ZoneModa Journal

The Emperor's New Clothes: When Nothing is Everything

2022-11-09T12:18:43+01:00

The Emperor's New Clothes (Danish: “Kejserens nye klæder”, 1837) is one of the most famous Andersen’s fairy tales. It’s a typical apologue, with the vice of vanity as its target. The text will be subjected to a first reading to evince the narrative strategy and moral themes. A further, semiotic analysis of the text will be conducted on the basis of the first reading, so to expose the coding implied in the narration. Those codes will show the connection between dressing behaviour and the general system framing a human society. A narrative text, as Andersen’s tale, encodes the author’s implementation and re-writing of the social system, its map of values, both normative (moral) and phenomenological (experiential), and the reciprocal interaction. In particular, the semiotic analysis of The Emperor's New Clothes allows us to extract a representation of dressing behaviour and highlight its structure and dynamics.

Crafting Utopias Through Fashion in Ghana and Senegal

2022-11-09T12:38:11+01:00

This article introduces two case studies of ethical fashion from Senegal and Ghana: the Africanfuturist brand Selly Raby Kane, based in Dakar, and the Slum Studio collective operating off Kantamanto Market in Accra. Both engage critically with the global politics of clothing, developing place-sensitive and art-inspired responses informed by decolonial approaches to expressive meaning to the multiple threats engendered by the global fashion system.

Heterotopia and Heterochrony

2022-11-16T15:50:25+01:00

The essay investigates certain aspects of contemporary fashion through the “Tenet effect”, that is, researching the dynamics of style that are based on the reinterpretation and rewriting of elements of the past, as well as on their updating. The title of the contribution recalls the work of one of the French “nouveaux philosophes”, Michel Foucault, while the “Tenet effect” derives from cinema, precisely from Tenet by Cristopher Nolan, released in 2020. The reference figure of the interpretation proposed in the essay it is that of Riccardo Tisci, in his long phase of collaboration at Givenchy’s; at the helm of the famous French fashion house, the designer puts into practice his techniques of estrangement and reworking of history and the museum, at the same time proving his extraordinary abilities in the genetic tampering of the expressive codes of fashion. The contribution analyzes the men’s and women’s collections in which Tisci has been able to demonstrate that he is a worthy representative of the quotationism typical of his generation of born “around 1970”, in parallel with the visions of Alexander McQueen or Nicolas Ghesquière.

Culture and Sustainability: An Interplay on the New Made in Italy Landscape

2022-11-16T16:10:22+01:00

The current global interest and urge to propose alternatives to the predominant super-polluting and non-ethical fashion system require major attention to the unconventional fashion production models. Sustainable start-ups are often analysed as both circular systems and devices to re-activate local crafts, pointing toward not only the environmentally-friendly practices but also underlying the need to take better care of people, both as workers and consumers. However, little to no research is dedicated to the assessment of the holistic approach to sustainability of these born-responsible fashion entities. The analysis adopts the Earth Logic Fashion Action Research Plan (2019) framework by Kate Fletcher and Mathilda Tham and critically examines 60 born-sustainable brands in the Italian context. Through the analysis, it will be presented and discussed that born-sustainable does not imply a holistic approach, nor does it guarantee attention to the often-wrongly-separated environmental, social and cultural aspects of the sustainable agency.

Editorial

2022-12-02T11:55:53+01:00

‘Fashion Matters’ by Anneke Smelik. A Lecture Series on Sustainability, Posthumanism and New Materialism, Università Iuav di Venezia, 2nd-30th March 2022

2022-11-09T14:48:48+01:00

Theology Talks Fashion: A Conversation with Alberto Fabio Ambrosio

2022-11-16T15:51:02+01:00

On Their Own Skin. To be dressed “like animals” against dressing “with animals”, from representation to performance

2022-11-09T14:42:47+01:00

This paper will focus on the contrast between dressing “like animals" versus wearing animals”, that is, between the dimension of animal exploitation for clothing and, on the contrary, the vision of non-human beings as teachers capable of indicating new dimensions and new contents or capable of transforming us in the deep. The inspiring role of animals is read following the zooanthropological perspective- developed in Italy by Roberto Marchesini- and the political point of view of the Critical Animal Studies.

With respect to animal exploitation in fashion, a historical introduction is outlined on the birth of antispeciesist struggles against skins and furs, from the American PETA to the Italian LAV and Essere Animali.Then will follow a brief examination of materials of animal origin, from crocodile skins to wool and related investigations and reports of abuse by animal rights associations. The opposite polarities of exploitation and the epiphanic role of non-humans are exemplified by the articulation of images in fashion and by the zoomimetic performances of anti-speciesists with particular reference to the use of animal costumes in demonstrations. Then will follow a brief examination of materials of animal origin, from crocodile skins to wool and related investigations and reports of abuse by associations themselves.

Simona Segre-Reinach. Per un vestire gentile. Moda e liberazione animale. Milano: Pearson, 2022

2022-11-17T11:14:47+01:00

Ken Scott, il figlio dei fiori

2022-11-16T15:58:24+01:00

Shocking! The Surreal Worlds of Elsa Schiaparelli. Exibition by Olivier Gabet and Marie-Sophie Carron de la Carrière. Museum of Decorative Arts, Paris, July 6, 2022-January 22, 2023

2022-11-17T01:45:48+01:00

Global Narratives on Fashion

2022-12-02T11:40:13+01:00