EPISODE 33 FEATURES FASHADEMIC KIMBERLY JENKINS
We need to talk. And we need to listen. Fashion is supposed to be modern, cutting edge, leading the way. So how come it’s stuck in old-fashioned tropes that place white culture at its centre?
Now is the time to shake things up and insist on representation and inclusivity, and we all have our parts to play. But what does diversity really mean in the fashion context? And why aren’t we changing fast enough?
Kimberley Jenkins is a writer, educator and authority on the intersections between fashion, race and culture. At the time of this recording, Kim was teaching at both Parsons, The New School and the Pratt Institute in New York. In January 2020, she joined the faculty at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada, as Assistant Professor of Fashion Studies.
She specialises in the sociocultural and historical influences behind why we wear what we wear, specifically addressing how politics, psychology, race and gender shape the way we ‘fashion’ our identity. Plus she's a massive vintage fan, and a serious fashion history buff.
NOTES
COURSES At Parsons, Kim developed a class called Fashion & Race, which inspired this podcast. These are issues we need to be discussing more - from cultural appropriation vs. appreciation, to diversity on the runway and in imagery, through diversity and representation in all areas.
FASHION AND JUSTICE “What does fashion make possible to achieve when it comes to social justice?” Fashion has the ability to construct identities and a sense of belonging, but how does fashion fail us? Who is left out?
FASHION STUDIES Kim tells how she first discovered the field of fashion studies while doing her undergraduate degree in cultural anthropology and art history at UT Arlington. The writers she mentions are: Anne Hollander Lou Taylor Hazel Clarke.
STYLE WITH ELSA KLENSCH was on CNN in the 1980s and ‘90s. Watch and wow:
DALLAS STYLE “We will wear it!” Kim says she fell in love with fashion at her christening, when she looked up and saw her aunt’s imposing hat above her. She grew up sartorially inspired by the ‘ladies who lunch’ in her hometown of Dallas, Texas. What else is the city famous for? The filthy rich and fashion fabulous Carringtons on Dallas, of course. Bring it.
Dallas style - Krystal, Blake and Alexis - oil money and plenty of fashion front
STEREOTYPES Kim grew up in a predominantly white neighbourhood in Amarillo, Texas and recalls the pressure she felt as a child to conform and “fit in” so that white people would “feel comfortable” around her.
“Respectability politics is a term coined by author and professor Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham in her 1993 book Righteous Discontent: The Women’s Movement in the Black Baptist Church, 1880–1920. While the term is relatively new, the concept is as old as the racist rhetoric it comes from. It basically is an oppressive group telling an oppressed group that in order to receive better treatment from the group in power, they must behave better.” Quoting Whitney Alese on Medium - read Whitney’s piece in full here.
THE BODY: FASHION & PHYSIQUE was a 2018 exhibition held at FIT curated by Emma McClendon. The show explored the complex history and politics of the “ideal” fashion body, through the variety of body shapes that have been considered fashionable from the C18th to the present.
LESLIE JONES is the brilliant American comedian/actor who had a difficult time finding a dress to wear to the premiere of her movie Ghostbusters. Designer Christian Siriano stepped in to make her stunning red dress - while the world asked fashion to lift its game. Via Variety: ‘When no one would outfit her for the premiere, Jones took to Twitter… She wrote: “It’s so funny how there are no designers wanting to help me with a premiere dress for [a] movie. Hmmm, that will change, and I remember everything.” Now, she recalls that it wasn’t about trying to “start something,” but “we were on the way out to look at some dresses at the mall, like at Macy’s.” Jones checked her phone hours later and saw the tweet had blown up “like wildfire” — but also that Christian Siriano had responded with a “wave” emoji. Together, they created Jones’ dream dress, inspired by the 1976 film Sparkle.’
WHO OWNS CULTURE? The Susan Scafaldi book Kim mentions is Appropriation and Authenticity in American Law (2005). Scafidi is a fashion law professor at Fordham University. When it comes to cultural appropriation the big three are: “source, significance, and similarity”.
For more on cultural appropriation, try Episode 75 with Sass Brown.
MUSIC is by Montaigne, who sang this special acoustic version of “Because I love You” from her album Glorious Heights, just for us.
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Clare & the Wardrobe Crisis team x