The Extraordinary Power of Ordinary Clothes: from everyday aesthetics to political statement

Description

Situated among the most common and mundane practices of everydayness, sartorial expressions are profoundly political in their nature. All throughout history, materiality, manufacturing processes, and embodiment of clothes have played an important role in the representation of self, the distinctions between social groups and the signification of cultural and political alliances, where fashionable clothes were most often associated with the values of the groups of political dominance (class, gender, race, etc). Yet, the fashionable discourse of the second decade of the new millennium have been marked by the unprecedented presence of basic and ordinary clothes: t-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, and trackpants are inhabiting streets, retail outlets, and catwalks.
In the early-1980’s, this group of clothes was branded streetwear. The name represented recognition of the impact of the urban space and its practices on the sartorial expression of the city dwellers, but also clearly differentiated the ordinary and familiar from the fashionable, which was considered unique and spectacular. Drawing on the interconnection between the streetwear and the street, in this presentation I will discuss the relationship between the two notions as symbolic and spacial sites (respectively) of political resistance.

Period	3 Feb 2018
Event title	Political Art and Aesthetics in the Everyday: Appearances of the Political 5/6
Event type	Conference
Location	Copenhagen, DenmarkShow on map