CRS2035 Fashion Culture
Prof. Natalia S.H. CHAN
Monday: 4:30-6:15pm
ELB 308
This course introduces students to the historical development of fashion in the
20th century. We study such significant designers as Coco Chanel, Christian Dior,
Jean Paul Gaultier, Vivienne Westwood, Rei Kawakubo, Yohji Yamamoto and
Alexander McQueen as well as the media representation and the spectatorship of
their designs in catwalk, photography, magazines, popular music, film and
literature. Besides, we also explore the cultural meanings of fashion in relation to
consumerism, fetishism, pop art, punk culture, (post)modernity, transvestism
and orientalism to see how fashion articulates our body, identity, gender,
sexuality, social value and morality. Evaluation of the course bases on students’
presentation in tutorials, a term paper and the final exam.
Week One (9 Jan): Introduction & Course Organization
Week Two (16 Jan): Historicizing Fashion Design in the 20th Century
Readings: -Kyoto Costume Institute ed.: Fashion: A History from the 18th
to the 20th Century (selected)
-Elisabeth Wilson: “The History of Fashion”
-王麗儀：〈60s-80s 時裝掠影：我們都是這樣長大的〉
Week Three (23 Jan): Fashion Theory (I): Semiotics & Sociology
Readings: -Roland Barthes: The Fashion System (selected)
-Georg Simmel: “The Philosophy of Fashion”
“Adornment”
“The Problem of Style”
**Tutorial: -Fred Davis: “Do Clothes Speak? What Makes Them Fashion?”
-張愛玲:〈更衣記〉(Prose, Modern China)
Week Four (30 Jan): Holiday: Happy Chinese New Year!!
Week Five (6 Feb): Fashion Theory (II): Gender & Identity
Readings: -Joanne Entwistle: “Fashion, Adornment and Sexuality”
“The Dressed Body”
Illustrations: selected pictures from fashion magazines & books (men’s wear,
women’s power-dressing, corset & underwear, etc.)
Week Six (13 Feb): Fashion Theory (III): Psychoanalysis & Fetishism
Readings: -Karl Marx: “Fetishism of Commodities”
-Freud: “Fetishism”
-Diana Fuss: “Fashion and the Homospectatorial Look”
**Tutorial: (T )張小虹：《絕對衣性戀》(Critical Essays, Taiwan)
Week Seven (20 Feb): Cross-dressing in Cultural Representation
Readings: -Marjorie Garber: “Introduction: Clothes Make the Man”
-《誠品好讀》專輯：〈新世紀．新性別—跨性別展演〉
Illustrations: Female-Male transvestites (Republican China & HK)
Screening: -吳君如：《四面夏娃．無色無相》(Film, HK, 1996, 30min)
Week Eight (27 Feb): Fashion Designer (I): Jean Paul Gaultier + Madonna
Readings; -Farid Chenoune: Jean Paul Gaultier
-Douglas Kellner: “Madonna, Fashion, and Identity”
Screening: -Madonna: The Immaculate Collection (MV, US, 1980s)
**Tutorial: -David Gilbert: “Urban Outfitting:
The City and the Spaces of Fashion Culture”
-朱天文:〈世紀末的華麗〉(Short Story, Taiwan)
Week Nine (6 Mar): Fashion Designer (II): Vivienne Westwood & Punk Culture
Readings: -Claire Wilcox: “Vivienne Westwood: 34 Years in Fashion”
-Andy Bennett: “Punk and Punk Rock”
-selected film reviews of NaNa
Screening: -Sex Pistols: Live at the Longhorn (Concert, UK)
-Episodes of《NaNa: 世上的另一個我》(Film, Japan, 2005）
(R ):《NaNa: 世上的另一個我》（日本,漫畫 2001）
Week Ten (13 Mar): Camp, Androgyny and Bisexuality: Leslie Cheung (張國榮)
Readings: -Susan Sontag: “Notes on Camp”
-洛楓：〈男身女相‧雌雄同體：張國榮的歌衫舞影與媒介論述〉
Screening: -Episodes of Farewell My Concubine (Film, HK, 1994)
-Leslie Cheung’s Concerts & MV (1980s-2002, HK)
**Tutorial: -Virginia Woolf: A Room of One’s Own (selected)
-(T )董啟章:《安卓珍尼》 (Novella, Hong Kong)
(R ) Siu Leung Li: Cross-Dressing in Chinese Opera
Week Eleven (20 Mar): Fashion and Cinema (I): Androgynous Marlene Dietrich
Readings: -Regine & Engelmeier: “A Touch of Mink:
Film & Fashion--Fashion in Film”
-Melanie Hillmer: “The Cinema in the Wardrobe:
A Stroll Through Seven Decades”
-Stella Bruzzi: “The Erotic Strategies of Androgyny”
Films discussed: -Joseph von Sternberg: The Blue Angel (Germany, 1930)
(R ) Peter Baxter: Just Watch! Sternberg, Paramount and America
Week Twelve (27 Mar): Fashion and Cinema (II): Qi-pao (旗袍)
Readings: -Stella Bruzzi: “Cinema and Haute Couture”
-Audrey Hepburn: “The Costumes Makes the Actor: A Personal View”
-粟米編著：《花樣年華王家衛》(selected)
-洛楓：〈如花美眷：論《花樣年華》的年代記憶與戀物情結〉
Film Discussed: -王家衛:《花樣年華》 (HK, 2002)
**Tutorial: -Writing Workshop of Research Papers
-submission of students’ paper’s topic
-Ref: MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers
(R )包銘新：《中國旗袍》、《近代中國女裝實錄》
Week Thirteen (3 April): Female Body Deformed: Footbinding
Readings: -Dorothy Ko: Every Step a Lotus: Shoes for Bound Feet (selected)
-Harold Koda: Extreme Beauty: The Body Transformed
(“Introduction” & “Feet”)
Week Fourteen (10 April): Anti-Fashion and Fashion Victim
Readings: -Michelle Lee: “The Fashion Victims: Ten Commandments”
Audio: 軟硬天師：<川保黎明燒著軟硬耀司> (Rap Song, HK, 1995, 7min)
**Tutorial: -Michelle Lee: “McFashion”
#Term Paper Due#
(R ) Ted Polhemus & Lynn Procter. Fashion & Anti-Fashion:
An Anthropology of Clothing and Adornment.
