Week 10: Global Fashion Without Global Input

Week 10: Global Fashion Without Global Input
Grace Petersen
June 1, 2019

This final week of the course has had significant conversation over what it means to to be fashionable, and who is defined as being a fashion designer, producer, or wearer. In reflection, this week's readings have both been on the topic of what it means to produce fashion that is or is not in the 'western' mode. Thuy Linh Tu Nguyen writes on the impact of Asian American fashion pioneers and creators while tracing the origins of their style while Sandra Niessen offers a more critical definition of what it means to be fashionable in the first place. Both of these authors hint at one major theme as discussed earlier: what does it mean to be Western style?

Defining 'Western Style' by Image Alone (Image Credit: Fashion Talks)

In a world where 'Western style' means anything influenced by the historical trends of select european designers, one must question the histories of fashion and dress in their very definition, but also what does it mean to be influenced? Is it enough to say that we are influenced by those in social power, or must we examine the deeper histories surrounding the transfer or resources and movements surrounding production of goods? I believe that part of a global system of race and class has a vested interest in defining not only fashion as a western industry, but defining clothing even made in non-western countries as something the west owns. Westerners have long controlled the dominant media and news cycles, and so without the input of all players in the global scale, the image will always be presented at a loss of the true story.


Works Cited:
Niessen, Sandra. "Afterword: Re-Orienting Fashion Theory." The Globalization of Asian Dress, 2003. 
Nguyen, Thuy Linh Tu. “Asia on My Mind: Transnational Intimacies and Cultural Genealogies.” The Beautiful Generation, 2011.