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More Lesson Plans

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African Dress

Aesthetics

Knitwear: Casting On Around the World

Fashion and Art

Dress and Religion

Fashion and Politics

Fashion, Race and Representation

Fashion and Celebrity

How to Analyze a Fashion Collection

Women’s Fashion and Dress Reform in North America and West Europe in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries

African American Dress from the Transatlantic Slave Trade through the Twenty First Century

Costume Design

Cultures and Subcultures in a Global Context

Post-Mao Chinese Fashion

Fashion Museology

Diversification in Fashion Markets, Street Styles and Cultural Change

Bridal Fashions Across the Globe

The Study of Dress and Fashion

Dress and Teens: A Brief Study of Influences

Costume and Costuming: A Brief View

Fashion and National Identity: An Intercultural Overview

The Cultural Elements of Men’s Fashion and Style: Race, Ethnicity, Sex, and Class

Gender and the Fashion Media

The History of the Paper Pattern Industry

Fashion and Gender

Dress, Culture, and Society

Dress and the Arts

Nineteenth-Century Western Silhouettes and Color

Victorian Fashion

Sustainability and the Fashion Industry

Fashion in the Museum

Western Subcultural Dress

 

 

 

 

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Fashion and National Identity: An Intercultural Overview

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Judith Royer, Instructor of World Cultures, Minnesota State College – Southeast Technical, Minneapolis, USA

Introduction
Course Outline
Further Reading
Enrichment Materials

INTRODUCTION

What is this unit about?

This unit explores the connections between politics, country status and social power and their influence on fashion. Specifically, the set text for each lesson describes the differences in style that have been noted in countries that have made the significant move from colonization or socialism, for example.

What will students learn from this unit?

Students will be provided with an overview of the role of politics and social power in influencing clothing choices. They will then explore how these issues play out in different contexts, such as India and Brazil moving from colony to independent country and Eastern Europe moving away from socialism.

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COURSE OUTLINE

This unit, comprised of six lessons, is intended for students at second year undergraduate level and above.

The first lesson provides an overview of the topic, while the next 3 lessons add detail by exploring fashion changes prompted by politics in India, Brazil and Eastern Europe. The fifth lesson assigns an individual project, which is then shared in class during the sixth lesson.

Lesson 1

Core texts to be read before the lesson:

  • Johnson, Kim, "Politics and Fashion", A-Z of Fashion, The Berg Fashion Library online, 2005.

Discussion Questions

What rules does your society have for ‘appropriate’ dress? Think about status, gender, age, work roles, etc.

Describe two or more current examples of fashion being used to maintain or create social power, using different examples than those mentioned in the article. Accompanying images are also useful. [Types of social power: legitimate, reward, coercive, expert, referent, and information.]

Homework:

Write a short paper (minimum 350 words) on the messages you are giving people with your personal choice of dress. Keep in mind the ideas discussed in class and be prepared to share your thoughts in the next lesson.

Lesson 2

Core texts to be read before the lesson:

  • Tyabji, Laila, "Fashion in Post-Independence India", Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion: Volume 4 – South Asia and Southeast Asia: Part 5: Peoples and Dress of South Asia, Dhamija, Jasleen (ed), Berg, 2010. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2752/BEWDF/EDch4034

Discussion Questions:

Which styles that identify people as Indian, possibly even Indians of a certain class or role, have remained or changed since Independence?

Look at the contemporary styles of urban and rural Indian women or men by checking internet sources. What cross-cultural influences can you recognize (if any)? [Search the internet using terms such as the Hindi names for various clothing items, as well as Indian fashion designers, Fashion Week, dalits/untouchables, Indians at work or famous people]

Homework:

Write a short paper (300 words minimum) on the following question: What role has politics played in maintaining Indian fashion? Provide at least three examples, with at least two sources external to the assigned article.

Lesson 3

Core texts to be read before the lesson:

  • Andrade, Rita and Root, Regina, "Dress, Body and Culture in Brazil", Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion: Volume 2 – Latin America and the Caribbean: Part 5: South America, Schevill, Margot Blum (ed), Berg, 2010. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.zi2752/BEWDF/EDch2064

Discussion Questions:

What three or more influences have shaped Brazilian fashions over the past couple centuries?

What examples of social power (refer to the text from lesson 1 ) can be noted throughout Brazilian history? How were these examples presented in day-to-day fashion and style?

Homework:

What similarities and differences (minimum of three) do you see between the histories of Brazilian and Indian fashions? Show fashion examples from The Berg Fashion Library or the internet to support your points.

