ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the diplomatic influence of fashion as yet to be addressed more widely in academia. Thus, this chapter will explore this rarely explicitly documented phenomenon, starting from the idea that it is the multifaceted character of fashion's influence (cultural, economic, political) that makes it an especially strategic diplomatic tool—from a practical point of view—and a particularly rich subject of study—from an academic point of view. To overcome the methodological obstacles regarding the study of such a subject as polysemous as fashion, this chapter adopts a transdisciplinary approach at the junction between international history, fashion studies, and public diplomacy. In this regard, the object of this chapter is, on one hand, to inform current scholarship on the historiography of fashion's influence in international relations to contextualize the changing nature of fashion's diplomatic influence. On the other hand, the object of the chapter is also to provide a set of methodological tools to foster transdisciplinary collaboration. This will be done by circumscribing the definition of fashion's influence within public diplomacy and by mobilizing the corpus of fashion studies to broaden the scope of fashion as an instrument of diplomatic influence.
