion
tion, 1997. Evans, Caroline. Fashion at the 1979. Rehberg, Karl-Siegbert. “Verkörperungs- Figs. 52–53 Week, September 17, 2012. Picture detail from
Edge. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007: Konkurrenzen. Aktionskunst in der DDR Des-In, lampshades fashioned out of a honey Red Label by Vivienne Westwood Spring
268. zwischen Revolte und ‘Kristallisation.’” In Per- jar, ca. 1977. © Des-In. Courtesy of private col- Summer 2013. Courtesy of Vivienne West-
Fig. 33 formance und Bild – Performance als Bild. Ed- lection of Jochen Gros. wood and Catwalking.com.
Thomas Hoepker, 9/11 From Brooklyn, 2001. ited by Christian Janecke, 115–61. Berlin: Philo Figs. 54–57 Fig. 68
Gunsenheimer, Antje. Grenzen: Differenzen, Fine Arts, 2004: 129. Dorothee Becker, Details of a shop window in Copenhagen Fashion Summit May, 2012.
Übergänge: Spannungsfelder inter- und tran- Fig. 44 Dorothee Maurer’s shop “Utensilo,” about Screenshot by the author from the Honest By
skultureller Kommunikation. Bielefeld: Tran- Corinne Day, Vogue 1993. Smedley, Elliott. 1976. © Dorothee Becker. website. http://www.honestby.com. Courtesy
script, 2007: 90. “Escaping to Reality: Fashion photography in Fig. 58 of Bruno Pieters.
Fig. 34 the 1990.” In Fashion Cultures: Theories, Ex- IKEA, cover of the German catalogue edition, Fig. 69
Alas and Piggott, Kate Moss, magazine cover plorations and Analysis. Edited by Stella Bruzzi 1978/79. Courtesy of IKEA. Trading bases of the Ethical Fashion Initiative,
Numero, 1999. Photo: Alas and Piggott. and Pamela Church Gibson, 143–56. London: 2014. Photo: Trading bases, 2014. Courtesy of
Bright, Susan. Face of Fashion. London: Na- Routledge, 2007: 150. On the Ethical Turn in Fashion: Policies of Gover- Ethical Fashion Initiative.
tional Portrait Gallery Publications, 2007: 52. Fig. 45 nance and the Fashioning of Social Critique Fig. 70
Fig. 35 Corinne Day, The Face, 1993. Warner Marien, Elke Gaugele (PP. 205–6, 208–10, 213–16, 219) Jürgen Teller, Vivienne Westwood, Ethical
Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, Mary. Photography: A Cultural History. London: Fig. 59 Fashion Africa Collection, 2011. Photos: © Jürgen
Thank you Thighmaster, 1991. Gaensheimer, Lawrence King Publishing, 2010: 487. Vivienne Westwood, Climate Revolution, London Teller. http://nanciemwai.com/2011/08/vivi
Susanne and Sophie von Olfers, eds. Not in Fashion Week, September 17, 2012. Red Label enne-westwood-aw-1112-campaign. Courtesy
Fashion. Photography and Fashion in the 90s. by Vivienne Westwood Spring Summer 2013. of Jürgen Teller.
Leipzig: Kerber, 2011. Courtesy of Catwalking.com.
Fig. 36 Fig. 60
Yohji Yamamoto, Ensemble, Spring/Summer Honest By, Bruno Pieters’s Spring 2012 collec-
Collection, 2010. The Wall Street Journal, Oct. tion. Screenshot by the author. http://www.
250 251
“Performing Whiteness”: Revisioning White Tex- 1930–1945, Deutsches Historisches Museum

