The Global ‘Wordrobe’. Ethnic Counter-Conquest in the Language of Fashion

Authors

  • Mariella Lorusso Università di Bologna

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2611-0563/9967

Keywords:

global fashion studies, language globalization, native fashion language, counter-colonization

Abstract

The absence of spatial boundaries opens the language of fashion to extraterritoriality and multilingualism. This reflects a marked hybridization, typical of global fashion, which increasingly mixes styles and products and is less and less rooted in a local and identity perspective. Loanwords, toponyms and terms with ethnic connotation are just an example of a linguistic variety reaching out to immense distances. Fashion like language is a way of conveying culture and creativity. It lends itself to being widely investigated both on a linguistic and cultural level as in many cases of Native populations. In these cultures the language, or words of fashion, express themselves in artistic and craft productions, which are also the vehicle of the Native’s tradition and worldview.
The appropriation of, symbols, styles and terminology by the fashion industry is strictly connected to colonial practices still active to date, and have become part of a globalized heritage.
The aim of this contribution is to explore the linguistic influence of English on the lexicon of global fashion and to show language globalization in a positive light, as a breakthrough, both open and inclusive at the same time. Some words belonging to the Native populations of America will be analyzed as part of a globalized heritage of native fashion language, and as a sign of ‘counter-conquest’ or ‘counter-colonization’.

References

Arbor, Ann. “Racism Under the Radar in Minnetonka Shoes.” (December 11, 2010), http://raceandmixedracemedia.blogspot.com/2010/12/racism-under-radar-in-minnetonka-shoes.html.

Ashcroft, Bill, Gareth Griffith and Helen Tiffin. The Empire Writes Back. London, New York: Routledge, 2002.

Baizerman, Suzanne, Joanne Eicher and Catherine Cerny. “Eurocentrism in the Study of Ethnic Dress.” Dress, The Journal of the Costume Society of America, vol. 20 (1993): 19–32, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/036121193805298291.

Balteiro, Isabel. New Approaches to Specialized English Lexicology and Lexicography. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011.

Barthes, Roland. Système de la Mode. Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1967.

Bhabha, Homi. The Location of Culture. New York: Routledge, 1997.

Breward, Christopher. The Culture of Fashion. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995.

Calefato, Patrizia. Mass Moda. Linguaggio e immaginario del corpo vestito. Milano: Universale Meltemi, 2007.

Calligaro, Giulia. “Il linguaggio dei giornali di moda.” Problemi dell’informazione, vol. 4 (Dicembre 1997): 589–601.

Clayton-Gouthro, Cecile. Pattern in Transition – Moccasin Production and Ornamentation of the Janvier Band Chipewyan. Hull, Quebec: Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1994.

Colchester, Chloë. Clothing the Pacific. Oxford: Berg, 2003.

Craik, Jennifer. The Face of Fashion. New York: Routledge, 1994.

Dewar, Veronica. “Our Clothing, our Culture, our Identity.” In Arctic Clothing, eds. J.C.H. King, Birgit Pauksztat and Robert Storrie, 23–. London: British Museum Press, 2005.

Driscoll, Bernadette. “Pretending to be Caribou, The Inuit Parka as an Artistic Tradition.” In The Spirit Sings, Artistic Traditions of Canada’s First Peoples, 169–200. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, Glenbow Museum, 1987.

Eicher, Joanne. Dress and Ethnicity. Oxford: Berg, 1999/1995.

Eicher, Joanne. Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, The United States and Canada, vol. 3. London, Oxford: Bloomsbury, 2010.

Eicher, Joanne. Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, The United States and Canada, vol. 10. London, Oxford: Bloomsbury, 2010.

Emberley, Julia. Thresholds of Difference. Feminist Critique, Native Women’s Writing, Postcolonial Theory. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993.

Fanon, Frantz. Les damnés de la terre. Paris: Maspéro Éditions, 1961. (Italian transl. I dannati della terra. Torino: Edizioni Comunità, 2000).

Francis, Daniel. The Imaginary Indian. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 1992.

Glenbow Museum. The Spirit Sings, Artistic Traditions of Canada’s First Peoples. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1987.

Glissant, Edouard. Introduction à une poétique du divers. Paris: Gallimard, 1995/1996. (Italian transl. Poetica del diverso. Roma: Meltemi, 1998).

Jacobson, Steven. Yup’ik Eskimo Dictionary. Fairbanks: University of Alaska, 2012, https://uafanlc.alaska.edu/Online/CY972J2012/Yup'ik_Eskimo_Dictionary_Vol_1-smalller.pdf

Jansen, Angela and Jennifer Craik. Modern Fashion Traditions, Negotiating Tradition and Modernity through Fashion. London, New York: Bloomsbury, 2016.

Ling, Wessie and Simona Segre Reinach. Fashion in Multiple Chinas, Chinese Styles in the Transglobal Landscape. London, New York: Tauris & Co. Ltd., 2018.

Lopriore, Lucilla and Cristiano Furiassi. “The influence of English and French on the Italian language of fashion: Focus on false Anglicisms and false Gallicisms.” In Pseudo-English. Studies on False Anglicisms in Europe, eds. Cristiano Furiassi and Heinrik Gottlieb, 197–26. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2015.

