Fashion theories in action: Why fashion is simply NOT about the look

Welcome back to Redressing Fashion! It’s been way too long, as life has been life-ing a bit too hard for me recently. But I’m back with an episode I’ve been wanting to create for ages, inspired by the shift in my career. Since leaving my academic post a few months ago and embracing personal style coaching, I’ve realized I’ve become my clients’ personal fashion anthropologist. Today, I’m bringing five core definitions of fashion theory out of the classroom and linking them back to the mundane, practical, actionable aspects of getting dressed. I cover theories that explore fashion as a situated bodily practice, a practice of assemblage, a system of signs, an articulation of our fluid identities, and the cultural construction of the embodied identity. At a more personal level, I dive into how we can consciously use fashion’s capacity as language and construction to shape our relationships with the world and determine how we are perceived. The ultimate lesson is that fashion is not about achieving a specific look or following trends, but about self-expression, self-empowerment, and feeling so good from the inside out that you inevitably look good. 👗 Find out more about style coaching: https://laurabelru.com/style/ ----------------- REFERENCES 📚 Fashion Theory. https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/rfft20. Barthes, Roland. The Language of Fashion*. Edited by Andy Stafford and Michael Carter. Translated by Andy Stafford. Editions du Seuil, 2004. Reprint, Bloomsbury, 2013. Entwistle, Joanne. “Fashion and Fleshy Body: Dress as Embodied Practice.” Fashion Theory 4, no. 3 (2000): 323–48. Kaiser, Susan B. and Denise Nichole Green. Fashion and cultural studies*. Bloomsbury, 2021. Lurie, Alison. The Language of Clothes. Henry Holt, 2000. Woodward, Sophie. “‘Humble’ Blue Jeans: Material Culture Approaches to Understanding the Ordinary, Global, and the Personal.” In Fashion Studies: Research Methods, Sites and Practices*, edited by Heike Jenss. Bloomsbury, 2016. ----------------- RELEVANT LINKS 💡 Life updates: - Newsletter: “The world is burning and all I think about is fashion” - https://laurabelru.com/the-world-is-burning-and-all-i-think-about-is-fashion/ - Video: “A very belated update” - https://youtu.be/SbyPQjICPEE Podcast episode: “Fashion, ecology, and plastic-free living with Dr Georgia Ennis” - https://laurabelru.com/fashion-ecology-and-plastic-free-living-with-dr-georgia-ennis/ ------------ WORK WITH ME 🧚🏻‍♀️ 👗 Style coaching: https://laurabelru.com/style/ 🎙️ Speaking and guest lecturing: https://laurabelru.com/speaker/ 👩🏻‍🏫 Writing, editing, research, and other academic support: https://laurabelru.com/contact/ ------------ STAY IN TOUCH 🌹 ✨ Redressing Fashion (blog & podcast): https://laurabelru.com/redressing-fashion/ 📧 Substack: https://laurabelru.substack.com/ 📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurabelru 📱 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@laurabelru 📽️ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@laurabelru