Dilemmas in African Diaspora Fashion
Author: Lewis, Van Dyk
Source: Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture, Volume 7, Number 2, 1 June 2003 , pp. 163-190(28)
Publisher: Berg Publishers
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Abstract:
This paper examines how the political assertions that are central to the formation of black fashion expression contribute to the activities of fashion design, fashion consumption and the creation of archetypal black fashion media images. The relationship between the dominant culture and the African Diaspora is found to possess many unyielding insecurities, including the creation of opposing referential territories that are revealed as either real or utopian. The everyday fashion expressions of the English speaking African Diaspora offer examples of their dislocation from the mainstream culture their attempts to regain lost identities through the manufacture of fashion image. In this analysis of the visual expression and material fashion objects that are created and adopted by African Diaspora is the story of individual and group attempts to either comply to, or reject the definitions of fashion as defined by the mainstream culture. Finally, the study uncovers the motivators of fashion change in the Diaspora and proposes that this understanding will enhance progress within the Diaspora fashion activity.Document Type: Research article
DOI: 10.2752/136270403778052113
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