Individual Presentation or Panel Title
Who Are You Wearing?: The Role of Celebrity Culture in Personal Identity Creation Through Fashion
Abstract
Fashion is a result of an evolution of the survival and societal need to wear clothes. This has expanded into a global industry that combines the economics of production with the applied art of clothing design. Clothing is often used, by the fashion conscious, as a visual representation of its wearer in an attempt to communicate aspects of the wearer’s personal identity. However, what is available in terms of fashion is dictated by trends set by prominent tastemakers. In today’s society, these tastemakers are primarily celebrities due to the integration of the fashion industry and the star system. With these interlocking ideas in mind, this project analyzes personal fashion narratives—heavily informal fashion pieces in the form of blog posts and articles—wherein celebrity fashion culture is the focus, in order to draw conclusions about the effect of this celebrity culture on identity-based dressing. This project combines tactics of literary analysis and communication studies with research done in psychology, philosophy, and business/marketing strategies. This project seeks to draw links between these large and influential facets of the fashion industry, and further show the continued prevalence and importance of fashion.
Location
Goodwin Private Dining Room
Start Date
30-4-2016 1:30 PM
End Date
30-4-2016 2:20 PM
Keywords
fashion, celebrity culture, personal identity
Who Are You Wearing?: The Role of Celebrity Culture in Personal Identity Creation Through Fashion
Goodwin Private Dining Room
Fashion is a result of an evolution of the survival and societal need to wear clothes. This has expanded into a global industry that combines the economics of production with the applied art of clothing design. Clothing is often used, by the fashion conscious, as a visual representation of its wearer in an attempt to communicate aspects of the wearer’s personal identity. However, what is available in terms of fashion is dictated by trends set by prominent tastemakers. In today’s society, these tastemakers are primarily celebrities due to the integration of the fashion industry and the star system. With these interlocking ideas in mind, this project analyzes personal fashion narratives—heavily informal fashion pieces in the form of blog posts and articles—wherein celebrity fashion culture is the focus, in order to draw conclusions about the effect of this celebrity culture on identity-based dressing. This project combines tactics of literary analysis and communication studies with research done in psychology, philosophy, and business/marketing strategies. This project seeks to draw links between these large and influential facets of the fashion industry, and further show the continued prevalence and importance of fashion.