Ms Meredith Rose
History, Philosophy, Religion, Classics (HPRC)
University of Queensland
s057082@student.uq.edu.au
Meredith is a full time doctoral candidate. Her thesis topic is in the area of race and international relations in U.S. history, with a special focus on political activist and cultural figure Paul Robeson and the anti colonial movements of the mid twentieth century. She has a general interest in "First World" and "Third World" relationships, and the place of African America in this context.
Fashioning Justice: Culture and Appropriation in the West.
"Its terrible to say, very often the most exciting outfits are from the poorest people" (Christian Lacroix, 1994). "As long as I live I'll never forget how the white man in the suit said they had to shut us down to stay competitive". (Viola Caseres, Levi Strauss worker, 1990). From cultural appropriation of the poor and marginalised to the appalling conditions in sweatshop style working areas, "fashion" as an industry and form of cultural expression is a problematic concept for many theorists, historians and sociologists. The juxtaposition between the arbiters and proponents of fashion in the west, and the many workers in the Third World or Third World like conditions in the First, is one of the most telling indicators about the state of the world today and deserves to be explored in any scholarly forum which seeks to analyse and critique the whole area. Christian Lacroix's 1994 statement comments directly on the whole notion of "subcultural style" and specifically upon what Naomi Klein has described as the "mining" of young black men for "borrowed meaning and identity". Drawing on the work of Klein and other critics of corporatism and globalisation, as well as more traditional feminist critiques of the notion of "fashion", this paper will seek to place the study of fashion within a broad socio-political context and to include some observations on post modern debates on consumerism and citizenship.
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