Fashion Studies: Research Methods, Sites, and Practices

by Christopher Breward (Foreword by), Heike Jenss (Editor)

Overview

The study of fashion has expanded into a thriving field of inquiry, with researchers utilizing diverse methods from across subject disciplines to explore fashion and dress in wide-ranging contexts. With an emphasis on material culture and ethnographic approaches in fashion studies, this groundbreaking volume offers fascinating insights into the complex dynamics of research and fashion.

Featuring unique case studies, with interdisciplinary scholars reflecting on their practical research experiences, Fashion Studies provides rich and nuanced perspectives on the use, and mixing and matching of methodological approaches – including object and image based research, the integration of qualitative and quantitative methods and the fluid bridging of theory and practice. Engaging with diverse subjects, from ethnographies of model casting and street-style blogging, wardrobe studies and a material culture analysis of global denim wearing, to Martin Margiela's design and archival methods, Fashion Studies presents complex approaches in a lively and informative manner that will appeal to students of fashion, anthropology, sociology, cultural studies and related fields.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781472583192
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	01/28/2016
Series:	Dress, Body, Culture
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Heike Jenss is Associate Professor of Fashion Studies, Parsons School of Design, The New School, New York, USA.

Foreword by Christopher Breward, Principal of Edinburgh College of Art, UK and Vice Principal for the Creative and Performing Arts at the University of Edinburgh, UK.
Chris Breward is the Director of National Museums Scotland. He was trained at the Courtauld Institute and the Royal College of Art, London and has previously worked as Director of Collection and Research at the National Galleries of Scotland, Head of Research at the Victoria&Albert Museum, London and as Principal of Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh. His published interests include the relationship between art and fashion, visual and cultural histories of masculinity, and histories of city life. He is the author of Fashioning London (Bloomsbury, 2004) and co-editor of Material Memories (Bloomsbury, 1999), The Englishness of English Dress (Bloomsbury, 2002), Fashion and Modernity (Bloomsbury, 2005), Fashion's World Cities (Bloomsbury, 2006), and Styling Shanghai (Bloomsbury, 2020).

Table of Contents

Foreword, Christopher Breward, Edinburgh College of Art, UK
Introduction - Locating Fashion/Studies: Research Methods, Sites and Practices, Heike Jenss, Parsons School of Design, The New School, USA

SECTION ONE: APPROACHING FASHION AND DRESS AS MATERIAL CULTURE
Introduction, Heike Jenss, Parsons School of Design, The New School, USA
1. In Search of the Everyday: Museums, Collections and Representations of Fashion in London and New York, Cheryl Buckley, University of Brighton, UK, and Hazel Clark, Parsons School of Design, The New School, USA
2. 'Humble' Blue Jeans: Material Culture Approaches to Understanding the Ordinary, Global, and the Personal, Sophie Woodward, University of Manchester, UK

SECTION TWO: EXPLORING FASHION PRACTICES THROUGH ETHNOGRAPHY
Introduction, Heike Jenss, Parsons School of Design, The New School, USA
3. Ethnographic Entanglements: Memory and Narrative in the Global Fashion Industry, Christina Moon, Parsons School of Design, The New School, USA
4. Urban Fieldnotes: An Auto-Ethnography of Street Style Blogging, Brent Luvaas, Drexel University, USA
5. Recasting Fashion Image Production: An Ethnographic and Practice-Based Approach to Investigating Bodies as Media, Stephanie Sadre-Orafai, University of Cincinnati, USA
6. Exploring Creativity: An Ethnographic Approach to Studying Fashion Design Pedagogy, Todd Nicewonger, University of Gothenburg, Sweden

SECTION THREE: MIXED METHODS
Introduction, Heike Jenss, Parsons School of Design, The New School, USA
7. Fitting Sources – Tailoring Methods: A Case-Study of Martin Margiela and the Temporalities of Fashion, Francesca Granata, Parsons School of Design, The New School, USA
8. Mixing Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Fashion Studies: Philosophical Underpinnings and Multiple Masculinities, Susan B. Kaiser, University of California, Davis, USA, and Denise N. Green, Cornell University, USA
9. Action! Or, Exploring Diffractive Methods for Fashion Research, Otto von Busch, Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Sweden
10. Editing Fashion Studies: Reflections on Methodology and Interdisciplinarity in The Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, Joanne B. Eicher, University of Minnesota, USA

Index

Editorial Reviews

Never before has the diverse panorama of research methods in fashion studies been brought together in one volume. From object to image and from design to consumer, our field's leading scholars thoughtfully share the unique ways in which they collect and theorize data in fashion. This is the essential text for all fashion studies research methods courses and the latest addition to all of our personal reference libraries.” – Ben Barry, Associate Professor of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, School of Fashion, Ryerson University, Canada

“Heike Jenss has done an outstanding job in compiling an insightful and inspiring book that covers a range of important research on fashion as a material object and a practice. This book demonstrates the depth and the richness of the discipline and its creative methodological strategies. It is an invaluable contribution to the field and a must-read for all fashion scholars, practitioners, and students.” – Yuniya Kawamura, Professor of Sociology at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, USA

“Focusing on research methods and practices in fashion studies, and demonstrating how both fashion and research are in fact situated practices, this much welcome collection will prove a necessity for anyone teaching fashion studies and/or doing fashion research. The rich array of case studies all elegantly manage to bridge theory and practice, and while outlining and exemplifying a variety of methodologies, they also ultimately prove the interdisciplinarity of fashion studies as a field.” – Louise Wallenberg, Associate Professor and Establishing Director of the Centre for Fashion Studies at Stockholm University, Sweden

From the Publisher

Heike Jenss has done an outstanding job in compiling an insightful and inspiring book that covers a range of important research on fashion as a material object and a practice. This book demonstrates the depth and the richness of the discipline and its creative methodological strategies. It is an invaluable contribution to the field and a must-read for all fashion scholars, practitioners, and students.

Yuniya Kawamura

Focussing on research methods and practices in fashion studies, and demonstrating how both fashion and research are in fact situated practices, this much welcome collection will prove a necessity for anyone teaching fashion studies and/or doing fashion research. The rich array of case studies all elegantly manage to bridge theory and practice, and while outlining and exemplifying a variety of methodologies, they also ultimately prove the interdisciplinarity of fashion studies as a field.

Louise Wallenberg