ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the ‘Spectral Turn’ in fashion culture and the fashion industry. It revaluates whether fashion is ever really unique and original or whether it is a reflection of society and culture in its revisionism. Examining key examples from contemporary fashion it aims to reveal the ghosts of the past that are forever returning in a longing for an ever-turning space for fashion that no longer exists or has never existed; a sense of always returning in time when our sense of Time itself has changed. This change has created a sense of ‘dyschronia’ in which, whilst everyday life has become quicker and more responsive to change, culture and fashion, in particular, have slowed down. This evaluation of ‘hauntology’ within fashion culture sets out to propose alternatives to a Capital model and to express potential for abstract and speculative futures for culture and fashion. This discourse, which is intertextual and interdisciplinary, will position the anthropological thinking of Donna Haraway alongside the philosophical approaches of Jane Bennett and Graham Harman to explore new materialism as a route to speculative fashion futures and rethinking post-humanism within the frame of fashion theory and fashion culture to envision speculative and alternative fashion futures.
