The Psychopolitics of Fashion

What if fashion was a state? What kind of state would it be? Probably not a democracy. Otto von Busch sees fashion as a totalitarian state, with a population all too eager to enact the decrees of its aesthetic superiority and deploy acts of judgment, micro-aggression, micro-violence, bullying, and passionate micro-fascism.

Using four design projects as case studies, Von Busch explores the violence and seductiveness of fashion and demystifies political and fashion theory on the subject. He proposes that violent fashion happens not only overseas in arid cotton fields or collapsing factories, but in the everyday practice of getting dressed, in judgments and rejections. Indeed, he suggests that feelings of inclusion and adoration are what make us feel the pleasure of being fashionable-of being seductive, popular, and powerful.

Exploring emotions associated with fashion as well as the concept of embodied experience, Von Busch posits that our totalitarian fashion state is bred out of fear, as consumers renounce their agency in order to wield the power of superiority or to look down on those unworthy of their standing. Through these explorations, The Psychopolitics of Fashion offers new perspectives on fashion through the lens of politics, policing, identity production, and statehood, and even explores the implications of these findings for fashion design practitioners.