Abstract
This project seeks to parse out the connections between consumption and identities by focusing on the effects of the way fashion represents Asian culture and identities, examining how consuming fashion represents, and consequently shapes and limits, Asian-American identities. To this end, the work critically examines Dior's 2007 Spring/Summer fashion collection and the blogger/media conversations that contextualize this collection. The author evaluates the praise and criticisms of this collection with attention to fashion's portrayal of race/ethnicity, class, and gender as viewers consume the product, the art, or the spectacle of fashion and also a culture. The author argues high fashion, as a medium, is often unquestioned because of its status as art and thus perpetuates and dramatizes stereotypes of Asian identities. The author also asserts that fashion blatantly positions the White male as a dominant, powerful identity as White, male fashion designers are high profile-often taking credit for their collection and implying ownership of the female models. Together these assertions point to the neo-liberal nature of the representations of Asian-Americans that ultimately limit and restrict their identities and expectations of their identity performances.
Journal Title
Iowa Journal of Communication
Volume
45
Issue
2
First Page
176
Last Page
196
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Buehler Hunter, Keeley M.
(2013)
"Fashioning Race, Class, and Gender: A Critique of Dior's 2007 "Oriental" Collection,"
Iowa Journal of Communication: Vol. 45:
No.
2, Article 7.
Available at:
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/ijc/vol45/iss2/7
Copyright
©2013 Iowa Communication Association
