Fashion & War in Popular Culture
Fashion & War in Popular Culture (Book)
Aside from the occasional nod to epaulettes or use of camouflage, war and fashion seem to be strange partners. Not so, argue the contributors to this book, who connect military industrial practices as well as military dress to textile and clothing in new ways. For instance, the book includes a series of commentaries on the impact of military dress in the airline industry, in illustrated wartime comics and even considers today’s muscled soldier’s body as a new type of uniform. Elsewhere, the effects of conquest introduce a new set of postcolonial aesthetics as military and colonial regimes disrupt local textile production and garment making. In another chapter, it is argued that textiles and fashion are important because they reflect a core practice, one that bridges textile artists and designers in an expressive, creative and deeply physical way to matters of cultural significance. And the book concludes by calling the very mode of 'military chic' into ethical question.
The premier text to illustrate the impact of war on textiles, bodies, costume, art and design, Fashion & War in Popular Culture will be warmly welcomed by scholars of fashion design and theory, historians of fashion and those interested in theories of warfare and military science.
Edition
Aside from the occasional nod to epaulettes or use of camouflage, war and fashion seem to be strange partners. Not so, argue the contributors to this book, who connect military industrial practices as well as military dress to textile and clothing in new ways. For instance, the book includes a series of commentaries on the impact of military dress in the airline industry, in illustrated wartime comics and even considers today’s muscled soldier’s body as a new type of uniform. Elsewhere, the effects of conquest introduce a new set of postcolonial aesthetics as military and colonial regimes disrupt local textile production and garment making. In another chapter, it is argued that textiles and fashion are important because they reflect a core practice, one that bridges textile artists and designers in an expressive, creative and deeply physical way to matters of cultural significance. And the book concludes by calling the very mode of 'military chic' into ethical question. The premier text to illustrate the impact of war on textiles, bodies, costume, art and design, Fashion & War in Popular Culture will be warmly welcomed by scholars of fashion design and theory, historians of fashion and those interested in theories of warfare and military science.
Introduction
Contextualizing fashion and war within popular culture – Jennifer Craik
Overview – Denise N. Rall
Section I: The military in popular culture
Chapter 1: Representation of female wartime bravery in Australia’s Wanda the War Girl and Jane at War from the UK – Jane Chapman
Chapter 2: Fashionable fascism: Cinematic images of the Nazi before and after 9/11 – Kylee M. Hartman-Warren
Chapter 3: Branding the muscled male body as military costume – Heather Smith and Richard Gehrmann
Section II: Fashion and the military
Chapter 4: In the service of clothes: Elsa Schiaparelli and the war experience – Annita Boyd
Chapter 5: The discipline of appearance: Military style and Australian flight hostess uniforms 1930–1964 – Prudence Black
Chapter 6: Models, medals, and the use of military emblems in fashion – Amanda Laugesen
Section III: Framing youth fashion, textile artworks and postcolonial costume in the context of conflict
Chapter 7: Battle dressed – clothing the criminal, or the horror of the ‘hoodie’ in Britain – Joanne Turney
Chapter 8: Dutch wax and display: London and the art of Yinka Shonibare – Davinia Gregory
Chapter 9: Costume and conquest: Introducing a proximity framework for post-war impacts on textile and fashion – Denise N. Rall
Afterword: The military in contemporary fashion – Denise N. Rall
