HAZEL CLARK
Parsons New York
"Fashion – the fabric of cultures – revisited"
In the Introduction to "The Fabric of Cultures: Fashion, Identity and Globalization" (2009), Eugenia Paulicelli and I refer to fashion as ‘a privileged lens through which to gain a new understanding of cultures.’ Almost a decade later, in the Introduction to Fashion and Everyday Life: London and New York (2017), written with Cheryl Buckley, we cite Elizabeth Wilson’s positioning of fashion ‘as one of the most immediate and everyday cultural manifestations and one which we neglect at our peril.’ Taking Raymond William’s definition of culture as ‘a whole way of life’ (1958) these two books serve as metaphorical bookends for this presentation, which uncovers the ongoing complexities of the production and consumption of fashion; considers museums and exhibitions as mechanisms of cultural production; and reflects on the changing interactions between personal, national, and transnational fashion identities.