tiles in Visual Culture Berlin. Edited by Hans-Jörg Czech and Nikola
Birgit Haehnel (PP. 230, 232, 234, 236, 238, 241) Doll, Dresden: Sandstein, 2007: 318, ill. D/31.
Fig. 71 Fig. 76
Hans Feurer, “Tropical whites”—Christy in Afri- Gerhard Keil, Die Turnerinnen, 1939, Oil on
ca, American Vogue, May 1990. Photo: Hans canvas, 215.5 x 155.5 cm, Staatliche Kunstsam-
Feurer. mlungen Dresden, Galerie Neue Meister.
Fig. 72 Accesssed December 2, 2013. http://galleria.
Eva Gronbach collection, mutter erde vater thule-italia.com/keil.html.
land, 2003. Courtesy of Christa Thelen. “Der Fig. 77
neue Höhenflug der deutschen Mode. Max Abadian, Lady Gaga. Feminism, magazine
Schwarz-Rot-Gold.” In Petra, January 2005: cover, Texte zur Kunst, December 2011, 22: 84.
46. Photo: Birgit Haehnel.
Fig. 73 Fig. 78
Anselm Kiefer, Lilith on the Red Sea, 1990. Maud Sulter, Terpsichore (from the ZABAT se-
Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin. Pastel chalk, ries), 1989. Cibachrome print, 152.4 x 121.9
emulsion, ash, linen, lead on canvas, 280 x cm, Arts Council Collection, Hayward Gallery,
625 cm. Photo: Birgit Haehnel. London. Accessed Dec. 2, 2013. http://www.
Fig. 74 lightsgoingon.com/2012/09/365-day-
Ludwig Hohlwein, Neues Volk, 1938. Calendar 357-maud-sulter. Courtesy of the artist.
page. Offset print, 42 x 29.7 cm. Museum f.
Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Inv. Nr. E
1971/129. Die Grundrechte im Spiegel des
Plakats – 1919 bis 1999. Edited by Kai Artinger.
Berlin, 2000: 69, ill. 1.
Fig. 75
Gerhard Keil, Turner, 1939, Oil on canvas, 215.5
x 155.5 cm. Dresden, Galerie Neue Meister,
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, AK
Kunst und Propaganda im Streit der Nationen
252 Biographies 253
Biographies Ilka Becker, Ph.D., studied Art History, German History and Education. From 2003 to
Philology, and Philosophy in Cologne; in 2007 she worked as project manager in
2006 she completed her doctoral studies youth and adult education for a non-
with a dissertation on “Fotografische At- governmental organization in developing
mosphären” (Photographic Atmospheres). an institution for young immigrants. From
Since 1992, art critic; since 1996, curator; 2007 to 2012 she was a consultant for an
in 1996/97 she conducted scientific archival international firm for personnel and cor-
work of the photographic collection at the porate consultation. In 2014 she finished
Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn; from her dissertation, “Producing Images. Die
1998 to 2000, she was editor at Texte zur Zusammenarbeit von Modeindustrie und
Kunst; from 1998 to 2002, scientific assis- Celebrities als ästhetische Ökonomie”
tant at University of Cologne; from 2003 (The Cooperation between the Fashion
to 2008, scientific assistant for the re- Industry and Celebrity System as an Aes-
search project “Medien und kulturelle thetic Economy) at the Academy of Fine
Kommunikation” (Media and Cultural Com- Arts Vienna. In 2012 she was lecturer at
munication); from 2003 to 2008, she the Wella Stiftungsprofessur at the Tech-
taught and project at the Hochschule für Bil- nical University of Darmstadt and, since
dende Künste HBK Braunschweig and at September 2012, she has worked for
the Universities of Bonn and Cologne; in Mediabrands, an international media,
2010, she participated in the project marketing, and communications firm.
“Schnittraum – Raum für Kunst und Diskus-
sion” in Braunschweig (with Corinna Martina Fineder, is a design historian and cul-
Schnitt and students at the HBK Braunsch- tural scientist. Her work focuses on the
weig); since 2009, she has been a faculty ecologically and socially motivated cul-
member and since 2013 professor at the ture of design and the consumer society.
Institut für Kunstwissenschaft, HBK Braun- A trained product designer and cofounder
schweig. of D+ Buero for Design, she shifted her in-
Selected publications include: Just not in terests to design history and material cul-
Time. Inframedialität und non- lineare ture studies, teaching and researching at
Zeitlichkeiten in Kunst, Film, Literatur und the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, the Uni-
Philosophie, edited by Ilka Becker, Michael versity of Applied Arts Vienna, and the
Cuntz, and Michael Wetzel (Munich: Vienna University of Technology. Her doc-
Wilhelm Fink, 2011); Fotografische Atmo- toral thesis focuses on “The Promise of
sphären. Rhetoriken des Unbestimmten in the Alternative. The Development of Criti-
