Introduction and Aims
Historically, fashion researchers often became buried within more ‘legitimate’ disciplines, but the significant rise in costume education during the 20th century resulted in the publication of a diverse variety of fashion scholarship. Growing collections of fashion, textile, dress, and style attract an increasing number of related inquiries to our libraries. Fashion studies encompass an incredibly interdisciplinary field, allowing scholars from not only fashion and textile studies, but also anthropology, critical studies, material culture, and many others to utilize completed scholarship. This advantageous interdisciplinarity, however, stems from a perceived frivolity of fashion studies, which formerly found itself suppressed and ridiculed within disciplines such as economics, sociology, and philosophy. Current fashion researchers require an essential influx of new scholarship, yet it is imperative that we direct our library patrons to these original, multidisciplinary works. This brief historiography of fashion studies seeks to utilize a multi- and interdisciplinary lens that reference librarians may employ to assist patrons with style-related inquiries.
I begin with an overview of the rhetoric surrounding the term ‘fashion studies,’ as well as a discussion of interdisciplinarity within the field. If affiliated with specific academic institutions or museums, the institution's mission statement usually dictates the interdisciplinary research methods that are adopted. Our patrons’ research goals remain dependent on the wide variety of disciplines that encompass fashion scholarship, as well as their approach to the various types of source materials. I will survey these types of source materials as background for my analysis of early, multidisciplinary fashion scholarship. Finally, I will examine specific fashion research challenges, and outline the steps that we can take to assist our patrons in navigating this challenging array of diverse tools and sources.
What are Fashion Studies?
‘Fashion studies,’ as I will refer to the academic research of fashion, style, dress and textile in this article, is part of a larger discussion of rhetorical differences surrounding fashion scholarship. The lack of precision is evident in the range of labels applied (inconsistently) to the field. ‘Fashion theory,’ ‘fashion history,’ ‘dress history,’ and ‘costume studies’ are used interchangeably, and this phenomenon has shaped much of the discussion of methodology in the late-20th and early-21st centuries.Footnote 1 The term ‘fashion’ often stands synonymously with frivolity, excess, and luxury; as such, ‘fashion studies’ has historically been considered impractical or subsidiary.Footnote 2 ‘Costume studies,’ meanwhile, often gets mistaken for ‘costume design,’ and the title of ‘dress history’ would imply an object-based approach focusing on clothing alone. Rebecca Arnold noted, as reported by Peter McNeil, that we need to determine what difference, if any, exists between these specific titles, as well as determine what scholars ‘expect of the term “fashion studies.”'Footnote 3 Francesca Granata, when developing her doctoral thesis at Central Saint Martins, found that the university ‘required a definition of the emerging field of fashion studies,'Footnote 4 which she noted as more difficult a task for her than for students in ‘more established disciplines.'Footnote 5 This, of course, poses difficult questions regarding what type of research academic institutions expect from fashion scholars, and simultaneously speaks to the interdisciplinary nature of fashion education and fashion scholarship.
Interdisciplinarity ‘can usefully be seen as combining and using research methods, forms of inquiry, and agenda from any discipline.'Footnote 6 Christopher Breward has noted, ‘…studies in fashion enjoy unprecedented buoyancy in terms of disciplinary range and type of product,'Footnote 7 while Peter McNeil states, ‘[fashion studies integrate] history, film and theater studies, cultural studies, business studies, curatorship, and sociology and other disciplines within the humanities and social sciences.'Footnote 8 Fashion scholarship, in this regard, becomes not only an amalgam of research from other disciplines, but also represents a useful tool for all scholars completing multidisciplinary work. Sara B. Marcketti, for example, noted, ‘because material culture reflects the social, political, economic, and technological characteristics of an era, it can strengthen the understanding of history and human behavior.'Footnote 9 When analyzed within the context of their own disciplines, fashion research can therefore heighten the academic experience for scholars in other fields.Footnote 10 However, the interdisciplinary nature of fashion studies may leave fashion scholars unaware of where to begin new research. Does one start with anthropology? Or, cultural studies? Or, law?
