Fashion, Dress and Post-postmodernism

José Blanco F., Andrew Reilly, José Blanco F., Andrew Reilly

• Editorial: Bloomsbury Visual Arts
• Año: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781350115187
• Edición: 1
• Categoría: Design
• Categoría: Fashion Design

Scholars have argued that postmodernism is dead and that we are entering into a new era that some have labelled altermodernism, digimodernism, performatism, and post-postmodernism. This book expands on the nascent scholarship of post-postmodernism to highlight how dress, fashion, and appearance are reflections of this new age. The volume starts with a discussion of fashion, subjectivity, and time and an analysis of temporality, technology, and fashion in post-postmodern times. Later chapters analyse the work of design houses and mass producers such as Vetements, Gucci, and Uniqlo whose products align with post-postmodern aesthetics, hyperconsumption, and hypermodern branding. The book looks at diverse geographic and identity markers by discussing post-postmodernism and the religio-politico-cultural questions in South Asian Muslim fashion, image and identity presentation in queer social networking apps, and by exploring fashion designer Tom Ford's output as a movie director. Two chapters discuss the post-postmodern fashion exhibition with analyses of recent exhibitions and an in-depth look at the work of exhibition maker Judith Clark. The final chapter is written by members of The Rational Dress Society, a counter-fashion collective that makes JUMPSUIT, an experimental garment to replace all clothes. Fashion, Dress, and Post-postmodernism is a companion to research on relationships between post-postmodernism, fashion, and dress, and the go-to resource for researchers and students interested in these areas.

1

FASHION PHENOMENA AND THE POST-POSTMODERN CONDITION: INQUIRY AND SPECULATION

Marcia A. Morgado

References to the idea that we live in postmodern times are ubiquitous. Indeed, the term postmodern appears to be indiscriminately applied to virtually anything and everything. My Google search for the word in May of 2013 resulted in 10,400,000 hits and, among multitudinous other things, included references to postmodern bibles, texts on postmodern curriculum development, advertisements for postmodern kitchens and culinary preparations, postmodern urban planning guides, postmodern pornography and images purporting to depict postmodern families and postmodern pets. The search phrase ‘postmodern fashion’ alone generated 2,580,000 hits.

Scholarly works on postmodernism describe elements of its expression in art, architecture, literature, film, television, music and photography. And fashion figures prominently in the scholarly works as well (e.g. Baudrillard, 1976; Connor, 1989; Harvey, 1990). Appearance features such as intentional challenges to traditional aesthetic codes, disordered combinations of styles and fabrics, and disregard for traditional construction features and/or their relation to the body are interpreted as expressions of postmodern rejection of authority and suspicion of narratives. The influence of street styles and subcultures in setting fashion trends is understood as postmodern references to the death of art and rejection of authority. Looks and styles recycled from earlier periods are proposed as examples of postmodern assumptions regarding the death of progress. And appearances constructed on pastiche (i.e. imitation), parody and irony, along with concerns for image and appearance for their own sake, are interpreted as postmodern expressions of the regime of the simulacrum and the random play of signifiers (e.g. Morgado, 1996).

But a new body of theoretical work proposes that the postmodern era is waning – that conditions that characterized postmodernism are giving way to new circumstances and that a new cultural ethos is replacing the postmodern condition or is coming to occupy a place within or beside it. Post-postmodern is a catchall term for a variety of arguments that propose the end of the postmodern era and that describe new conditions as the defining influences on contemporary culture and social life. Because fashion figures prominently in theories of postmodern culture and because the postmodern characteristics associated with fashion appear to clearly substantiate Blumer’s thesis that fashion reflects the spirit or zeitgeist of the times (1969: 283), I asked, What do theorists who propose the rise of post-postmodern culture have to say about fashion, style and appearance? And how do contemporary fashion phenomena reflect an emerging post-postmodern ethos? In this chapter I describe aspects of post-postmodern theory as detailed in the arguments of prominent theorists, and I extrapolate from these to speculate on how current fashion phenomena might be interpreted as reflecting a post-postmodern condition.

From postmodernism to a post-postmodern condition

Theories that address contemporary culture as representing a postmodern historical period are predicated on the idea that major transformations in social practices, economic conditions and artistic expressions have displaced the values, assumptions, behaviours and expressions that characterized the historical period identified with modernism. Two complementary theses address the underlying circumstances that precipitated the transformation from modern to postmodern times. One suggests that novel technologies and an altered socio-economic system gave rise to a new social order that broke with characteristics that defined modernism. The other proposes that a new, highly developed stage of capitalism resulted in global homogenization, fragmentation and altered ways of experiencing time and space and that this provided the bases on which postmodern culture rests (Best and Kellner, 1991: 3). These circumstances are played out in a postmodern cultural ethos characterized by a new recognition and valuing of diversity, multiculturalism, marginalized people and viewpoints, and a consequent denial of the values, truths, knowledge and ways of thinking that characterized white, male-dominated, Western culture in the modernist period.

