Professor Ann Marie Leshkowich
Beaven 230
508-793-2788
aleshkow@holycross.edu
Office Hours: M 1pm-4pm; W 10am-10:45am, 1pm-2:30pm; F 1pm-2pm; other times by appointment

 

Assignment Objectives

Learning how to analyze and conduct anthropological research about fashion and consumption requires practicing two different, but closely related skills: 1) defining and analyzing theoretical models to understand the links between fashion, consumption, the economy, political systems, individual identities, social relationships, and cultural values and 2) constructing a project and methodology that will provide information to address these concerns. Short written assignments will give you the opportunity to develop and practice both of these skills.

While the assignments vary from analytical to ethnographic exercises to keeping a consumption or spending diary, each asks you to relate your ideas or findings to the course readings. For each assignment, make sure that you formulate a thesis statement, present it in the introductory paragraph, and use it to guide your arguments in the body of your paper. Use these assignments to hone your skills in formulating and supporting anthropological arguments; you'll need these skills for the midterm and final as well.

 

Arguments and Thesis Statements

Response papers are relatively short, but they each require you to reflect critically on the course's material, themes, and modes of inquiry. Each paper MUST have an introductory paragraph with a clearly articulated thesis that states the argument that the rest of the paper will advance. A thesis statement is not a declaration of fact, a broad claim, or an obvious assertion. A thesis statement is an interesting and specific contention about which one can reasonably debate and disagree. A thesis statement also serves to orient the reader by highlighting the major themes that will be discussed in the rest of the paper. Each of the assignments below pose questions that are intended to guide you in formulating a provocative and insightful thesis.

Examples of thesis statements:

BAD: Many Americans today pay attention to fashion. (This statement is both obvious and general; nobody would be likely to disagree.)

BETTER: Fashion has become an important means through which Americans express individual identity. (This statement relates fashion to individual expression, but it doesn't specify fashion's role and hence can't easily be contested. The reader has no clue as to how or why fashion is so important for individual identity, nor is there any suggestion as to why this is an interesting or important way to look at the issue.)

GOOD: In contemporary America, fashion has become the primary way in which we display ourselves to others. While some see fashion as an act of individual choice and self-expression, this view neglects an important fact: more and more of the clothing we use to express our supposed individuality is produced by huge retail chains such as Gap, Old Navy, and Forever 21. If we are what we wear, then we have become nothing more than standardized, mass-produced commodities. (These sentences introduce a specific characterization of fashion as a means for self-expression and then present an argument as to why this view neglects the broader economic picture in which individual identity has been commodified. This is an interesting and arguable assertion as to the nature and/or significance of fashion.)

For an excellent, detailed discussion of how to formulate a thesis statement, take a look at this guide from Harvard University's Writing Center.

 

Response Paper Requirements and Grading

The specific assignments for each unit are listed below. Unless the assignment indicates otherwise, each paper should be 2-3 double-spaced pages (Times New Roman 12-point font, 1-inch margins on all sides) and in MS Word format. Please name your document lastname#.docx; for example, Sue Smith's paper for assignment 4 would be named smith4.docx. Assignments are due by email to Professor Leshkowich before class. There are nine assigned papers, of which you must complete five. At least two of the papers must be completed before the midterm. Each of the five assignments will be worth five points, for a total of 25% of your course grade. One extra paper can be completed, in which case the highest five grades will count as your total. For more info on grading standards, click here. Late papers will not be accepted.

NOTE: Several of these papers require you to complete a specific ethnographic field exercise. These papers require advance preparation, so be sure to select your sites or arrange for interviews well in advance of the date the assignment is due.

 

Assignment 1: Is Fast Fashion Ethical? (due February 4).
Note: Deadline extended to Thursday, February 7 at 12pm.
Don't forget to name your assignment: lastname1.docx

Pham documents a post-9/11 discourse that linked the consumption of fashion to key democratic rights such as freedom of expression. Pham finds this language to be particularly striking with respect to the cheap chic of fast fashion. Schor warns that fast fashion has negative environmental, economic, and personal consequences, yet she cautions against dismissing fashion as meaningless or frivolous. Moon documents how a significant amount of fast fashion is supplied by immigrant families in the LA area -- an account that poses interesting differences to the more widespread image of impersonal factory production in Asia. Imagine that you have been asked to write an editorial in response to the question, "Is fast fashion ethical?" Drawing on one or more of these authors, provide a detailed assessment of what you see as the ethical dilemmas of fast fashion and how consumers should respond to them.