Methodologies and Early Research
The research path that a fashion scholar takes presumably relies on his or her area of interest within the fashion world and the specific research question at hand. Understanding the methodological goals of library patrons becomes imperative to the librarian seeking to offer superior research assistance. For those who work in academic or research libraries, this may require a familiarity with the basic curriculum of relevant courses that stem from the variety of disciplines able to be examined by fashion practices. For example, a scholar in the Courtauld Institute of Art's ‘History of Dress and Textiles’ program, whose basis lies within ‘art methodologies'Footnote 11 may require different assistance than a scholar studying fashion's ‘broadest aesthetic and cultural context'Footnote 12 in the Costume Studies program at New York University. Research paths may also be dictated by the resources and objects available to a patron. A curator at the Los Angeles County Museum of ArtFootnote 13 may possess a differing outlook than a curator at the Autry Museum of the American West.Footnote 14 Does one want scholarship to support their observation of a curatorial object? Or, does the patron want to observe pieces after researching a specific topic? Is the research question object driven at all? Or, is it for academic interest only? These are the types of questions one must ask before delving into the research process.
Research methods for fashion scholars fall within three closely related approaches: object-based study, visual study, and textual analysis. Object-based approaches, including identification, conservation, and interpretation, are examined in-depth in Lou Taylor's The Study of Dress History, in which the author observes that clothing and bodily adornment act as ‘powerful analytical [tools] across many disciplines'Footnote 15 due to their presence in every culture and every society. Museum scholars, for example, have the unique opportunity to engage in object-based study and curation. However, object-based research can still present difficulties. Specifically in regards to object-based research, Taylor notes, ‘the acquisition of identification skills is a never-ending learning process…few garments are ever the same and dating mistakes are easy to make.'Footnote 16 She insinuates that this represents the reason that fashion studies was not ‘properly acknowledged in ‘academic’ circles,'Footnote 17 and that these close observations focus overtly on critiquing minute details, such as the curve of a corset or the length of a skirt. Instead, Taylor commends these close observations and notes the ‘social and cultural insights'Footnote 18 of details and alterations.
Unlike object-based research, visual study focuses on the analysis of paintings, sculpture, prints, and other visual resources. From these, researchers may examine the way bodies are interpreted, the changing ideal of the body itself, and how fashion functions to form, or at least, to frame that ideal. However, visual resources must be contextualized. For example, illustrations from Godey's Lady's Book exist as interpretations of actual clothing pieces; we cannot analyze the cut of the fabric or the stitching techniques, nor can we ascertain that the advertised image is an accurate depiction. However, the illustrations reflect an image of the ‘ideal woman’ of the time and, in that respect, remain beneficial as primary source material for a research project on beauty ideals. Visual analysis and interpretation of fashion images examine how we understand bodies and, therefore, they also tangentially tie into the study of anatomy.
A long line of scholars, journalists, and philosophers spent their careers contemplating and criticizing men's and women's fashions. Often, men wrote the early academic analyses of fashion and justified their research as observational of men's placement in a feminine sphere. While many modern writings are understood to hold a place in fashion scholarship, books and essays published as recently as the mid-20th century hid fashion analyses within works of other disciplines. Paul Nystrom'sFootnote 19 dissection of fashion and consumption is posed within economic analysis, while Georg Simmel's Sociology Footnote 20 discussed the social pleasures of adornment. The fashion scholar must then pull meaning from these multidisciplinary works in order to apply them toward fashion analysis.
