Michel Foucault: fashioning the body politic

In this chapter, I examine the practices and discourses of fashion through the work of the philosopher Michel Foucault. His concern with the body as site of social control has inspired theorists from a range of academic disciplines to apply his ideas to the social practices linked to fashion, beauty, style and regulation clothing.

The growth of academic interest in Foucault’s work has reflected shifts in thinking about structures of power, moving away from an analysis of political leadership, to focus instead on the disciplines and practices of everyday life. This chapter considers how power structures work through the embodied practices of fashion and dress.

First, I read fashion and dress through Foucault's concepts of discourse, governmentality and biopolitics. Then I go on to argue that subversive fashion practices challenge the forces that seek to normalize power over bodies. Foucault's work on the body has given us scope to consider how dress can unite communities, but also how it divides them.