der zeitgenössischen Kunst (Munich: cal Design and Consumer Culture in West
Wilhelm Fink, 2010); Unmenge – Wie ver- Germany’s 1970s.” She also works as a cu-
teilt sich Handlungsmacht?, edited by Ilka rator for institutions like the MAK—Austrian
Becker, Michael Cuntz, and Astrid Kusser Museum of Applied Arts/Contemporary
(Munich: Wilhelm Fink, 2009). Art, where she cocurated the exhibition
“Nomadic Furniture 3.0 – New Liberated
Tanja Bradarić, is currently pursuing a Ph.D. Living?” (2013). Together with Thomas
as a doctoral student at the Academy of Geisler she initiated the establishment of
Fine Arts Vienna. After her undergraduate the Victor J. Papanek Foundation (2011).
work in the fashion studios of Veronique Martina is the coeditor of the German re-
Branquinho and Raf Simons, she went to edition of Design for the Real World (2009).
Paris to work for Balenciaga and Chloé.
Her special interest of research lies in the Eva Flicker, Ph.D., is professor at the Institute
fashion industry’s power relations and for Sociology at the University of Vienna.
means of production, as well as the com- Her professional concentrations are on
petition and the synergies between fashion Film and Media Sociology, Visual Sociology,
metropolises. Based on her experience Gender Studies, Organizational Sociology,
and empirical work, she founded the fash- and group dynamics. From 2008 to 2012
ion label Bradaric Ohmae in 2011. she organized the Gender Studies pro-
gram at the University of Vienna. From
Endora Comer-Arldt, completed her graduate 2010 to 2013 she was a faculty member of
studies in 2006 at the Technical University GIK – Gender Initiativkolleg at the University
in Darmstadt with a Masters degree in of Vienna.
254 Biographies 255
Current projects include: “Fashionable gen. Zur Bedeutung des weißen Tuchs in Michael R. Müller, Ph.D., completed his doc- Balenciaga. Together with Tanja Bradaric,
Queens: Fashion – Power – Gender,” fol- der visuellen Kultur seit dem 20. Jahrhun- toral studies at the University of Konstanz he launched the fashion label Bradaric
lowing an international symposium in dert” at the Technical University of Darm- and is Professor of Visual Communication Ohmae in 2011. The Vienna-based label
December 2010 at the University of Vienna, stadt and at CePoG (Centrum für Postco- at the University of Chemnitz and Senior has won a number of awards: iD-Interna-
together with Monika Seidl (publication lonial und Gender Studies) at the University Fellow at the Kulturwissenschaftliches In- tional Emerging Designer Awards, Golden
in 2014); “Alte/r/n in den Medien,” a project of Trier. Lectures and publications on art stitut Essen. Prior to this he was professor Centre Mall Prize, Dunedin, New Zealand
on the representation of age and elderly in the seventeenth, nineteenth, and twen- of Sociology at the University of Vechta (2012); Fashion Award of the City of Vienna
people in media; poverty and social in- tieth centuries on the semantics of skin and a junior professor at the Institut für (Modepreis der Stadt Wien) (2013); Vienna
equality in Austrian film; and “Fashionable color (racism critique), art theory, mobility Kunst und Materielle Kultur at the Technical Awards for Fashion and Lifestyle, Category
Power”—images of women politicians in concepts, bio politics, and trauma re- University, Dortmund. His research focuses Accessory Designer (2014).
international media. search. Recent study areas: textiles, mi- on: figurative hermeneutics, sociological
gration, and critical whiteness studies. aesthetics, cultural anthropology of fashion Barbara Schrödl, Ph.D. is art historian with re-
Elke Gaugele, is an academic in Empirical and textiles, and the sociology of science, search concentrations in the media history
Cultural Studies (Ph.D.), a writer, curator, Alicia Kühl, Ph.D., completed her Cultural media, and the body, and research of po- of art history, cultural-scientific research
and professor of Fashion and Styles at the Science studies at the University of litical culture. A selection of publications of clothing, myths about artists, art and
Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. At the Insti- Leipzig with a Master’s degree and has includes: “‘Apartheid’ der Mode. Eine sym- film, as well as the visual culture during
tute for Education in the Arts (IKL) she just completed her doctor thesis entitled boltheoretische Revision der formalen the Nazi and post-war eras. Since 2005,
