Review of: The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture, Karen Lemmey, Tobias Wofford and Grace Yasumura (2024)

Washington, DC, Princeton, NJ and Oxford: Smithsonian American Art Museum and Princeton University Press, 292 pp.,

ISBN 978-0-69126-149-2, h/bk, USD 65.00

ISBN 978-0-69126-151-5, e-book, USD 32.50

This research investigates the role of activewear as a representation of modern masculinity in urban Indonesia. The study used qualitative research methodologies, including interviews with ten Indonesian men who actively include activewear in their wardrobe choices. Such exploration will look into the dynamics at play at the nexus between fashion, fitness and masculinity within this setting. The findings indicated that activewear is a multidimensional signifier of contemporary masculinity, signalling a movement away from the stoicism associated with traditional masculinity towards a health-and-fitness-emphasized, modern and active lifestyle. Overall, participants showed an overwhelmingly strong association between the concept of healthy lifestyle and activewear, where sportswear was seen as wearing an image of fitness and discipline, a desirable life. It illustrates that globally and locally relevant constructions of male identity intertwine, as most of the ideals of athleticism and masculinity depicted through the western media get appraised by participants with consideration towards Indonesian cultural logic focused on harmonious coexistence and community bonding. Additionally, when choosing clothing, comfort and usefulness work together to enhance the brand’s image. They preferred brands with images they would like to portray and those offering high-quality, functional clothes. Sustainability was an increasingly important consideration, but high prices barred most from choosing such options. This research develops the understanding of how fashion and consumerism shape masculine identities in contemporary Indonesia. By placing activewear in this context, the study places a valuable insight into the changing dynamics of masculinity in the fast-changing urban landscape.

This article examines perceptions of LGBTQIA+ expression of their identities through dress. The research utilizes intersectionality theory that encompasses additional identities an individual may have to understand how LGBTQIA+ individuals express their gender through dress and the impact of other identities on the expression of gender identity. This study is significant because it contributes to research on gender identity and dress by examining it within the context of intersectionality theory. In-depth interviews were conducted with LGBTQIA+ individuals from two regions in the United States. The results revealed that in addition to gender, participants actively portrayed their profession, personality/lifestyle, social group, religious group, sexual orientation and financial status through dress. They also discussed biased treatment due to additional identities such as ethnicity, financial status, profession and age. While gender was important to express, other identities impacted their experiences as part of the LGBTQIA+ community and their dress selections. This research has practical applications for human resource managers and teachers in post-secondary education to interact with employers or students as a whole individual with many intersecting identities.

Creating resonance between an audience and brand identity is often a long-term process but can be made instant through proper music implementation. This research explored music listening behaviours and their effect on inducing fantasy/daydreaming within fashion spaces (domestic, retail and runway) and specifically if fantasy strengthens garment self-association. Creating this connection between music, a garment and a physical space could result in an elevated visitor experience and signals a preference for curated experiences. The study undertook a phenomenological approach through surveys, wardrobe interviews and Mirror Time (using a mirror to pull on subconscious thoughts). The short-form survey and long-form interview had sample sizes of fifteen and four, respectively, covering several age groups from 21 to 35. Results showed that genre, task, music agency and desire mitigated fantasy/daydreaming. Additionally, music listening behaviours split into two audience groups: one using music for fantasy and the other for focus. Fashion spaces were mapped on a Store–Space (x), Object–Product (y) continuum to assess their properties, which, in conjunction with the audience groups, provided a framework for organizations to develop accurate music strategies. By integrating curated music experiences into a marketing strategy, a more consistent and meaningful brand–consumer resonance can be created.

This article explores how changing textile fashions and evolving consumer tastes reshaped handloom production in North India between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. British imperialism and industrialization transformed the social practices of textile design, production and consumption in colonial India. The implications of these new fashion arrangements – often overlooked – led both consumers and producers to engage, consciously or not, with the modernizing colonial project. The article argues that responses to European industrial fashion were not merely imitative or passive but marked by selective appropriation and strategic revival of Indigenous styles. These sartorial choices reflected deeper social negotiations, expressing class, hierarchy, nationalist sentiment and evolving identities. The handloom industry, far from being obsolete, adapted to new fashion regimes, making cloth a powerful site of cultural expression and social change in the material world of colonial India.

