Topics in Fashion Theory introduces students to the ideas and debate that have enriched our understanding of fashion. Through the manipulation of the visual and tactile symbols of clothing (cut, cloth, texture, ornament, and color) fashion expresses individual, community and societal attributes and attitudes. Yet, as Fred Davis notes, social identities are rarely the stable amalgams we take them to be.They can shift over the course of a lifetime and are prodded by social and technological change. Drawing on scholarship in a range of disciplines, including sociology, cultural studies, gender studies and queer theory, the class explores how clothing communicates aspects of identity linked to gender, sexuality, class, race, religion, and nation. We will examine the extent to which fashion is currently formulating effective social commentary, and consider questions, for example, that surround sustainable fashion and cultural appropriation. The class integrates reading and reading responses with discussion and visual analysis of clothing and fashion across the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries. Students will develop a final essay that assesses a debate of interest encountered in class discussion and readings.

Elective