Fashion as Transnational Modernity: The Han Cloth and Multiple Fashion Systems Beyond Western Dominance
Overview
This essay challenges the Western-centric perception of fashion by exploring fashion as a transnational phenomenon with multiple systems of practice. Using Chinese Han cloth as a primary case study, the paper argues that fashion exists across all cultures and societies, shaped by local values, religious significance, and political regulation rather than originating exclusively from Western or European sources.
What this essay covers
- Introduction establishing fashion as transnational and culturally specific, with theoretical framework from Kaiser and Barthes
- Discussion of fashion's role in cultural identity and ideological sharing, contrasting Western mass media influence with alternative fashion systems
- Analysis of Han clothes in Chinese culture and examination of how fashion has influenced modern dress across the twentieth century to present
- Exploration of concepts including imagined communities, nationalism, globalization, and westernization in relation to fashion erosion and cultural representation
Preview
‘Fashion is Transanational-Not Merely Western or “Euromodern”…There is More than One “Fashion System”-More than One Way in Which Appearance Styles Change’ (Kaiser, 2012, P.32)
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Fashion is a transnational form of modernity and is continuously recreated to suit societal agendas and establish cultural value. Fashion from time immemorial has shaped the appearance of humanity from antiquity to modernity. For instance, Chinese cultures provide identity by placing iconic forms representing their perceptions and ways of living. Most of these cultures resulted in modern fashion development, which continually changes due to replicating various communities' ideas. According to Roland Barthes, fashion does not evolve; it merely changes. The lexicon of fashion is new each year, which always keeps the same system like that of a language but suddenly changes the currency of its words (Barthes 1990, p.215). The paper explores the idea of transnationality regarding the Chinese Han cloth to prove that there are different ways of understanding and practising fashion across the world.
Presently, fashion has become a fundamental tool for sharing new ideologies within society. For instance, in the United Kingdom, the Nova magazine published fashionable femininity to reconcile feminist ideologies with stylish appearance (Bartlett, Cole, Rocamora 2013, p.2). Mass media influence in the West and Europe has contributed to the perception that fashion originates from these regions. However, Margaret Maynard suggests that cloths represent a human requirement for warmth and privacy (Maynard and Maynard 1994, p.9). According to her, fashion exists among every social and political system due to necessity.