(The Cruelty of) Happy Narratives
In lifestyle and fashion magazines, celebrity profiles tend to unfold as stories about successful overcoming of difficulties. Magazines present fame...
Opinion
Splendour and Subversion
The intersections between fashion and politics in Colombia
Fashion is a polysemic category. When it comes to thinking about it critically, there’s one aspect I particularly like: the...
Freedom!
‘Freedom’ is a word that is shamelessly overused in fashion media and fashion marketing. The term is a staple of...
Straps, Cut-outs, Slits
Eroticism and Immodesty in Contemporary Fashion
It makes complete sense that the ties and pulleys of this trend conjure to mind a construction site, while the...
Notes on Doubt
Relevance is certainly a status given by the system, sometimes rather arbitrarily, but it also gives worth to one’s efforts....
A Stain on an All-American Brand
What lesson are we to take from this evidence of profiteering from human servitude in the foundational years of Brooks...
I’M A VIRGIN (BUT THIS IS AN OLD SHIRT)
Reflecting on the slogans and celebrities of L.A. retail chain Kitson
It’s strange now, in hindsight, to think about all the world's girls in their Juicy-brand tracksuits amid the Clenbuterol boom,...
‘Hidden Power Mechanisms of Social Dominion’
Nose-diving profits mean that Vogue is more than ever beholden to advertisers, which pundits consider a barrier to candid coverage....
FAILED BODIES, FAILED SUBJECTS?
On Ideal Body Shapes and Makeover Culture
The stereotype of the self-loathing cosmetic surgery patient can be found in the annals of psychiatry. Lacking much in the...
Whose Streets?
The Fashion Window Now: A Contested Surface
Shop window displays serve to crystallise, animate and narrate various meanings of fashion. They provide information on sartorial items, and...
Optical Tactility
On Touching, and Fashion For When We Can't
It could be easy to dismiss digital clothing as a poor replication of physical clothing or, more strongly, as part...
A disease origin story
Disease origin stories, while important, can lead to dangerous narratives. We need to recognise that the hegemony of global supply...