chairs an innovative study program that “Fashion Shows. Claiming the New in Modesoziologie,” in Mode als Moderne: she has been assistant professor at the In-
brings together conceptual art and design Fashion” („Modenschauen. Die Behaup- Konjunkturen wissenschaftlicher stitut für Kunstwissenschaft und Philoso-
practices with critical studies in fashion tung des Neuen in der Mode“) at the Uni- Aufmerksamkeit, edited by G. M. König, G. phie at the Catholic-Theological Private
and popular cultures. Prior to this, she versity of Potsdam under Prof. Dr. Gertrud Mentges and M. R. Müller (Bielefeld 2012); University Linz and since 2009 lecturer in
was assistant professor at the Institute for Lehnert. Her doctoral thesis is based on “Figurative Hermeneutik. Zur methodolo- the discipline of fashion and styles at the
Art and Art Theory, in the department of the theory that the scene of invention has gischen Konzeption einer Wissenssoziolo- Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Prior to this,
Textile Studies at the University of Co- shifted from fashion design to fashion gie des Bildes,” in Sozialer Sinn. Zeitschrift from 1995 to 1999, she was scientific re-
logne, Research Fellow at the Department show design, thereby putting not only the für hermeneutische Sozialforschung, vol. 1, searcher at the University of Bremen; from
for Visual Arts Goldsmiths/University of position and function of the fashion show 2012; Körper Haben. Die symbolische For- 2001 to 2002, she was guest professor at
London, and a Lise-Meitner-Habilitation into question but also the apparel within mung der Person, edited by Michael Müller, the Berlin University of the Arts with nu-
grant recipient as well as a recipient of the the fashion cycle. In the winter semester H. G. Soeffner, and A. Sonnenmoser (Wei- merous teaching fellows at universities
Maria-Goeppert-Mayer guest professor- of 2010, she was a lecturer at the Universi- lerswist 2011); Stil und Individualität. Die and art colleges in Germany, Austria, and
ship from the state of Lower Saxony. Her ty of Potsdam and since April 2011 she has Ästhetik gesellschaftlicher Selbstbehaup- Switzerland.
recent work as international researcher, been a postgraduate scholarship recipient tung (Munich 2009). Publications on cultural-scientific research
lecturer and author focuses on the episte- from the German Research Foundation into clothing include: “Introduction,” to-
mologies of fashion and design, on gen- (DFG) under the title “Visibility and Visual- Sabina Muriale, is a cultural anthropologist, gether with Karen Ellwanger, Traute Helmers
der, biopolitics and aesthetic politics, on isation. Hybrid Forms of Pictorial Knowl- curator, and lecturer at the Academy of and Heidi Helmhold, and “Weiße Wäsche,
postcolonial approaches in fashion and edge.” Her research interests lie in the Fine Arts Vienna in the discipline of fashion ‘reine’ und doch schuldige Frauen, das
design studies and on craftivist practices. theory and history of fashion as well as in and styles. She is moreover the PR and Art Wirtschaftswunder und der Tod. Weiblicher
A selection of publications includes: the concepts of space, performance, at- Director of the fashion label Edwina Hörl, Opfertod im Künstlerspielfilm der 1950er
Craftista! Handarbeit als Aktivismus, ed. mospheres, and newness. Tokyo, as well as a buyer and shop manager Jahre,” in Totenkleidung. Zur Konstruktion
Elke Gaugele, Sonja Eismann, Verena Kuni, A selection of publications include: of the Viennese Shu!. In her doctoral work von Tod und Geschlecht in der materiellen
and Elke Zobl (Mainz: Ventil, 2011); Techno- Modetheorie. Klassische Texte aus zwei she investigates the presentational forms und visuellen Kultur, edited by Barbara
Naturen. Design & Styles, eds. Elke Jahrhunderten, edited by Alicia Kühl, of contemporary fashion in the digital age. Schrödl, Karen Ellwanger, Heidi Helmhold
Gaugele and Petra Eisele, (publication se- Gertrud Lehnert, and Katja Weise. (Biele- Her research concentrations include: pre- and Traute Helmers, (Bielefeld: Transkript,
ries by the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna feld: Transcript, forthcoming in 2014). sentational forms of contemporary fashion 2010); “Fighting Machines, Authorities in
and Schleebrügge.editor, 2008); “Fashion “Die Choreotopografie oder das Sch- in museums and fashion shows, interaction Need of Protection and a Dominant Woman.
