ABSTRACT
The politics of fashion are essentially two-fold: first, in relation to its production, historically exploitative and more recently racialised; and second, in connection with its consumption. The former is mostly considered in Chapter 7. Here we will consider the politics of fashion’s consumption. For the most part this centres on the politics of identity or the series of ways in which aspects of our more contemporary identities such as class, gender, race or sexuality have become more politicised in the wake of new social movements such as black protest, civil rights, feminism and gay liberation. A second dimension centres on questions of subcultural style or forms of mostly youth driven resistance towards more dominant or mainstream forms of self-presentation. Common examples include mods and rockers, the punk movement, goth culture and some aspects of black style such as Rastafarianism. The two dimensions connect significantly in relation to questions of class, race, sexuality and gender. Thus, the differing aspects of the politics of fashion are also interconnected: class-driven and gendered, racialised and sexualised. As a result, the first two sections of this chapter consider these dimensions in turn. A final section shifts attention to issues of work dress which display similar yet differing tensions around conformity, individuality and identity.
