Fashioning Globalisation
New Zealand Design, Working Women and the Cultural Economy
RGS-IBG Book Series
1. Edition August 2013
216 Pages, Softcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
Short Description
Drastic changes in the career aspirations of women in the developed world have resulted in a new, globalised market for off-the-peg designer clothes created by independent artisans. This book reports on this phenomenon that seems to exemplify the twin imperatives of globalization and female emancipation. A major conceptual contribution to the literatures on globalization, fashion and gender, it analyses the ways in which women's entry into the labor force over the past thirty years in the developed world has underpinned new forms of aestheticized production and consumption as well as the growth of 'work-style' businesses.
Drastic changes in the career aspirations of women in the developed world have resulted in a new, globalised market for off-the-peg designer clothes created by independent artisans. This book reports on a phenomenon that seems to exemplify the twin imperatives of globalisation and female emancipation.
* A major conceptual contribution to the literatures on globalisation, fashion and gender, analysing the ways in which women's entry into the labour force over the past thirty years in the developed world has underpinned new forms of aestheticised production and consumption as well as the growth of 'work-style' businesses
* A vital contribution to the burgeoning literature on culture and creative industries which often ignores the significant roles taken by women as entrepreneurs and designers rather than mere consumers
* Introduces fashion scholars and economic geographers to a paradigmatic example of the new designer fashion industries emerging in a range of countries not traditionally associated with fashion
* Takes a fresh perspective on an industry in which Third World garment workers have been the subject of exhaustive analysis but first world women have been largely ignored
Preface xi
Series Editors' Preface xiv
Acknowledgements xv
1 What We Saw and Why We Started this Project 1
2 Global Aspirations: Theorising the New Zealand Designer Fashion Industry 19
3 Policy for a New Economy: 'After Neoliberalism' and the Designer Fashion Industry 43
with Richard Le Heron and Nick Lewis
4 Cultivating Urbanity: Fashion in a Not-so-global City 69
with Alison Goodrum
5 Gendering the 'Virtuous Circle': Production, Mediation and Consumption in the Cultural Economy 99
6 Creating Global Subjects: The Pedagogy of Fashionability 125
7 Lifestyle or Workstyle? Female Entrepreneurs in New Zealand Designer Fashion 153
8 Conclusion: An Unlikely Success Story? 179
Index 191
Wendy Larner is Professor of Human Geography and Sociology at the University of Bristol, UK. She is internationally recognized for her innovative scholarship on globalization, neoliberalism and governance, and has published in a wide range of international journals, and edited books across the social sciences. She is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand and an Academician of the UK's Academy of Social Sciences.