This article critically examines the emerging role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the field of fashion trend forecasting, focusing on how machine-learning technologies reshape the aesthetic and commercial dimensions of predicting style. Drawing from fashion studies, philosophy and management studies, this article interrogates the shift from qualitative, expert-led trend forecasting to data-driven, predictive systems that claim to map and anticipate consumer taste at scale. It explores how these systems function not only as tools of prediction but also as producers of cultural meaning, taste hierarchies and aesthetic norms. The article offers a new perspective on AI forecasting in the academy, which has thus far focused on its technical aspects. By analysing AI fashion trend platforms, I explore a critical framework for understanding the implications of AI-driven trend forecasting in both commercial and cultural contexts.

In 2017, various conservative, far-right and alternative-right (alt-right) groups banded together in Charlottesville, Virginia at the Unite the Right rally in efforts to protest the removal of a Confederate era monument in the city and to demonstrate unity among these activist factions. The rally served as a nucleation point for the examination of a new trend of political fashion as images of mostly white males dressed in white polos, button-front shirts and variations of khaki trousers decorated headlines. This shift into a seemingly bland smart-casual style marked a contemporary intrigue into how right-wing activists engage with fashion. Yet, the selection of such an aesthetic amid the increased US political turmoil of the time was neither random nor a fashion faux-pas, rather a reflection of far-right ideological perceptions of Americanness. In this article we explore a critical conjuncture of fashion and far-right political activism by examining the smart-casual uniforms of two contemporary far-right groups, the Patriot Front and the Proud Boys. Through a lens of cultural memory, this article demonstrates how the curated smart-casual style of far-right groups reifies their ideology through the presentation and abstraction of the myths and histories of American national identity.

Review of: From Sleepwear to Sportswear: How Beach Pajamas Reshaped Women’s Fashion, Janine D’Agati and Hanna Schiff (2024)

London: Bloomsbury Academic, 272 pp.,

ISBN 978-1-35023-192-4, p/bk, USD 39.95

The result of a collaboration in the 1980s between provocative fashion industry insider Malcolm McLaren and leading comic book writer Alan Moore, the graphic novel Fashion Beast (2013) has an inherent interest. The fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, as retold in Jean Cocteau’s film La Belle et La Bête (1946) formed the basis for their reinterpretation of Christian Dior’s life as a ‘fashion beast’. McLaren and Moore’s scepticism towards authority and capitalism and Moore’s rejection of Thatcherism have also left their mark on the story. Using mirrors as structuring metaphors, Moore lets struggles over values and identity play out in a dystopian urban environment centred on the House of Celestine. My study introduces McLaren and Moore’s collaboration on Fashion Beast. I then outline the plot of Moore’s graphic novel. The bulk of the study focuses on status-seeking model Doll Seguin, trickster–provocateur and aspiring designer Jonni Tare, and Jean-Claude Celestine, the Dior-like ‘fashion beast’ who is creative director of the House of Celestine. Through these characters, Moore exposes the ‘bestial’ nature of the fashion industry’s preoccupation with style and appearance, which goes hand in hand with its cultivation of the status-enhancing power of the image. Moore’s open-ended plot makes us wonder if there is any solution to the problems plaguing the fashion industry as depicted in Fashion Beast.

This pilot study explored the articulation of fashion design students’ aesthetic design language for fashion (ADL-F) and investigated methods for improved efficacy. Using a three-pronged theoretical framework (information theory, descriptive linguistics and multimodal discourse analysis) a three-phase analysis was conducted consisting of thematic, content and spatial mapping evaluations of student ADL-F statements and corresponding sewn garments. Findings reveal aspects of literal visual translation of garments in student work, but difficulties overusing metaphorical and vague language. A developed instrument found significant associations between ADL-F variables and quality ratings and highlighted challenges in specificity, clarity and accuracy for many variables such as pattern, texture and function. A spatial mapping approach was developed that further revealed gaps in comprehensive ADL-F descriptions. Insights indicate that improved ADL-F would include precise language, reduced metaphor use, enhanced knowledge and usage of ADL-F variables, and comprehensive spatial descriptions of the design in applications of academic, professional and emerging GenAI contexts.