Design,” in Design Dictionary. Perspec- reiben von Modenschau-Räumen (WT),” in between art and fashion, as well as tech- Leather Clothing in German Films of the
tives on Design Terminology (Board of In- Die Medialität der Mode, edited by Rainer noculture and new marketing strategies of 1940’s and 1950’s / Kampfmaschinen,
ternational Research in Design), ed. Wenrich, (Bielefeld: Transcript, 2014). the fashion industry in the age of social schutzbedürftige Autoritäten und eine
Michael Erlhoff and Tim Marshall. (Basel: “Mode ist Fernweh. Das Thema Reise in media and other digital tools. dominante Frau. Lederbekleidung in
Birkhäuser, 2008). der Modenschau,” in Querformat (6). deutschen Filmen der 1940er und 1950er
(Bielefeld: Transcript, forthcoming). “Wie Taro Ohmae is a fashion designer and holds a Jahre,” in Macht-Leder-Lust. Verborgene
Birgit Haehnel, Ph.D., is an art historian with Kleidung zu Mode wird. Prozesse der Ver- Bachelor of Arts from Bunka Fashion College, Codes der Lederbekleidung im 20. Jahr-
research interests focusing on Postcolo- räumlichung in Modenschauen,” in Räume Tokyo and a Master of Arts in fashion hundert, edited by Rosita Nenno and
nial Studies and Gender Studies in the field der Mode. Edited by Gertrud Lehnert (Pad- design from the University of Applied Arts, Christian Rathke, exhibition catalogue,
of art and visual culture. She currently erborn: Fink Wilhelm, 2012). For further in- Vienna. He studied in the fashion class un- Deutsches Ledermuseum, (Bielefeld:
heads the research project supported by formation see: www.sichtbarkeit-sichtbar- der the guidance of Veronique Branquino Offenbach 2008).
the German Research Foundation (DFG) machung.de. and Bernhard Wilhelm. He worked with
“Weiße Umhüllungen – Weiße Verblendun- Radic&Morgner, Wendy&Jim, Chloé and
256 257
Ruby Sircar is a cultural producer and cur- Monica Titton is a sociologist working in the
rently teaching as Senior Artist at the fields of the sociology of fashion, the soci-
Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, where she ology of culture, media, and critical social
received and published her Ph.D. in Post- theory. She is a doctoral candidate in the
colonial and Cultural Studies. She was Department of Sociology at University of
Research Fellow at the Jan van Eyck Acade- Vienna, where she worked as a research
mie Maastricht and Research Coordinator assistant between 2008 and 2012, and
for the Initiative of Minorities in Vienna. where she currently teaches Sociology at
Her work was shown, among other places, undergraduate level. From October 2012
at the Gallery for Contemporary Art to March 2013 she was a visiting researcher
Leipzig, Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, Essor Gal- at the London College of Fashion (Universi-
lery Project Space London, and Shedhalle ty of the Arts, London, UK). Her research in-
Zurich. Her work focuses on cultural and terests include the links between fashion,
migrative translation and knowledge collective, and personal identity dynam-
production. ics, cultural transformations, and society.
Her Ph.D. thesis deals with the cultural
Birke Sturm, studied Art Education and English significance of fashion and street-style
at the Universities of Regensburg, Aber- blogs as fashion media in their own right.
deen, and Vienna and at the Academy of A selection of publications includes:
Fine Arts Vienna, where she completed “Styling the Street. Fashion Performance,
her teaching degree in these subjects in Stardom and Neo-Dandyism on Street
2008 with honors. She received a merit Style Blogs,” in Fashion Cultures Revisited:
award from the Academy of Fine Arts Theories, Explanations and Analysis, edited
Vienna for her thesis. From 2008 to 2012 by Stella Bruzzi and Pamela Church Gibson
she was an assistant and finally student (London: Routledge, 2013); “Erschöpfte
advisor in the Department of Fashion and Prominenz / Exhausted Celebrities,” in
Styles at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Leistung und Erschöpfung. Burnout in der
Since 2009 she has been teaching English Wettbewerbsgesellschaft, edited by
at the Oberstufenrealgymnasium at the Sighard Neckel and Greta Wagner, (Berlin:
Lauder Chabad Campus Vienna. She is Suhrkamp, 2013); “Fashion in the City.
currently working on a Ph.D. thesis on dif- Street-Style-Blogs and the Limits of Fash-
ferent promises of feminine beauty ideals ion’s Democratization,” in Texte zur Kunst,
in modernism. 78, June 2010.
258 259
This publication was kindly supported by Gesellschaft der Freunde der

