I. Globalization and Asian Fashion: Homogeneity or Heterogeneity?

A. Veiling: Islamic rejection of Westernization, globalization
B. Globalization = dramatic increase in the frequency, quantity, and importance of flows of people, things, money, and ideas around the globe

1. Consumer items produced around world
2. Travel
3. Internet
4. Not new, but it's become easier, cheaper, faster
5. Ideological position: we think of ourselves as connected globally

C. Two theories of globalization

1. Homogenization = people becoming similar, one global culture, Americanization

a. Veiling as reaction against homogenization

2. Heterogenization = appreciate diversity, cultural uniqueness

a. Cosmopolitan identities and status

 

II. Ethnic Chic in an Urban Village (Tarlo)

A. Hauz Khas

1. "Traditional" village: embroidered wall hangings, hand-painted murals, hand-carved wooden furniture and pillars, brass oil lamps, bulky silver jewelry, colorful clothing
2. Mix of styles from Gujarat, Bihar, mountains, coast
3. "Village" is actually part of Delhi

B. Ethnic chic

1. Hippies, 1970s
2. Ethnic = exotic
3. Orientalism

C. "Ethnic chic" in Delhi

1. Term used by Delhi socialites
2. Implies distance, elites as outsiders
3. Chic refers to international fashion aesthetics
4. Started in 1980s among educated elites with foreign connections

D. Hauz Khas

1. Jats: former farmers, now professionals or keepers of cattle
2. Harijans, Muslims: laborers in building trades, women are sometimes sweepers
3. 1987: boutique owners arrive
4. 1989: 38 ethnic chic shops, >50% sell clothing
5. Pre-packaged version of "authentic" village life

E. Paradoxes of ethnic chic

1. Hauz Khas villagers

a. Rejected tradition as backward, unmodern
b. Western clothes, cement houses = urban modernity

2. Boutique owners, shoppers, tourists

a. Nostalgic for lost village life that wasn't theirs
b. Villagers don't appreciate value of their own traditions

3. Neither side understands the other

F. Power differential

1. Elites are choosing to adopt "exotic" style as aesthetic statement of sophistication and nationalism
2. Villagers who dress traditionally = backward, quaint anachronisms, not exotic or trendy
3. Selective appropriation, veil example

 

III. Ethnic Chic in Vietnam

A. 1980s-90s: Foreigners "discover" ethnic fashion in Vietnam
B. "Chinese" pyjamas

1. 1994: Lan, owner of a downtown boutique
2. 1995: Lan's children send her six women's Chinese-style outfits from the US, these outfits are copied and sold as "ethnic chic" to foreign tourists
3. 1996: Mai, a market trader, adapts Lan's design and sells it to Vietnamese as a Chinese-inspired look
4. Tourists' quest for authenticity ==> hybrid product
5. Cosmopolitan locals have capital (economic, social, and cultural) to adopt "authentic" tradition

 

IV. Performance practices (Leshkowich and Jones)

A. Move beyond homogenization v. heterogenization
B. Re-appropriation, characterization, and an exoticizing gaze: us v. them
C. Performance Theory

1. Self created through performance
2. Performance constrained by pre-existing conditions

D. Practice Theory (Pierre Bourdieu): taste reflects position
E. Peformance practices attends to interaction between intentionality and positionality of both performer and audience

1. To enhance status, challenge Orientalism, audience must read performance correctly (i.e., according to performer's intent)
2. Reading depends on status relationship

 

V. The Effects of an Outfit and the Agency of Objects (Woodward)

A. Wearers' intentions
B. Secondary agency of objects (Gell 1998)
C. Rosie's leather MaxMara skirt
D. Mumtaz's outfit for a wedding in France
E. Constraints on dress

1. Limited domain of the wardrobe items
2. Agency of clothing, material and ideological
3. Internalization of how others will view us

F. Dressing is anxious, contingent, exciting