Paul Nystrom's The Economics of Fashion, for example, begins with a dissection of the meaning and uses of the terms ‘fashion'Footnote 21 and ‘good taste'Footnote 22 for greater economic understanding. Nystrom's discussions of ‘the power of fashion'Footnote 23 being stronger than sales promotion or advertising exudes confusion, awe, and a desire to understand the inner workings of a complex social phenomenon. Most notably, however, Nystrom begins The Economics of Fashion with an academic justification of his research. He states that ‘wiser'Footnote 24 men know not to ‘[flout] or neglect'Footnote 25 fashion, and that ‘no man can belong to present-day society and at the same time be out of present-day fashions.'Footnote 26 The overall analysis becomes displayed as comment on enigmatic economic practices, as opposed to commentary on the fluctuation of fashion. Georg Simmel, however, attempts to explain his understanding of the sociological desire for fashionability and shared acceptance in his 1908 work, Sociology. Simmel describes ‘adornment’ as ‘objects of considerable value'Footnote 27 and notes that ‘style’ represents a public display meant for showing off so that it may become ‘accessible to many.'Footnote 28 Fashion, in this sense, belongs to the wearer because of their attachment to acceptance, while also belonging to the viewer who needs something to emulate.Footnote 29 This represents an important phenomenon, as Simmel wants to make clear that the adorned man seeks to ‘win like recognition and admiration for himself.'Footnote 30 In this sense, fashion becomes a vehicle for one's desire for acceptance, and Simmel explains that the purpose of fashion as an outward expression of personal interactions.
The power and purpose of fashion have been questioned through a myriad of multidisciplinary perspectives over centuries. As modern scholars continue to pursue multi- and interdisciplinary research projects focused on clothing and related elements, fashion scholarship evolves. Current students and scholars remain fortunate to have a large and growing volume of secondary sources related to fashion, in addition to primary source object and visual material. The truly creative librarian can best guide their advanced patrons (in fashion studies, as in most if not all interdisciplinary topics) by pointing them toward disciplines that might seem totally out of the fashion arena.
Current Research and Difficult Questions
Fashion scholarship and research often cover the history of fashion, style, dress, and textile. However, as fashion studies become more legitimized, scholars can begin to shift their focus toward observations of contemporary fashion practices in addition to historical analyses. Advances in technology, changing bodies, and the increase of accessible media inspire modern fashion scholars to question how socioeconomic, environmental, physical, and technological changes affect the things we wear. Fashion scholars observing these changes can benefit from up-to-date research in the disciplines incorporated within their work, including environmental science, medicine and physical therapy, computer science, and law. Though not all fashion scholars have the opportunity to engage in highly scientific, governmental, or technical fields, studies from these disciplines help support and drive scholarship on sustainability, body modification, consumerism and design.
I will briefly survey examples of multi- and interdisciplinary scholarship in law and sustainability for the purpose of demonstrating the connection of older scholarship and writings to new and emerging ideas.
Law
The longstanding relationship between law and clothing and textile partly stems from early sumptuary laws, which continue into today's ties between design, consumption, and style regulation.Footnote 31 The nature of this relationship grew from strict parameters into flexible creative guidelines that vary based on geographic and cultural areas. Researchers must possess a basic understanding of sumptuary law if they plan to engage with topics such as dress codes and uniforms, haute couture exclusivity, and brand loyalty.
Sumptuary laws, or ‘laws created to limit the consumption of specific commodities,'Footnote 32 restrict the purchase and consumption of food, textile, and other goods. Alan Hunt begins his renowned work, Governance of the Consuming Passions: A History of Sumptuary Law, with discussions of why the significance of studying sumptuary law and the history behind it. Hunt's definition of the term ‘governance’ as a ‘social object that is acted on in such a way as to control, restrain, limit and direct the activities of the selected object of governance,'Footnote 33 gives allowance for the ‘major transformations'Footnote 34 in sumptuary law to be described in the remainder of his book. This kind of governance over clothing and textiles – formerly reserved for specific classes – has subsequently shaped itself into current uniform or dress code regulations for school children, military personnel, and law enforcement officers. From modern regulations, supported by scholarship and primary source material on sumptuary law, scholars now possess the means to discuss regulations on clothing and how they affect today's society. Jennifer Ingrey, citing Hunt, discusses the presence of separate school dress codes for girls and boys as ‘[inciting] subjects to participate in a mechanism of power,'Footnote 35 which perpetuates the gender binary. Ingrey supports her theory with fashion scholarship, philosophy, and transgender theory in order to argue that the perpetuation of the gender binary is exacerbated by the strictly separate rules delegated to boys and girls in their educational institutions.Footnote 36
Another aspect of law that has a strong, yet contentious relationship with fashion studies presents itself in the form of United States copyright. As far back as the early 20th century, fashion designers and trade workers, such as Vivian Burnett, called for copyright reform, noting its importance to the ‘lace, embroidery, veiling, and trimming trades.'Footnote 37 Kimberly Ann Barton, for the Journal of Corporation Law, discusses Burnett's ‘[appeal] to the industry through the importance of the international effect on design piracy.'Footnote 38 Barton's appeal, which is a law paper rather than fashion scholarship, addresses the history of United States copyright law, other types of intellectual property that may protect fashion, and various legal attempts to gain protection for fashion design. Still, over a century later, intellectual property law in the United States does not protect fashion design, though many countries including most European Union member states, Japan, and India have relevant protections in place.Footnote 39 This allows for the potential to create strong legal issues for the international fashion industry, and researchers looking into international fashion trade could benefit from studies of copyright law.
