Negative Aesthetics, Grotesque Bodies and Disgusting Fashion in the 21st century

Danae Ioannou

doi:10.6092/issn.2611-0563/17944

Authors

Danae Ioannou Cyprus University of Technology

She is a PhD Candidate in Philosophy of Art and Aesthetics at the Department of Fine Arts of the Cyprus Technological University. Her research interests are Negative Aesthetics, Fashion Theory and Philosophy of Art. She received her Bachelor Degree in Theory and History of Art from Athens School of Fine Arts (ASFA) in 2018, presenting the first thesis on Fashion History, about the evolution of Japanese kimono and its impact on the western culture and fashion. In 2020, she acquired her Master Degree in Fashion Studies from Stockholm University, presenting her master thesis “To be feared or to be wanted: Projections of Fear and Desire in the work of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano.” Her latest research work is focused on the negative emotional responses, namely the emotion of disgust, in art and fashion.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2611-0563/17944

Keywords:

Disgust, Soma, Negative Aesthetics, Feminine, Fashion

Abstract

The aesthetics of body and dress are in a continuous flux. The body, being the locus where fashion challenges the traditional norms, escapes from the narrow boundaries of the conventionally beautiful; the disgusting soma, in the realm of Negative Aesthetics, takes its place. In this paper, I attempt to define what is disgusting fashion and how can contribute to the deliberation of the body from the restricting margins of the aesthetically beautiful. The distorted imagery of the feminine soma is the center of the analysis of the non-beautiful as an aesthetically pleasing phenomenon. Different examples of repulsive clothing are analyzed from a philosophical point of view, in order to understand the relation between the negative emotional responses towards disgusting fashion and its aesthetic value.

References

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Ioannou, Danae. “Women as Open Wounds: Fear, Desire and the Ideal Feminine in the Works of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano.” The Journal of the Aesthetics of Kitsch, Camp and Mass Culture, vol.2 (2022): 32–47. https://www.popularinquiry.com/s/Popularinquiry_Vol11_2022_2_Ioannou_def.pdf"class="uri">https://www.popularinquiry.com/s/Popularinquiry_Vol11_2022_2_Ioannou_def.pdf.

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Negative Aesthetics, Grotesque Bodies and Disgusting Fashion in the 21st century

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