Fashion Theory Volume 13 Issue 4 - Jennifer Craik

Special Issue: Australian Fashion PerspectivesIn recent years, the topic of fashion and dress has exploded on the international academic stage. Australia has not been immune to this trend and the study of fashion and dress has proliferated across the country in many disciplines and fields of study. This issue pays tribute to the growth of fashion theory in Australia by presenting a range of perspectives on fashion and dress from Downunder. All but one of the contributors research fashion in Australia while the outrider, Alison Goodrum, has explored identities about nationalism and dress in her research on the marketing of British fashion in the global marketplace. The focus of this special issue is the distinctiveness of Australian fashion perspectives in contemporary research projects especially concerning the question of cultural identity and the place of fashion and dress Downunder in the global context.The papers were first presented at the Fashion and Dress in Unaustralia Workshop as part of the Cultural Studies of Australia Annual Conference, Unaustralia, held at the University of Canberra in December 2006. The theme of the conference drew on popular debates about national identity and, concomitantly about events and phenomena that were derided as being 'Unaustralian'. The fashion and dress workshop brought together fashion researchers exploring a range of topics: trends in fashion and dress in Australia; body-clothing relations; Australian fashion and dress in the global context; the politics of fashion and dress; and issues of design, production and consumption. Selected papers from the workshop presented here examine the resonance of cultural identity in Australian fashion, how it is represented, produced and marketed. Fashion Theory is covered by the following abstracting/indexing services: Abstracts in Anthropology; AOI Anthropological Index Online; ARTbibliographies Modern; British Humanities Index; DAAI Design and Applied Arts Index; IBR