Author: Parkins, Wendy

Source: Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture, Volume 8, Number 4, December 2004 , pp. 425-441(17)

Publisher: Berg Publishers

Abstract:

This article examines the meanings that circulate around the phenomenon of 'celebrity knitting'. I argue that the significations of celebrity knitting in popular culture and media are means through which the acceleration and temporal complexity of everyday life are negotiated. Knitting can be seen as a reaction against the speed and dislocation of global postmodernity, part of an attempt to live differently at a different temporality, and to find meaning and identity in the practices of everyday life. In this way, the contemporary practice of knitting - by both celebrity and 'ordinary' knitters - can also be related to a trend towards practices of mindfulness in daily life (expressed in meditation, yoga and forms of new age spirituality, for example). At the same time, knitting is a means of renegotiating feminine identity by claiming time for the self, without defining femininity outside the domestic domain. In the various meanings of contemporary knitting, then, can be seen a precarious attempt to occupy the present differently.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2752/136270404778051564

Publication date: 2004-12-01

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