Lorusso, Mariella. “If I Were in your Moccasins.” ZoneModa Journal, vol. 1 (July 2009): 84–93.

Lorusso, Mariella. Contro il terrorismo dal 1492. Milano: Arcipelago Ed., 2008.

Lorusso, Mariella. “Bikini, Burkini, Fatkini: the Size of Fashion Words.” In The Size Effect, A Journey Into Design, Fashion and Media, eds. Antonella Mascio, Roy Menarini, Simona Segre Reinach and Ines Tolic. Mimesis International, 2018.

Lorusso, Mariella. Dizionario della moda. Bologna: Zanichelli, 2017.

Lurie, Alison. The Language of Clothes. New York: Owl Books, 2000.

Lutz, Hartmut. Approaches, Essays in Native North American Studies and Literatures. Augsburg: Wißner Verlag, 2002.

Lynch, Annette and Mitchell Strauss. Ethnic Dress in the United States: A Cultural Encyclopedia. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2014.

Maynard, Margaret. Dress and Globalisation. Manchester, New York: Manchester University Press, 2004.

Memmi, Albert. The Colonizer and the Colonized. Boston: Beacon Press, 1991.

Mithun, Marianne. The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Niessen, Sandra. “Afterword: Re-Orenting Fashion Theory.” In Re-Orienting Fashion, eds. Sandra Niessen, Ann Marie Leshkowich and Carla Jones, 243-66. Oxford: Berg, 2003.

Ondelli, Stefano. “Da chic a glam: gli anglicismi alla conquista della moda italiana.” In Treccani, Lingua italiana. 2015. http://www.treccani.it/magazine/lingua_italiana/speciali/moda2/Ondelli.html.

Paterek, Josephine. Encyclopedia of American Indian Costume. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1996.

Paulicelli, Eugenia. Writing Fashion in Early Modern Italy – from Sprezzatura to Satire. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2014. (Italian translation: Moda e letteratura nell’Italia della prima modernità - dalla sprezzatura alla satira. Milano: Meltemi Editore, 2019.)

Phillips, Ruth. “Art in Woodlands Life: the Early Pioneer Period.” In The Spirit Sings, Artistic Traditions of Canada’s First Peoples, 51–92. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, Glenbow Museum, 1987.

Rak, Michele and Maria Catricalà. Global Fashion, spazi, linguaggi e comunicazione della moda senza luogo. Milano: Mondadori Education S.p.A., 2013.

Reed, Fran. “The Poor Man’s Raincoat: Alaskan Fish-Skin Garments.” In Arctic Clothing, eds. J.C.H. King, Birgit Pauksztat and Robert Storrie, 48–52. London: British Museum Press, 2005.

Scarpellini, Emanuela. “Gli studi sulla moda come settore storiografico emergente.” Memoria e Ricerca, vol. 50 (settembre–dicembre 2015): 11–25.

Tranberg Hansen, Karen. “Colonialism and Imperialism.” In Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion, vol. 1, edited by Valerie Steele, 277–80. New York: Scribner, 2004.

Riello, Giorgio and Peter McNeil. The Fashion History Reader: Global Perspectives. London: Routledge, 2010.

Said, Edward. Orientalism. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1978.

Said, Edward. Culture and Imperialism. New York: Alfred Knopf, 1993.

Segre Reinach, Simona. Manuale di comunicazione, sociologia e cultura della moda, vol. 4. Roma: Meltemi, 2006.

Segre Reinach, Simona. “Moda e globalizzazione: i nuovi scenari internazionali.” Memoria e Ricerca, vol. 50 (settembre–dicembre 2015): 51–65.

Segre Reinach, Simona. “Ethnicity.” In A Cultural History of Dress and Fashion in the Modern Age, vol. 6, edited by Alexandra Palmer, 151–70. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017.

Sergio, Giuseppe. “Dal marabù al bodysuit: ‘Vogue Italia’ e la lingua della moda.” Memoria e Ricerca, (settembre–dicembre 2015): 97–114.

Shohat, Ella and Robert Stam. Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media. London: Routledge, 1994.

Siebert, Frank. “Resurrecting Virginia Algonquian from the dead: The reconstituted and historical phonology of Powhatan.” In Studies in Southeastern Indian Languages, edited by James Crawford, 285–453. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1975.

Teunissen, José. “Global Fashion local Tradition, On the globalisation of fashion.” In Global Fashion Local Tradition, On the Globalisation of Fashion, eds. Jan Brand and José Teunissen, 8–23. Arnhem: Uitgeverij Terra Lannoo, 2005.

Thompson, Judy. “No Little Variety of Ornament, Northern Athapaskan Artistic Traditions.” In The Spirit Sings, Artistic Traditions of Canada’s First Peoples, 133–68. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, Glenbow Museum, 1987.

Tuhiwai Smith, Linda. Decolonizing Methodologies. New York: Palgrave, 2002.

Welters, Linda and Abby Lillethun. Fashion History: A Global View. London: Bloomsbury, 2018.

Whitney, Camper. On Snow-Shoes to the Barren Grounds. New York: Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1896.

Downloads

Published

2019-12-23

How to Cite

Lorusso, M. (2019). The Global ‘Wordrobe’. Ethnic Counter-Conquest in the Language of Fashion. ZoneModa Journal, 9(2), 89–102. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2611-0563/9967