 

Assignment 2: The Conspicuous Consumption of Couples (due February 11)
Don't forget to name your assignment: lastname2.docx

Veblen argues that fashion is a tool in the battle for social status, with women in particular being attracted to fashion because their primary role is to display their husband's status through their own leisure, as opposed to men who must work and wear more utilitarian clothing. This assignment asks you to evaluate Veblen's argument by considering the dress habits of a couple with which you are familiar. The couple can be married or long-term domestic partners. They need not be heterosexual. They should be people whom you have seen or currently see with enough frequency to get a sense of how each partner typically dresses. (You may, for example, pick your parents, relatives, or family friends and either recall how they typically dress or contact them over the course of a few days and ask them what they are wearing each day.) How do the partners differ in their habitual dress, and what role do gender and occupation play in these differences? Keeping in mind that Veblen wrote The Theory of the Leisure Class 120 years ago, what do you think of his explanation for why women tend to be more closely associated with fashion?

 

Assignment 3: Subculture as Resistance (due February 20)
Don't forget to name your assignment: lastname3.docx

In Subculture, Dick Hebdige argues that marginalized groups develop and use subcultural style to symbolize resistance to the ways they have been characterized by the dominant society. This assignment asks you to evaluate Hebdige's characterization of subcultures by analyzing a youth subculture with which you are familiar, either through direct participation or through observation. Based on your example, address the following questions: How, exactly, does the subculture you have chosen resist the parent culture? With what success? In what ways does it conform to or reproduce the dominant culture? In light of your example, what do you think are the strengths and weaknesses of Hebdige's argument?

 

Assignment 4: The Daily Wardrobe (due March 1)
Don't forget to name your assignment: lastname4.docx

Sophie Woodward conducted ethnographic research with women as they got dressed. For this assignment, use Woodward's method to interview one person. Begin by arranging the interview through an initial recruitment conversation. Be sure that your interviewee understands the method and is comfortable with your presence as that person examines closet, dresser, or other clothing storage location and determines what to wear. Be sure to emphasize that the participant can ask you to leave or decline to answer a question at any time. Once you make arrangements to meet, ask the participant to narrate the process of deciding what to wear. Feel free to ask questions to clarify something or to keep the conversation going. Finally, engage in a follow-up conversation: did the outfit achieve its intended effect, either on the person or on others? Why or why not? With what significance? Use your paper to evaluate Woodward's argument in light of your findings.

 

Assignment 5: The Cultural and Political Economy of Salaula (due March 22)
Don't forget to name your assignment: lastname5.docx

The movie "T-Shirt Travels" and Karen Hansen's book present contrasting opinions about the effects of the secondhand clothing trade on Zambia. This assignment asks you to evaluate their arguments by considering the following question: Is the expansion of the salaula trade a sign of Zambia's neo-colonial dependence or an opportunity for Zambians to use clothing for upward mobility and self-expression? (Hint: Your answer is likely to be more complicated than the either/or choice posed above. It is therefore important that you specify exactly what you see as the good and bad effects of the salaula trade -- culturally, politically, economically, and socially -- and how we might therefore make sense of it overall. You might find it helpful to draw on Bourdieu's arguments about the links between class, taste, and cultural, social, and economic capital.)

 

Assignment 6: Islamic Fashion (due April 1)
Don't forget to name your assignment: lastname6.docx

Lewis writes, "Muslim fashion needs to be taken seriously as fashion" (3). Do you find her argument and evidence convincing? What broader lessons about clothing and its individual and social effects can we take from Lewis's book? While you can write this paper without doing any additional research, you might also decide to conduct your own mini-ethnography as a basis for comparison with Lewis's work. Options include going shopping with a Muslim woman for whom religion is a factor in making clothing choices; interviewing someone you know who wears or has worn hijab in the past; or analyzing modest fashion retail websites or individual blogs. Use your primary research as a basis for comparison with Lewis's work.

 

Assignment 7: Asian Chic? (due April 10)
Don't forget to name your assignment: lastname7.docx

For this assignment, pick one of the following two options:
Option 1: Dorinne Kondo claims that Wim Wenders's film on Yohji Yamamoto "images the Orientalizing gaze of the West in masculine, high-modernist terms" (72). What, specifically, does she mean by this? Based on your own viewing of the film in class (April 5), do you agree with her critique that the film, ostensibly an homage to Yamamoto, depicts the designer as not quite achieving "Master Subject" status? Why or why not? With what significance?
Option 2: Thuy Linh Nguyen Tu considers how "Asianness has become a resource in this creative economy" (5). By juxtaposing Asian American designers' experiences with Asian Chic fashion trends, her book documents that while this resource may bring opportunities, it can also be fraught, materially and symbolically. Find an article in the fashion press (New York Times, Vogue, Glamour, etc.) that profiles an Asian or Asian American designer or style trend. How might Tu respond to the article's representation of Asianness? And how would you evaluate her argument based on this example?

