Fashion Media
Designed for the Department of Design and Communication, University of Southern Denmark
Course by Dr. Kat Sark
Course by Dr. Kat Sark
Course Description:
This course is an interdisciplinary, multimedia course that covers the cultural history of fashion media. This course allows students to engage with fashion theory, cultural history, cultural analysis, media analysis, as well as gender and literary theory. This course is designed to help students develop skills in critical thinking, close reading, writing, comparative analysis, presentations, and digital skills. Class time will focus on theoretical and analytical discussions of assigned readings, films, videos, podcasts, etc. The course assignments will provide students with an opportunity to design and develop different web projects that have a direct impact and applicability for the community, and that support social justice causes and organizations.
Note: It is imperative that students come to class prepared to discuss the assigned readings and topics. This course is based on inter-teaching techniques and peer learning and communication
Note: It is imperative that students come to class prepared to discuss the assigned readings and topics. This course is based on inter-teaching techniques and peer learning and communication
Course Readings:
- Tansy E. Hoskins, Stitched Up: The Anti-Capitalist Book of Fashion. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing, 2014.
- Yuniya Kawamura, Doing Research in Fashion and Dress: An Introduction to Qualitative Methods. New York: Berg, 2011.
- Alice Marwick and Rebecca Lewis, Media Manipulation and Disinformation Online. New York: Data & Society Research Institute, 2017.
- Other course readings and materials will be available online
Course Evaluations:
- Participation (10%)
- Class Presentation (15%)
- Research Essay (30%)
- Digital Project (30%)
- Digital Project Presentation (15%)
Course Outline:
(Subject to changes / in progress)
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Week 1
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Introduction, methodologies: critical media literacy
Web projects READINGS: Alice Marwick and Rebecca Lewis, Media Manipulation and Disinformation Online (2017) |
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Week 2
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Media Studies – key concepts – culture and media industries
READINGS: Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer, “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception” Dialectic of Enlightenment (1944) pp.94-136 |
DISCUSSION:
What are culture and media industries? What is “manufactured consent”? What is “fashionable consumption”? VIDEO: Noam Chomsky on Manufacturing Consent FORUM 1: Find examples of interesting web projects that inspire you and post on the forum! |
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Week 3
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Fashion journalism – History of fashion media
READINGS: Tansy E. Hoskins, “The Fashion Media,” Stitched Up (2014) pp.34-49. Kate Nelson Best, “Fashion Journalism” Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion: West Europe (2010), pp. 143-151. |
DISCUSSION:
Is fashion (and fashion media) today democratic? How is fashion journalism different from other forms of journalism? What are some problems with fashion journalism today? |
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Week 4
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Fashion photography
FILM: Annie Leibovitz (dir. Rebecca Frayn, 1993) READINGS: Patrik Apers, “Fashion Photography” Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion: West Europe (2010), pp.140-142 Susan Sontag, “In Plato’s Cave,” On Photography (1973) pp.3-24 Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida (1981) pp.23-27 |
DISCUSSION:
How does Sontag define photography? What does she mean by “a photo is an aesthetic consumerism”? What are some of Barthes’ definitions of photography? What is “punctum”? FORUM 2: Select one fashion photograph that features a “punctum” and post it with a short explanation why you picked it and how you interpret it |
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Week 5
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Fashion magazines
Feminist magazines: BUST and BUSTLE DANSK independent fashion magazine READINGS: Agnès Rocamora, “Paris, Capitale de la Mode: Representing the Fashion City in the Media,” Fashion’s World Cities (2006) pp.43-54 Gloria Steinem, “Sex, Lies, and Advertising” Moving Beyond Words: Age, Rage, Sex, Power (1994) pp.125-155 |
DISCUSSION:
How are Paris and Paris fashion represented in the media? How is Paris branded in the fashion industry? Is Paris still the capital of fashion today? Is it possible to have an independent fashion magazine? |
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Week 6
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Fashion shows and modelling
Copenhagen Fashion Week Copenhagen Fashion Summit Danish Fashion Institute Ashley Graham READINGS: Marie Riegels Melchior, Lise Skov and Fabian Faurholt Csaba, “Translating Fashion into Danish,” Culture Unbound, 3 (2011) pp.209–228 Joanne Entwistle and Elizabeth Wissinger, “Keeping up appearances” The Sociological Review, 54:4 (2006) pp.774-794 PODCAST: Fashion Hags, Indigenous Fashion Week Toronto PODCAST: Wardrobe Crisis, Me Too & the Model Alliance |
DISCUSSION:
