Gaugele Elke (ed.). Aesthetic Politics in Fashion

MIT Press, 2014. — 259 p.This critical anthology, volume 14, from the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna invites international scholars to debate fashion as a cultural phenomenon and meta-politic at the intersection of artistic, creative, economic and everyday practices. A variety of essays gathered into three sections - aesthetic economies, production of space and alternative aesthetic politics - include topics such as fashion and cultural commodification; the cooperation between the fashion industry and celebrity; the relationship between designer, body, clothing and space; the ethical turn in fashion; the roles of performance and whiteness in fashion today. Contributors locate fashion within the context of a variety of disciplines including art history, cultural sciences, sociology, design and fashion studies.