Philosophical Perspectives on Fashion

This edited volume brings together international scholars of philosophy and fashion, contributing to filling the gap for philosophical research in the field. They show that these two disciplines are not as an unlikely pairing as it may seem, insofar as the experience of clothing has been, and will continue to be, a subject of inquiry. And it is this inquiry, at the heart of this book, that challenges the reader to reconsider what fashion is and could be. * Journal of Dress History * This edited volume is likely to provoke much-needed debate about the relationship between philosophy and fashion. Using a philosophical lens, the authors address and push questions with which fashion theorists have been grappling: is anti-fashion a useful concept in fashion criticism? Is there, or can there be, an essence of fashion? To what extent can fashion be understood as a dialectic between imitation and differentiation? To what extent does fashion rely on ambivalence and ambiguity? Philosophical Perspectives on Fashion will be a welcome addition to the literatures on fashion and philosophy alike. -- Susan B. Kaiser, University of California, Davis, USA A timely and thought-provoking collection of contributions, which explore fashion from a specifically philosophical perspective and reflect on the complex and dynamic nature of fashion itself. This book, much needed in philosophy, will open the field to further debates and lines of inquiry. -- Flavia Loscialpo, Southampton Solent University, UK. [Authors] Giovanni Matteucci and Stefano Marino have produced a pivotal primer of thought and insight. They have expanded the concept of fashion to be considered not only as a stereotyped, marketable consumer product, but how fashion analysis can be useful in understanding complex codes of behaviour and societal values. * Fashion, Society & Popular Culture *

Giovanni Matteucci is Full Professor of Aesthetics at the University of Bologna, Italy. Stefano Marino is a Researcher and Lecturer of Aesthetics at the University of Bologna, Italy.

Introduction: Philosophical Perspectives on Fashion - 1 Philosophical Accounts of Fashion in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century, Stefano Marino - 2 Fashion: A Conceptual Constellation, Giovanni Matteucci - 3 Anti-Fashion: If Not Fashion, Then What?, Nickolas Pappas - 4 Fits of Fashion: THe Somaesthetics of Style, Richard Shusterman - 5 On Fashion Criticism, Lars Svendsen - 6 Thought Without Concept: Carol Christian Poel's Paradoxical Aesthetics, Christian Michel - 7 Caprices of Fashion in Culture and Biology: Charles Darwin's Aesthetics of 'Ornament', Winifried Menninghaus - 8 Fashionable Proteus: The Euphoria of FAshion for Fashion's Sake, Cesar Moreno-Marquez - 9 The Fascination of Contingency: Fashion and Modern Society, Elena Esposito Index