Touched by Fashion

On Feeling What we Wear

Bibliographic Data

ID9466378
AuthorsLaura T Di Summa (William Paterson University), Laura Summa (William Paterson University, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume65
Issue1
Pages81-96
Publication date2024-04-24
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe British Journal of Aesthetics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0007-0904 • E-ISSN: 1468-2842
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/aesthj/ayae019
OpenAlexW4402668855
LanguageEN
References cited23

Fashion is immediately associated with looks. Its popularity and its most consumerist sides thrive in our current culture of image, further highlighting the connection between fashion and an aesthetic that is quintessentially visual. While it is impossible to deny such a connection, this paper explores the relationship between fashion and touch and fashion and “feel”, two terms that, albeit related, deserve independent consideration. I will begin by emphasizing the importance of seeing fashion in relation to a performative understanding of identity, which is experiential, embodied, situated, and, quite simply, “in movement”. Such an understanding, crucial for a better grasp of sartorial design, is inevitably linked to a tactile understanding of fashion: from the selection of fabrics to the silhouettes and cuts that allow a sketch to move to a garment in three dimensions. But, crucially, a performative understanding of identity is also the starting point for a reflection on touch and fashion in our everyday tasks and judgments, judgments that often move from the aesthetic sphere to other value areas and the broader socio-political context. To further cement my arguments, I will conclude the paper with two case studies: sportswear and maternity wear

Aesthetics · Art · Feeling · Crafts, Textile, and Design · Fashion and Cultural Textiles · Psychology · Social Psychology

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