Just Fashion: Critical Cases on Social Justice in Fashion

Fashion is a phenomenon which thrives on social injustices. Fashion harvests its energy from the frictions of social competition: the desire for social acceptance as well as the fight for individuality fuel fashion production and consumption. Where few social differences exist, fashion produces them anew and with an added weight. The realms of fashion and social justice may seem far apart, but each intersects with topics such as the technologies of the self and cultural identity, global production and consumption, body size and regimes of asceticism, aesthetic apartheid and the politics of the dressed body in the widest sense. This book is a collection of cases that engage with social justice through fashion from the course “Critical Fashion and Social Justice,” at Parsons, The New School for Design. The texts explore tactics for empowerment through fashion, locating ways by which fashion can mitigate injustices.