How is aesthetic labour different from physical or emotional labour? What is the primary function of a fashion show and is it possible to succeed in the fashion industry without participation in fashion weeks? VIDEO: Ashley Graham TED Talk – Plus Size, More Like My Size |
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Week 7
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Fashion in museums
Forbes, The Growing Popularity of Fashion Exhibitions (2019) Suites Culturelles, Guo Pei at the Vancouver Art Galley (2018) Suites Culturelles, Jean Paul Gaultier à Montréal (2011, 2017) READINGS: Marie Riegels Melchior and Birgitta Svensson, “Introduction,” Fashion and Museums (2014) pp.1-19 Katrina Sark and Sara Daniele Bélanger-Michaud, “Montréal Chic: Institutions of Fashion – Fashions of Institutions” Fashion Theory 19:3 (2015) pp.397-416 PODCAST: Museum at FIT, The History of Pink |
DISCUSSION:
Why are more and more museums interested in producing and displaying fashion? What is the “shift from dress museology to fashion museology” and why is it significant? VIDEO: PBS, Muslim Fashion in San Francisco and Frankfurt |
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Week 8
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Fashion blogs and influencers (performative persona)
READINGS: Agnès Rocamora “Pierre Bourdieu, The Field of Fashion” Thinking Through Fashion (2016) pp.233-250 Monica Titton, “Fashionable Personae: Self-Identity and Enactments of Fashion Narratives in Fashion Blogs,” Fashion Theory, 19:2 (2015) pp.201-220 PODCAST: Statements on Fashion, Conversation with Agnès Rocamora PODCAST: Wardrobe Crisis, Fashion Revolution’s Orsola de Castro |
DISCUSSION:
What is a fashion field? What are the pros and cons of personal fashion and style blogs? What is a “fashionable persona” and how is it constructed and represented online? What is trend forecasting? FORUM 3: Find and post an inspiring personal fashion blog or Instagram link, and explain why you chose it. |
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Week 9
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Fashion films
Clothes on Film - American Gigolo Xavier Dolan READINGS: Katrina Sark, “The Language of Fashion and (Trans)Gender in Xavier Dolan's Films,” Synoptique (2016) pp.127-134 |
DISCUSSION:
How did Armani become the designer of Hollywood? What role do clothes and colour play in Xavier Dolan’s films? FORUM 4: Find and post other examples of fashion films with a brief explanation why you chose it and your analysis of fashion in it. |
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Week 10
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Fashion documentaries
FILM: The True Cost (dir. Andrew Morgan, 2015, 92min) READINGS: Tansy E. Hoskins, Stitched Up (2014) “Reforming Fashion” pp.166-183 |
DISCUSSION:
What are the main arguments in The True Cost about fashion’s impact on the environment, sweatshops, women’s labour, and the global effects of “fast fashion”? What solutions can you propose? |
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Week 11
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Fashion activism
Fashion Revolution Sustainable Fashion Forum READINGS: Tansy E. Hoskins, Stitched Up (2014) “Revolutionizing Fashion” pp.185-202 PODCAST: Fashion Revolution – Who Made My Clothes |
DISCUSSION:
Is fashion activism effective? Or is it merely a branding strategy? FORUM 5: Find examples of inspiring fashion activism projects or campaigns and post on the forum with a brief explanation! |
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Week 12
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Web Project Presentations
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DISCUSSION
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Week 13
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Web Project Presentations
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DISCUSSION
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Bibliography:
Adorno, Theodor W. and Horkheimer, Max. “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception.” Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical
Fragments. Translated by Edmund Jephcott. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2002 (1944), 94-136.
Apers, Patrik. “Fashion Photography” Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion: West Europe, ed. Lise Skov, New York: Bloomsbury, 2010. 140-142.
Barthes, Roland. Camera Lucida. Reflections on Photography. Transl. by Richard Howard. New York: Hill and Wang, 1980.
https://monoskop.org/images/c/c5/Barthes_Roland_Camera_Lucida_Reflections_on_Photography.pdf
Best, Kate Nelson. “Fashion Journalism” Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion: West Europe, ed. by Lise Skov, New York: Bloomsbury, 2010. 143-151.
Entwistle, Joanne and Wissinger, Elizabeth. “Keeping Up Appearances: Aesthetic Labour in the Fashion Modelling Industries of London and New York.” The Sociological Review, 54:4. 2006. 774-794.
Hoskins, Tansy E. Stitched Up: The Anti-Capitalist Book of Fashion. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing, 2014.
Marwick, Alice and Lewis, Rebecca. Media Manipulation and Disinformation Online. New York: Data & Society Research Institute, 2017.
https://datasociety.net/pubs/oh/DataAndSociety_MediaManipulationAndDisinformationOnline.pdf
Melchior, Marie Riegels and Svensson, Birgitta (eds). Fashion and Museums: Theory and Practice. New York: Bloomsbury, 2014.
Melchior. Marie Riegels, Skov, Lise and Faurholt Csaba, Fabian. “Translating Fashion into Danish.” Culture Unbound, Vol. 3, 2011. 209–228.
