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- Volume 1, Issue 1, 2010
Critical Studies in Fashion & Beauty - Volume 1, Issue 1, 2010
Volume 1, Issue 1, 2010
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Perpetuum mobile
More LessIn the deregulated, privatized society of consumers, fashion is a perpetuum mobile a self-feeding, self-sustaining, self-propelling and self-invigorating process. This is due to the interaction of two socially prompted urges: the longing to be a part of a greater whole, and the urge for individualism/uniqueness in their turn the effects of the dialectics of security and freedom. Fashion casts lifestyles in the mode of a permanent and principally un-finishable revolution. It plays a crucial operating role in rendering constant change to the norms of our being-in-the-world: if you do not wish to sink, keep surfing; obviously, you can no longer seriously hope to make the world a better place to live; but you cannot even make that agreeable place in the social world which you might have managed to cut out for yourself really secure.
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On fashion and fashion discourses
More LessWhile critical views inherited from the past still influence our appraisal of fashion, its pervasiveness in contemporary society calls for an explanation. In this article I attempt to show how the importance of fashion in our society is the result of a combination of a structurally modern space and Romantic cultural ideals. I conclude that, despite its frivolous appearance, fashion is not only a powerful social indicator, but also a particular means of bringing together the diverse and often contradictory demands of our human nature through a peculiar exercise of practical judgment.
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The dynamics of luxury and basic-ness in post-crisis fashion
More LessUnderstanding the current moment of the global fashion system and its potential for future development requires that we retrace the dynamics that have characterized this sector in recent years, pre- and post-crisis. This article traces the dynamics to a new sensibility located between simplicity and luxury, which is more than just another trend but a new Renaissance. The new sensibility involves the parallel processes of luxury losing its exclusive aura and diffusing into the everyday, and, at the same time, creativity, authenticity and a spirit of craftsmanship emerging as a form of luxurious basic-ness.
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The real fashion trends in a global context
More LessThis summary presentation is based on an annual series of seminars at the Future Concept Lab.
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100,000 Years of Beauty. Edited by Elizabeth Azoulay
100,000 Years of Beauty, Elizabeth Azoulay (ed.) (2009). Paris: Gallimard, 15000 pp., ISBN: 978-2070128440, Paperback, $300.
For their 100th anniversary, L'Oréal commissioned a large-scale research project on beauty, which has been published in a set of five books.
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Charlotte Waite's Fairy Project: Rethinking the fashion show
More LessCharlotte Waite's Fairy Project: Rethinking the fashion show, West Yorkshire, UK, 31 July to 7 August 2010
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