bildenden Künste.
Aesthetic Politics in Fashion outlines critical studies in the present cross-sections
of fashion, art, politics, and global capitalism. Critically examining contemporary
collaborations of artists, media, and fashion labels, this groundbreaking anthology
locates fashion within ecological and ethical discourses, postcolonial styles,
and critical reflections on whiteness. Contributions from a distinguished group
of international scholars debate fashion as a cultural phenomenon at the inter-
section of artistic, creative, economic, and everyday practices.
Aesthetic economies, the production of space, and alternative aesthetic politics

are explored from interdisciplinary angles: art history, cultural science, sociology,
design, and fashion studies. Aesthetic Politics in Fashion advances theorizing
of fashion as an aesthetic metapolitics.
With contributions by Endora Comer-Arldt, Ilka Becker, Tanja Bradaric, Martina

Fineder, Eva Flicker, Elke Gaugele, Birgit Haehnel, Alicia Kühl, Michael R. Müller,
Sabina Muriale, Taro Ohmae, Barbara Schrödl, Ruby Sircar, Birke Sturm, Monica
Titton

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Publication Series of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna VOLUME 14

Publication Series of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

The Rectorate of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

Editor: Elke Gaugele

It All Started with a Bicycle: Spring/Summer 2013

Framing “Saints and Sinners.” Methods of Producing Space

Fashion Film: Spaces of Exclusivity and the Globalization

The Waywardness of Fashion: Society in the Subjunctive

Alternative Aesthetic Politics

Dressing the Tiger: Decolonization and Style Racism in

“Jute Not Plastic”: Alternative Product Culture between

On the Ethical Turn in Fashion: Policies of Governance and

“Performing Whiteness”: Revisioning White Textiles in

Image Credits 246

Aesthetics and Politics of Fashion: Strands and Chapters

Fashion refers to the materiality and visuality of cultures. But dematerialization

As a medium of communication, fashion spreads a wide range of negotiations

In aesthetic economies, aesthetics act as the central value and attraction as

Creating, producing, exchanging, selling, marketing, seeing, touching, listen-

1 Daniel Devoucoux, Mode im Film: Zur Kultur- published in German in 1911.

Popular Culture—Creative Industries

Gronow, Jukka. The Sociology of Taste. London:

Fashion on the Global Market: Territorial Economies in La

Consequently, the magazine La dernière mode points beyond instructions for

“The Serious and the Frivolous”

It’s All About

and Celebrities Paving the Way

MANUFACTURING— DISTRIBUTION— BRAND Manufacturing DISTRIBUTION

PERIPHERY MANUFACTURING— Fig. 3

A variety of business functions has been outsourced and monitored in the

Celebrities need visibility to build a brand around themselves, a point made

A systematic inquiry of the crossover between fashion and art represents a

It is evident that the commercial proceeds obtained—thanks to the maximiza-

of art sustained by Abstract Expressionists by producing art works for different

Prince’s capacity to operate in a grey zone where the appropriation of American

Art, Fashion, and

Photography in Modeling the Self

The Model as Model

Life Which Writes Itself

again is internalized by capitalism and concerns the commodity as well as the

In his view, BC offer an insight in this function of styling as an “opportunistic

Fashion and the

The chapter “Production of Space,” which analyzes the phenomenon of fashion

Lefebvre, Henri. “Die Produktion des Raumes.”

Bradaric Ohmae, It All Started with a Bicycle,

Michalsky’s choice and the controversial reactions that arose awakened my

This imposing moment is then underlined by the playing of dramatic, fanfare-

The following will draw on an in-depth exploration of different theories on

12 Quote from the official “Making-of-video” in Portal Wissen (Universität Potsdam,

Moreover, as Fischer-Lichte and the anthropologists she draws on (in particular

All fashion shows—and not just Michalsky’s—exhibit a ritual character. Those

Translated from the German by Paul Bowman

36 Fischer-Lichte, Ästhetik des Performa-

Do We Need a New Fashion Term?

The previous examples demonstrate the ambivalence and flexibility of fashion.

1 Georg Simmel, “Soziologische Ästhetik,” 2 Georg Simmel, Philosophie des Geldes,

From the Dionysian Work of Art to the Aesthetics of

A comprehensive theory of the demarcation and transgression of aesthetic

Society in the Subjunctive

1 Georg Simmel, “Soziologische Ästhetik,” 2 Georg Simmel, Philosophie des Geldes,