Online Course

Why do high-heeled shoes feature in the television series Sex and the City? How are fashion, gender and sexuality linked? Why can women now wear a cheongsam dress and trainers? Fashion history and theory is one of the most rapidly developing areas of humanities research, drawing upon new theories of the body, social space, surfaces, ephemerality and popular culture.

This course examines fashion as a vehicle of self-fashioning since the 1980s. It will present a variety of theoretical methods to interpret the fashion choices of post-modern society.

You will study themes including fashion and identity politics; the 'post-subculturalist'; fashion design and the street; gender and consumerism; cross-cultural dressing. You will examine topics including music and dress; dress and sexuality; vintage, retro and second-hand clothing; 'anti-fashion'; 'costume play' and Japanese 'cuteness' (kawaii); and the spectacle of the contemporary fashion parade.

The course will include topics and collaborative assessment in which 'net society' plays a role. Your tasks may range from online diaries to role-plays as a fashion victim having to defend your stance.

NOTE: This course is conducted via the Omnium system (omnium.edu.au). Students will receive log in instructions via their UNSW email account prior to the commencement of the course.