Read and download the digital version of BIAS Journal of Dress Practice Issue 4: Fashion + Violence
Violence is a particularly on–the–nose theme. In the collective imagination, brand-crazed “fashion victims,” fur obsessed Cruella de Vils, and certain Prada-loving demons hint at the relation between fashion and latent brutality. Alexander McQueen’s Spring/Summer 2001 blood slide embellished gown and Schiaparelli’s 1938 tear dress make the connection literal – violence is always in fashion.
The fourth issue of BIAS offers challenging, definitive, and insightful perspectives on the manifold connections between the violent and fashionable. Some essays in this issue confront literal cruelty against garment laborers and animals, while others evidence symbolic and embodied violence in fashion, photography, and film.
We have had the pleasure of reading and editing essays ranging from representations of violence to philosophical and historical examinations and personal narratives. Special thanks go to Dr. Alison Matthews David and Joshua Katcher, who shared in interviews their perspectives on the theme as fashion researchers and practitioners.
BIAS’s trajectory from its initial issue, Healing, though the later Politics, and our prior issue, Surveillance, deals with themes of mounting anxiety, a trend we think reflects fashion’s ever-strengthening ties to our socio–political spheres and to our personal lives. It is now more relevant than ever to negotiate and debate fashion’s problematics and potentialities, violent and otherwise, and we hope this issue inspires further investigation.
Read more about BIAS Journal of Dress Practice Issue 3: Fashion + Surveillance and download the digital version here
Read and download the digital version of BIAS Journal of Dress Practice Issue 2: Fashion + Politics
Read and download the digital version of BIAS Journal of Dress Practice Issue 1: Fashion + Healing
Dress Practice Collective
The Dress Practice Collective is a New School student-run organization aimed at joining elements of visual culture, fashion theory, design studies and personal practice through a variety of media. We hope to spark conversations and initiate collaborations between students, faculty and members of the greater community. The organization was founded in Spring 2013 for the purpose of presenting exhibitions, organizing workshops, and publishing original content.