Lesson 4

Core texts to be read before the lesson:

  • Bartlett, Djurdja, "Fashion under Socialism", Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion: Volume 9 – East Europe, Russia, and the Caucasus: Part 2: History and Culture in East Europe, Russia, and the Caucasus, Bartlett, Djurdja (ed), Berg, 2010. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2752/BEWDF/EDch9016

Discussion Questions:

  • What aspects of fashion were limited under socialism? Explain your answers
  • What connections can you see between the rules of fashion under socialism and those in colonial India and Brazil?

Homework:

Share two examples (with optional images from The Berg Fashion Library) on each of the following topics:

a) How did individuals retain and express individuality under socialist rule?
b) What values were expressed in women's fashions under Soviet Socialist rule? Provide images to illustrate your ideas

Lesson 5

Personal Research Paper

Choose one theme discussed in the articles from the previous lessons and compare/contrast this topic using the various countries/regions discussed over the course of this unit.

Some options might include a famous designer in each country/area, one way that people learned about fashions such as magazines or fashion exhibitions, a style worn by a certain group of people in each country/area (police, teens, school children, farmers, etc.), or one aspect of social power as seen in each region.

Do additional research on this topic in each country/region and write a paper, including articles and photos from The Berg Fashion Library and the internet to support your text. Minimum 450 words.

Optional class reading:

  • Martin, David and Brown, Malcom D., "Multiple Meanings of the ‘Hijab’ in Contemporary France", The Berg Fashion Library. The Berg Fashion Library Online, 2001. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2752/9781847888709/DRSIMPRS0010 

Optional discussion question:

What were the three most important things you learned from this article? Relate one of them to the main discussion points of this unit, such as social power, colonization, cultural identity, etc.

Lesson 6

Note three important ideas you learned from your research and be prepared to share them in a small group discussion.

Bring visual aids as appropriate.

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FURTHER READING

EBooks in the Berg Fashion Library:

Keenan, William JF, "Dress Freedom: The Personal and the Political", Dressed to Impress, Berg, 2007. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2752/9781847888709/DRSIMPRS0014 

Villaça, Nizia, "As She Walks to the Sea: A Semiology of Rio de Janeiro", Root, Regina (ed) The Latin American Fashion Reader, Berg, 2005. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2752/9781847881052/LAFR0019

Maskiell, Michelle, "Consuming Kashmir: Shawls and Empires, 1500–2000", McNeil, Peter (ed), Classic and Modern Writings on Fashion, the Berg Fashion Library online, 2010.

Medvedev, Katalin, "Dress, Hungarian Socialism, and Resistance", Clay Johnson, Donald and Bradley Foster, Helen (eds), Dress Sense, Berg, 2007. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2752/9781847887139/DRSENS0008

Lentz, Carola, "Ethnic Conflict and Changing Dress Codes: A Case Study of an Indian Migrant Village in Highland Ecuador", Eicher, Joanne B (ed) Dress and Ethnicity: Change Across Space and Time, Berg, 1995. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2752/9781847881342/DRESSETHN0019

Articles in the Berg Fashion Library:

Johnson, Donald, "Colonial Influence on Dress in the Indian Subcontinent", Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion Volume 4 – South Asia and Southeast Asia, Part 5: Peoples and Dress of South Asia, Dhamija, Jasleen (ed), Berg, 2010. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2752/BEWDF/EDch4032 

Nagrath, Sumatai, "(En)countering Orientalism in High Fashion: A Review of India Fashion Week 2002", Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture Volume: 7 Issue: 3 Pages: 361-376, Berg, 2010. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2752/13627 

Valoma, Deborah, "Cloth and African Identity in Bahia, Brazil", Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion: Volume 2 – Latin America and the Caribbean: Part 5: South America, Schevill, Margot Blum (ed), Berg, 2010. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2752/BEWDF/EDch2063 

Root, Regina, "Snapshot: Raíz Diseño", Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion: Volume 2 – Latin America and the Caribbean, Schevill, Margot Blum (ed), Berg, 2010. 

Zakharova, Larissa, "Soviet Socialist Dress, 1917 to 1990", Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion Volume 9 – East Europe, Russia, and the Caucasus, Part 4: Russia and the Caucasus, Bartlett, Djurdja (ed), Berg, 2010. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2752/BEWDF/EDch9066 

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ENRICHMENT MATERIALS

(Not available in the Berg Fashion Library)

Films

  • The King and I, 1951
  • The Piano, 1993
  • Bride and Prejudice (the Bollywood re-make of Pride and Prejudice), 2004
  • Lost in Translation, 2003
  • My Big Fat Greek Wedding, 2002
  • Lincoln, 2012
  • Driving Miss Daisy, 1989
  • Gosford Park, 2001
  • Oliver, 1968
  • Nine to Five, 1980
  • Titanic, 1997

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