 

Assignment 8: The Politics and Culture of Colonial Dress (due April 17)
Don't forget to name your assignment: lastname8.docx

Tarlo's book explores how dress was connected to colonial rule and nationalist movements of resistance to it. A key element of sartorial politics has been the debate over whether to wear "Western" or "native" garments. Picking a concrete example from Clothing Matters, discuss the political, economic, cultural, gender, age, kinship, and/or social dimensions of colonial dress dilemmas. What messages about individuality and identity are people trying to achieve through dress? Do they succeed? Why or why not? Based on your example, what do we learn about colonialism by considering the dilemmas raised by what to wear?

 

Assignment 9: Blue Jeans and Street Style (due May 3)
Don't forget to name your assignment: lastname9.docx

For this assignment, pick one of the following two options:
Option 1: Blue Jeans. Is economic and cultural globalization producing homogeneity or heterogeneity? With specific reference to fashion, is the increasing accessibility of blue jeans making us dress more and more like each other, or in increasingly distinctive ways? For this response paper, pick one of the chapters in Global Denim. How might the author of this chapter answer this question? What global relations of production and consumption are involved in the adoption of blue jeans? When people wear blue jeans, do they lose some of their own identity? Is consumption leading to the formation of a single global culture? Why or why not?
Option 2: Street Style. Luvaas decided that in order to understand street style blogging, he had to create his own blog. For this assignment, prepare a "blog post" (you will not actually post it) inspired by Urban Fieldnotes. Be sure to secure permission to photograph subjects. Then, curate your images and include some kind of text to explain the context for the images. You might, for example, use this exercise to comment on fashion trends or dress practices at Holy Cross. Finally, reflect on your experience of collecting these images. What does it lead you to conclude about Luvaas's project?

 

Dress or Spending Diary and 3-5 page analysis (Due: By 5pm on Monday, May 6, by email to Prof. Leshkowich)
Please name your document: lastnamediary.docx

One of the goals of this course is to provide you with the analytical tools and cross-cultural perspective to evaluate the meaning and significance of your own dress and consumption practices. To that end, you will be asked to keep a dress or spending diary during the semester.

The diary assignment consists of the following:
1. First, decide which kind of diary you will keep. Choose one of the following options:
a. A list of your spending; or
b. A list of the clothing you wear each day (including where it was made and where you purchased it).
2. Keep the diary for two weeks during the semester. For those two weeks, you need to record everything you spend or everything you wear. You can pick any two weeks you want: either two consecutive weeks or one week at one point and a second later on.
3. Write a 3-5 page essay in response to the following questions:
How would one of the authors we've discussed in class analyze your dress or spending diary for what it reveals about contemporary fashion and consumption practices? What in your opinion would be the strengths, weaknesses, and significance of the author's analysis?

The point of this question is to get you to consider your own dress or spending practices in depth through the perspective of one of the authors we have learned about this semester. The author you pick is up to you. You might, for example, consider one of the following issues:
Are your spending or dressing habits marked by the escalating pressures of fashion that Juliet Schor describes? Do you agree with her proposed solutions?
How do your spending or dress practices relate to class status, such as the idea of cultural capital discussed by Bourdieu or conspicuous consumption covered by Veblen?
How might your dress or spending practices be read by others in light of semiotic approaches, such as those by Barthes or Hebdige?
What are the sources of your desire for fashion or consumer items? Is your desire created semiotically as Barthes described?
How have blogs, street style, or other elements of the democratization of fashion shaped your dress practices? What do your practices suggest about Luvaas's argument?
Is your exercise of agency in fashion or consumption constrained by socioeconomic factors, such as Fiske considered in his analysis of malls or Hansen discussed with salaula in Zambia?
How do gender, sexuality, race, or ethnicity shape your dress or consumption practices?
What might Woodward say about your daily process of choosing outfits?

These are just some ideas to get you thinking; the framework for your analysis is ultimately up to you. You should be sure to deal critically and substantively with at least one author's ideas (more authors are OK, but not required). As always, be sure to frame your analysis with a clearly conceived argument and thesis statement.

 

For more information, contact:  aleshkow@holycross.edu