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Eco Fashion Paper

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Eco Fashion Paper
One very important in the evolution of early humans was the act of decorating the body. All known cultures embellish the body either with marks on the skin or clothing (Entwistle 2001: 33). Body adornment recognizes the individual as a person and communicates aspects of his or her personal and social identity. In the 21st century, fashion as body adornment is still a universal part of a person’s everyday experience (Entwistle 2001: 41-43) yet, there is no one specific definition of fashion. Social scientists, philosophers and gender theorists present distinct understandings of the complexities of the fashion system. The modern definitions of fashion are derived from the foundational works of Bourdieu (1984), Veblen (1899) and Simmel (1957), who discussed fashion as a tool for social class distinction. Social class is just one element in the study of fashion in the 21st century, where gender, ethnicity, sexuality, and subculture affiliation play equally influential roles in the meaning production of dress (Andrew 2008; Calefato 2004; Crane 2000; Crane and Bovone 2006; Clark and Turner 2007; Entwistle 2001; Kaiser 1997; Swain 2003; Taylor 1997; Tompson and Hayiko 1997). The notion of fashion as a non-verbal communication system is discussed by Barthes (1990, 2006), Calefato (2004), Entwistle (2001), Kaiser (1997), Crane (2000) and Taylor (1997) through the use of semiotics in their analysis of fashion, and their focus on the ways that fashion communicates the wears identity in the daily application of dress. The commonly held notion of fashion as superficial is addressed with its connection to modernity by Kawamura (2005) and Taylor (1997) in their discussion of the constant fluctuations in trends and social drive for reinvention. With no common understanding of what fashion is, the studies and theories surrounding the praxis of fashion are expansive and often contradictory. The scholarly research on fashion that does not relate to a specific study focuses on


Bibliography: "Environmentally Friendly." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 06 Oct. 2010. . "What Is Eco-Friendly?" WiseGEEK: Clear Answers for Common Questions. Web. 06 Oct. 2010. . "What Is a Carbon Footprint?" WiseGEEK: Clear Answers for Common Questions. Web. 06 Oct. 2010. . "What Is Eco-Fashion?" WiseGEEK: Clear Answers for Common Questions. Web. 06 Oct. 2010. . "An Introduction to Recycled Fashion." Eco Friendly Fashion by Eco Empress. Web. 06 Oct. 2010. . "Fashion Design." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 06 Oct. 2010. . Eco Friendly Clothing. Web. 06 Oct. 2010. . GREEN Fashion Line GREEN TEE SHIRTS | Eco Friendly T Shirt | Fun Tees. Web. 06 Oct. 2010. . "Eco Friendly Companies | ECO PRODUCTS | Clothing | Bangledox Clothing." Eco Friendly Companies. Web. 06 Oct. 2010. . "Fashion Trends & the Latest Styles | The Fashion Spot." Fashion Trends, Styles, Celebrity Fashion, and Beauty | The Fashion Spot. Web. 06 Oct. 2010. . Atkinson, Michael. “Life-course Transition and Representation: The Deviance Tightrope.” Tattooed: the Sociogenesis of a Body Art. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003: 157-205. Barthes, Roland. The Language of Fashion. Trans. Andy Stafford. Ed. By Andy Stafford and Michael Carter. Oxford: Berg, 2006. Bornstein, Kate. My Gender Workbook: how to become a real man, a real women, the real you, or something else entirely. New York: Routledge, 1998. Bornstein, Kate. Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us. New York: Vintage Books, 1994 Butler, Judith Bourdieu, Pierre. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. Trans. Richard Nice. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1984. Calefato, Patrizia. The Clothed Body. Oxford: Berg, 2004. Clare, Eli. “Freaks and Queers.” Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation. Cambridge: South End Press, 1999: 67-101. Clarke, Victoria and Kevin Turner. “Clothes Maketh the Queer? Dress, Apearance and the Construction of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Identities.” Feminism and Psychology. 17 (2007): 267-276. Crane, Diana. Fashion and Its Social Agendas: Class, Gender, and Identity in Clothing. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2000. Crane, Diana and Laura Bovone. “Approaches to Material Culture: The Sociology of Fashion and Clothing.” Poetics. 34 (2006): 319-333. Cromwell, Jason. “Queering the Binaries: Transsituated Identities, Bodies, and Sexualities.” Transmen and FTMs: Identities, Bodies, Genders, and Sexualities. Cromwell. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1999: 409-424 Cuomo, Chris Entwistle, Joanne and Elizabeth Wilson. Ed. Body Dressing. Oxford: Berg, 2001. Ferguson, Ann. “Moral Responsibility and Social Change: A New Theory of Self.” Hypatia. 12 (1997): 116-141. 12 April 2008. JSTOR < http://0-www.jstor.org.wncln.wncln.org/stable/3810225> George, Boy Kaiser, Susan B. The Social Psychology of Clothing: Symbolic Appearance in Context. Rev. 2nd Ed. New York: Fairchilds Publication, 1997. Kawamura, Yuniya. Fashion-ology: An Introduction to Fashion Studies. Oxford: Berg, 2005. Mifflin, Margot. Bodies of Subversion: A Secret History of Women and Tattoo. New York: Juno Books, 1997. Pitts, Victoria. In the Flesh: The Cultural Politics of Body Modification. New York: Palgrave, 2003. Saiki, Diana and Carole J. Makela. “Proportion in the Design of Women’s Fashionable Clothing: A 50-Year Retrospective.” Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal. 36 (2007): 110-129. Simmel, George. Fashion. American Journal of Sociology. 62 (1957): 541-558. JSTOR 10 July 2008. Swain, Jon Taylor, Mark C. Hiding. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997. Thompson, Craig J. and Diana L. Haytko. “Speaking of Fashion: Consumers’ Uses of Fashion Discourses and the Appropriation of Countervailing Cultural Meanings.” The Journal of Consumer Research. 24 (1997): 15-42. Zita, Jacquelyn N. “Male Lesbian and the Postmodernist Body.” Hypatia. 7 (1992): 106-127. Clark, Hazel

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