Rocomora, Agnès and Smelik, Anneke (eds). Thinking Through Fashion: A Guide to Key Theorists. London: I.B. Tauris, 2016.
Rocamora, Agnès. “Personal Fashion Blogs: Screens and Mirrors in Digital Self-portraits.” Fashion Theory. 15:4, 2011, 407-424.
Rocamora, Agnès. “Paris, Capitale de la Mode: Representing the Fashion City in the Media.” Fashion’s World Cities. Ed. by Christopher Breward and
David Gilbert. New York: Berg, 2006. 43-54.
Sark, Katrina and Bélanger-Michaud, Sara. “Montréal Chic: Institutions of Fashion – Fashions of Institutions.” Fashion Theory 19:3, 2015. 397-416.
Sark, Katrina. “The Language of Fashion and (Trans)Gender in Xavier Dolan's Films.”Synoptique: An Online Journal of Film and Moving Image Studies.
Special Issue: Xavier Dolan, Queer Nations, and World Cinema: Locating the Intimate within the Global, 2016. 127-134.
Sontag, Susan. On Photography. New York: Picador, 1973. http://sites.uci.edu/01807w14/files/2014/02/SontagSusan_InPlatosCave.pdf
Steinem, Gloria. Moving Beyond Words: Age, Rage, Sex, Power, Money, Muscles: Breaking Boundaries of Gender. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994.
Titton, Monica. “Fashionable Personae: Self-Identity and Enactments of Fashion Narratives in Fashion Blogs.” Fashion Theory, 19:2, 2015, 201-220.
Fragments. Translated by Edmund Jephcott. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2002 (1944), 94-136.
Apers, Patrik. “Fashion Photography” Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion: West Europe, ed. Lise Skov, New York: Bloomsbury, 2010. 140-142.
Barthes, Roland. Camera Lucida. Reflections on Photography. Transl. by Richard Howard. New York: Hill and Wang, 1980.
https://monoskop.org/images/c/c5/Barthes_Roland_Camera_Lucida_Reflections_on_Photography.pdf
Best, Kate Nelson. “Fashion Journalism” Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion: West Europe, ed. by Lise Skov, New York: Bloomsbury, 2010. 143-151.
Entwistle, Joanne and Wissinger, Elizabeth. “Keeping Up Appearances: Aesthetic Labour in the Fashion Modelling Industries of London and New York.” The Sociological Review, 54:4. 2006. 774-794.
Hoskins, Tansy E. Stitched Up: The Anti-Capitalist Book of Fashion. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing, 2014.
Marwick, Alice and Lewis, Rebecca. Media Manipulation and Disinformation Online. New York: Data & Society Research Institute, 2017.
https://datasociety.net/pubs/oh/DataAndSociety_MediaManipulationAndDisinformationOnline.pdf
Melchior, Marie Riegels and Svensson, Birgitta (eds). Fashion and Museums: Theory and Practice. New York: Bloomsbury, 2014.
Melchior. Marie Riegels, Skov, Lise and Faurholt Csaba, Fabian. “Translating Fashion into Danish.” Culture Unbound, Vol. 3, 2011. 209–228.
Rocomora, Agnès and Smelik, Anneke (eds). Thinking Through Fashion: A Guide to Key Theorists. London: I.B. Tauris, 2016.
Rocamora, Agnès. “Personal Fashion Blogs: Screens and Mirrors in Digital Self-portraits.” Fashion Theory. 15:4, 2011, 407-424.
Rocamora, Agnès. “Paris, Capitale de la Mode: Representing the Fashion City in the Media.” Fashion’s World Cities. Ed. by Christopher Breward and
David Gilbert. New York: Berg, 2006. 43-54.
Sark, Katrina and Bélanger-Michaud, Sara. “Montréal Chic: Institutions of Fashion – Fashions of Institutions.” Fashion Theory 19:3, 2015. 397-416.
Sark, Katrina. “The Language of Fashion and (Trans)Gender in Xavier Dolan's Films.”Synoptique: An Online Journal of Film and Moving Image Studies.
Special Issue: Xavier Dolan, Queer Nations, and World Cinema: Locating the Intimate within the Global, 2016. 127-134.
Sontag, Susan. On Photography. New York: Picador, 1973. http://sites.uci.edu/01807w14/files/2014/02/SontagSusan_InPlatosCave.pdf
Steinem, Gloria. Moving Beyond Words: Age, Rage, Sex, Power, Money, Muscles: Breaking Boundaries of Gender. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994.
Titton, Monica. “Fashionable Personae: Self-Identity and Enactments of Fashion Narratives in Fashion Blogs.” Fashion Theory, 19:2, 2015, 201-220.
Disclaimer: The contents of this site are copy-right protected and cannot be reproduced without the author's permission. © Katrina Sark, 2019
