bell hooks: Cultural Differences and Racial Justice in Fashion

bells hooks: exposing and re-envisioning ‘imperialist-white supremacist-capitalist-patriarchy’ in fashion

In the book Teaching to Trangress (1994), the feminist and anti-racist scholar and activist Gloria Jean Watkins, who uses the pen name bell hooks, argues for a more human-focused and holistic education system, what she calls an engaged pedagogy: ‘to educate as the practice of freedom’ (hooks 1994, p.13). Using a nonacademic writing style to appeal to both a wider audience and offer an alternative to the orthodoxies of academia, hook’s work explores theory through practice, exploring topics from race, gender, class and critical pedagogy to the radical politics of love and spirituality, using varied writing genres, including fiction. This emphasis on raising critical consciousness as a means of resistance to societal inequalities centres the diverse needs of women of colour and the poor, stressing the whole person’s being and knowing as fundamental to equality. This approach is therefore highly relevant to on-going calls to decolonise the embodied practices and study of fashion; a discipline whose roots can be traced to dominant colonial ways of thinking that foreground a westernized standard heteronormative white elite female body. How might using hook’s approach to re-thinking the colonial logic presented through white supremacy and universalist thinking underpinning fashion contribute to alternative decolonial and more equitable and democratic forms of fashion design?

hook’s challenge to oppressive structures builds on a legacy of black feminist strategies in two ways: firstly, to expose the ongoing pervasiveness of colonial logic in society; and secondly to re-think how knowledge construction could be framed around the ‘decolonisation of ways of knowing’ (hooks 2003, p3). hook’s extensive writing sets out to challenge what she calls ‘imperialist-white supremacist-capitalist-patriarchy’, by centring the voices from her working class roots, especially her female family, from rural Kentucky, U.S. Indeed, this approach to de-hierarchising culture lies at the root of her choice to use her grandmother’s name bell hooks as her pen name, spelt in lower case to subvert the conventions of grammar.

For fashion educators and students, hook’s black feminist conceptual frameworks built around shared learning, love and spirituality can help to build alternatives to hegemonic Eurocentric, racist, capitalist and patriarchal thinking underpinning fashion studies and practice. Shifts to decolonise fashion and move beyond the western Eurocentric canon too often rely on the problem context, with less discussion around the practice of decolonisation. Instead, this chapter argues that bell hook’s writing provides a significant contribution to the decolonisation of fashion by encouraging the fashion academic world to look beyond its field to value the role of everyday life and ordinary experiences of fashion from all communities to disrupt hegemonic thinking. Through the lens of black feminist thinking, hooks shows how oppressive structures are interlinked and sustained through biased thinking which in the context of fashion results in a system that elevates western and elite forms of fashions. Consequently, fashions from marginalised spaces, such as from the global south, the working class, women of colour, queer, crip and black diasporas continue to be excluded. For this reason, hook’s concepts offer hope for radical new possibilities that invert long established power dynamics and empower marginalised ways of being and knowing to create alternative decolonial forms of fashion.

A vital update to the definitive guide to fashion and cultural theory, featuring four new chapters and essential revisions throughout in light of key developments in fashion and fashion studies.

Across 19 major thinkers from the 19th to the 21st century, the second edition of this comprehensive collection introduces readers to the process of thinking through rich cultural fields such as fashion with the help of social and cultural theory, and thinking through social and cultural theory with the help of fashion. Each chapter guides you through the work of a major thinker and considers their historical context, the role of fashion within their theory, how their theoretical frameworks apply to contemporary fashion studies, and the strengths and limitations of their approach.

Featuring new chapters on key theorists Edward Said, bell hooks, Frantz Fanon and W.E.B. Du Bois, this new edition prepares readers to question and diversify the field of fashion. A revised introduction resituates theories in relation to each other and reflects on changing approaches to fashion studies, while revisions to existing chapters equip readers with the most up-to-date critical perspectives and developments in fashion and fashion theory.