A different set of conditions underlies the arguments of those who posit theories around the theme of an alternative or post-postmodern condition. Theorists point to a gamut of global crises, disruptions, upheavals and challenges that characterize the present and that signal a new cultural climate: a perilously endangered ecosystem, the threat of global climate change, global financial crises and an apparent inability to control financial systems, unstable political regimes, the collapse of global political centres and shifting geopolitical boundaries, the polarization of ethnicities and social classes, widespread adoption of genetic manipulations, advances in information and communications technology in general and the pervasiveness of Web2 platforms and the blogosphere in particular (e.g. Lipovetsky, 2005; Vermeulen and van den Akker, 2010).

A new vocabulary is also embedded in arguments surrounding the new cultural paradigm. The term post-postmodern is one of at least a dozen labels evident in scholarly works that address a new cultural milieu and/or that serve as tongue-in-cheek appellations for arguments regarding a new cultural ethos. Among these are: altermodernism (Bourriaud, 2009), off-modernism (Boym, 2010), semi-post-postmodernism (Davis, 2010), trans-utopianism (Epstein, 1997), performatism (Eshelman, 2008), post-millennialism (Gans, 2000), digimodernism (Kirby, 2009a), pseudomodernism (Kirby, 2006), hypermodernity (Lipovetsky, 2005), automodernity (Samuels, 2008), post-postmodernism (Turner, 1995) and metamodernism (Vermeulen and van den Akker, 2010).¹ Of these, popular culture scholar Alan Kirby identifies five as the foremost theories of the post-postmodern (2010): Bourriaud’s thesis on altermodernism, Lipovetsky’s proposal on hypermodernity, Eshelman’s discussion of performatism, Samuels’s argument on automodernity and Kirby’s own argument on digimodernism.

In the discussion that follows I summarize the five theories identified by Kirby as the foremost post-postmodern works, and I provide examples of each theorist’s application of theory to relevant creative works or cultural practices. I extrapolate from these materials to suggest how contemporary fashion phenomena (i.e. fashion-forward trends in clothing, accessories, appearance styles and related consumer behaviours and marketplace practices) might be interpreted as expressing the post-postmodern characteristics addressed in each theoretical account. Extrapolation is necessary because, from the outset, a conundrum is evident: although fashion, style and appearance figure prominently in theories surrounding postmodernism, and although some scholars write that post-postmodern theory tends to focus on ‘peripheral’ and ‘seemingly trivial’ issues such as fashion (Ritzer and Yagatich, 2012: 104), fashion – as incoming trend or popular dress form – is rarely addressed in the works on post-postmodernism that Kirby identifies. While all five theorists describe aesthetic or otherwise expressive characteristics of a post-postmodern cultural milieu, examples are drawn from virtually every field of creative endeavour other than contemporary trends in dress and appearance. Features of painting, photography, architecture, literature, film, TV, video games and social media are addressed (e.g. Bourriaud, 2009; Boym, 2010; Davis, 2010; Kirby, 2009a; Vermeulen and van den Akker, 2010). But nothing is said of how the expressive characteristics of post-postmodernism play out in popular forms of dress and appearance.

Sustainable and collaborative fashion as altermodern practice

Altermodernism is the name Bourriaud assigns to an emerging ‘modern’ culture and to a form of artistic practice through which that culture is both formed and expressed (2009: 37). His thesis, initiated in Relational Aesthetics (1998/2002) and developed in The Radicant (2009) and in the Altermodern exhibition he curated for the Tate Triennial in 2009, is that the primary goal of altermodern artistic practice is to further the dissipation of postmodernism while creating a new cultural space for the development and appreciation of a global art.

According to Bourriaud, the primary influences on contemporary life are globalization, commodification and standardization. Altermodern art resists the pressure to accept these conditions; it acts as ‘a weapon against cultural standardization’ (2009: 76). This is accomplished through works that exhibit global cooperation by making meaningful connections between artistic traditions (30); that ‘enable disparate elements to function together’ (43); that ‘transcend existing cultural codes’ (40); and/or that indicate that the artist is engaged in the breakdown of rigid identities – identities that reveal nationality, social class, culture, geography, historical origin and/or sexual orientation (43).

The radicant is a metaphor Bourriaud employs to address the altermodern artist’s approach to work in the context of globalization. A biological term, it describes plant species, such as ivy, that spread by digging new roots to absorb nutrients from the soil as they move to inhabit new locations (1). The altermodern artist, Bourriaud says, is a nomad, a wanderer, an immigrant, a tourist, an experimenter, an explorer who grows by advancing ‘in all directions on whatever surfaces present themselves’ (51). This artist is continuously engaged in spontaneous, dynamic, heterogeneous invention, negotiation and expe...