Week Fifteen (17 April): Holiday—Easter Monday
NO CLASS!!
Instructions:
(T ): Textbooks & Films (required):
1. 張小虹：《絕對衣性戀》，臺北：時報出版，2001。
2. 董啟章:《安卓珍尼》，臺北：聯合文學出版，1996。
3. Joseph von Sternberg: The Blue Angel (Film, DVD, Germany, 1930)
4. 王家衛:《花樣年華》 (Film, VCD/ DVD, HK, 2002)
(R): Recommended Readings (Optional)
1. Course Reader: There will be a complied package of all reading materials.
Students should make a copy of it by themselves, and finish the assigned readings
before classes.
2. Students are required to attend all the tutorials and the final exam. Besides,
students are also required to submit a term paper by 10 April 2006.
3. Students are expected to be open-minded in receiving new and/ or controversial
ideas. A significant amount attention will be given to discussing the reading
materials. Please be active and verbal within classroom.
4. Students, who commit academic dishonesty (for examples, plagiarism and
cheating), will receive 0 mark and F grade (see attachment for definition).
5. Students who are absent from classes should be responsible for the make-up of
class activities at their own discretion.
Requirements and Assessment:
Oral Presentation: Students are required to do an oral presentation in 20 minutes. It
should be a critical-analytical presentation centering on the assigned texts or the
topics selected by the students. By the way, all students are required to finish the
assigned readings before tutorials and participate in classroom discussion.
Term Paper: Students are required to submit a critical-analytical academic essay by
10 April 2006. It should focus on the studies of fashion culture (see suggested topics
below), and must include an essay title and a list of reference. The paper can be
written in Chinese or English in not more than 2000 words (typed & double-spaced).
Late paper will be marked down for one point grade.
Finial Exam: essay-form questions, open-book.
Evaluation:
Oral Presentation: 20%
Term Paper:
40%
Final Exam:
40%
Total:
100%
Suggested Topics:
1. Fashion Theory
-Fashion, Body Politics, Identity, Spectatorship, Gender & Sexuality
-Fashion Industry
-Critical Studies of Fashion Designers
2. Literary or Cultural Writings on Fashion
-楊澤編：《作家的衣櫃》
-《紅樓夢》服飾研究
- Virginia Woolf: Orlando
3. Cross-dressing in Everyday Life or Cultural Representation
-Cross-dressing of Gay & Lesbian Communities
-Drag King & Drag Queen Onstage Performance:
eg.（日本）寶塚歌舞團、SMAP
-香港/中國戲曲和武俠電影的性別易裝：
eg. 梅蘭芳、任劍輝、陳寶珠、馮寶寶、淩波、林青霞、梅豔芳、吳君如
-Fashion & Popular Music
eg. 澤田研二, The Beatles, Boy George, David Bowie, Michael Jackson, Pet Shop
Boys, Spice Girls, Björk, 羅文，黃耀明，王菲
-Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie (1982)
-Sally Potter: Orlando (1992)
-John Lone in M. Butterfly (1994)
-Pedro Almodovar: All About My Mother (2000)
-Yongyoot Thongkongtoon: Iron Ladies (人妖打排球) (2000)
4. Fashion in Film
-侯孝賢:《海上花》(1998, Taiwan)
-Cinematic Representation of Greta Garbo, Audrey Hepburn, Judy Garland, Marilyn
Monroe, James Dean, Sophia Loren, Elvis Presley, Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando
-Greta Garbo in Queen Christina (1933)
-Julie Andrews in Victor/ Victoria (1982)
-Francois Ozon: 8 Femmes (France, 2002)
-Lolita and《下妻物語》(2005 Japan)
5. Fashion and Everyday Life Practice
-Catwalk & Fashion Photography
-Fashion Magazines
-Fashion, Modernity & Urbanization
-Cosmetics & Perfumes
-Fashion Models & Body Politics
-老人與衣服
-童裝與成人世界
-睡衣、壽衣與冥衣設計
6. Creative Works on Fashion
-Garment-making & Fashion Design (with description & explanation)
-Paper-Fashion (3-5 pieces of design on paper, with description & explanation)
-video-making on Fashion (10-15 min, with description & explanation)