Sustainability
I would also like to note the interdisciplinary nature of ethics and sustainability in the fashion industry. The differences in both their marketing and reception greatly impact consumer reactions to sustainability in the fashion industry. The term ‘sustainability’ itself is understood in a number of ways, while this particular definition of ‘ethics’ includes not only environmental ethics, but also ethics of workers’ rights and fair trade. ‘Sustainability,’ in this sense, means sustainability for the environment, the communities of workers, and sustainability of the company. Researchers of ethics and sustainability in the fashion industry may be directed toward research in environmental science, human rights, and social communications and rhetoric.
Sustainable fashion may be viewed through social communication and rhetoric, as it is in Jessica Hill and Hyun-Hwa Lee's survey, ‘Young Generation Y consumers’ perceptions of sustainability in the apparel industry.'Footnote 40 They cite business sources, environmental science journals, and fashion industry scholarship to gain better understanding of definitions of ‘environmental and social sustainability,'Footnote 41 understood by Generation Y, or those born between ‘1977 and 2004.'Footnote 42 The term ‘sustainability,’ as a result of her survey, then becomes understood by her subjects as apparel durability, preservation of the environment, and economic preservation.Footnote 43 The results of Hill and Lee's survey of eighty members of Generation Y refers to the ‘effectiveness of cultural communications'Footnote 44 in influencing consumer practices, but also the need to promote an ‘accurate definition'Footnote 45 of the term ‘sustainable’ in the apparel industry. This analysis also translates to business ethics and a discussion of how companies seeking to promote sustainable goods are marketing themselves.
Further Discussion
I briefly note these studies not as specific sources to offer our scholars, but as examples of the types of research that emerge in multi- and interdisciplinary fields. Hill and Lee's sociological survey on the advertised rhetoric surrounding the term ‘sustainability’ finds its heart in the fashion industry and consumer ethics, but also represents an effective tool of study for marketing, social communications, and environmental studies. Kimberly Ann Barton's legal discussion of fashion design's lack of protection in United States copyright law refers back to the troubles of fashion copyright in the early 20th century and subsequent legal motions to examine the current difficulties surrounding fashion design's legal illegitimacy. And finally, Ingrey's amalgamation of sumptuary law and discipline theory for the purpose of questioning children's school uniforms mixes history, sociology, law, and philosophy to produce a product that encompasses gender studies, fashion studies, and educational theory.
Conclusion
In comparison to other disciplines, the education of fashion studies remains to be fairly new. Seeking secondary source materials for many interdisciplinary aspects of the field can be difficult for scholars beginning their fashion research. Scholarship mentioning fashion, however, can be found over hundreds of years in legitimized disciplines such as philosophy, sociology, economics and art history. It is imperative that we look in these fields, as well as other disciplines unrelated to fashion studies, when we guide our patrons to support their scholarship with multidisciplinary sources. After all, medical or law journals may not be the first sources fashion scholars think to look at. However, we may find that the directions we guide our patrons point them toward additional interests to support future fashion scholarship.
