Week 10 - Western-Central Fashion

Elaine Yang
ASA 141
Week 10


This week's reading by Niessen touches closely on the idea of fashion being a Western-dominated form. The author emphasizes the influence of Western history and Western culture on the global fashion trend throughout time. Although I do agree with how Western couture has influenced global fashion, I believe the concept of globalization is altering the definition of fashion from Western-dominated to something new. As the world is connecting more and more every day through technology and migration, people are bringing their local culture, art, and history along with them and inserting these into new regions. Sacramento, for example, has several Latino cultural hubs because of the number of Latino workers and immigrants, bringing their lifestyle into the local culture. Connecting to Asian fashion, I believe that Asian fashion is also reshaping the global fashion scene slowly with the rise of Asian celebrities, as well as tourism in Asia. As a previously overshadowed culture in Western media, it is interesting to see the rise of Asian representation, especially in the past few years. Movies, music, TV-shows, more and more Asians are being represented in non-stereotypical manners through media. This increase of representation will definition bring attention to Asian culture as a whole and hopefully expose more Asian fashion into the Western world.

(Constance Wu, one of the more well-known Asian American actresses)