Fashion Textile Design Student Work Brochure 2022

Truth

Hope

We value the time it takes to create, to embody the craft and heritage of ages past. We see a future where technologies can be used to enhance, extend and protect our fragile creative practices, giving us new alternatives and the potential to be circular, not linear.

For tomorrow we hope for change.

To see a new landscape, where there is value in creative solutions for an uncreative problem. Somewhere we can demonstrate design responsibility in our material choices, our direction and our resolutions.

FASHION TEXTILE DESIGN Fashion Textile Design BA (Hons) is a specialist course, that provides an opportunity for students to investigate new creative directions for fashion-forward, luxury and innovative design approaches for fashion.

In March 2020, the global pandemic reached our shores, redefining our ability to interact with each other, study, work and travel. Like all students, our 2022 year group have had to overcome restrictions not only on their personal lives but their creative practice, their ability to refine their practical skills but also on pursuing their ambitions.

However, from adversity, there comes hope, demonstrated through increased resilience, resourcefulness and creativity of spirit. The reflection on their situation brought an examination of new opportunities and time to discover what could be possible.

Our students have learnt to be adaptable and to find new methods to express themselves. There has been an embracing of digital and craft processes, finding new combinations of design thinking and production methods. Whilst also remaining true to their own design identity and an increasingly responsible design approach. The modern fashion and textile industry is in flux at present, as it adapts to what is expected of a ‘responsible’ global industry. Our students embody the change that is coming, through thoughtful, tenacious and creative responses that can enable progress.

This document is a tribute to our students’ ability to adjust, redefine and focus on the most important part of their creative journey; the process of creating.

It is a testament to the talent and ingenuity of our final year students and all the efforts they have made in working through a global crisis. We wish them every success in the future and hope they will continue to believe in themselves as they enter their careers.

Contact: Programme Leader - Alan Beattie abeattie@dmu.ac.uk www.dmu.ac.uk/fashiontextiledesign Instagram- @ftxd_dmu De Montfort University, Leicester, The Gateway LE1 9BH

Rachel A Revell Undercover - ‘If not us, who? If not now, when?’ - Ronald Reagan A sense of espionage, uncovering the coding, armour and structures that reflect the depths of warfare as we struggle together as a society through a pandemic, an environmental crisis and wars constantly on the horizon.

Email: rachannrev@gmail.com Instagram: rachrevelldesign Web: rachelrevell.co.uk

RACHEL A REVELL

Esmee Jackson Space and Silence - In this collection, I explore the idea of creating space and serenity in a crowded environment, soothing those overwhelming senses.

Using the movement of escapism, and architectural imagery, I have designed a series of prints displaying calming tones and areas which can breathe, amongst busier patterns.

Email: resjackson.designs@gmail.com Instagram: eejjacksondesigns Web: esmeejackson.com

ESMEE JACKSON

Ryan Alexander Henson Human Retrograde - The fall of an industrial future will bring about a human retrograde.

Email: rahenson_design@outlook.com Instagram: @rahenson_textiles Web: rahensondesign.co.uk

RYAN ALEXANDER HENSON

Anna V Thorn Invasion Of Space- “Line defines a corpus by making visible the limits that mark its separation from its surroundings, thus placing emptiness and space in a tense relationship to one another. In so doing, he repeatedly seems to question in a frame visually perceptible to the beholder what and how much (material, for example) is necessary to make the limits of space visible”. - Lars Englund 2013

Email: thornanna800@yahoo.com Instagram: annathorn_fashiontextiles Web: annathornknitwear.com

ANNA V THORN

EXTRACT:

Anna V Thorn

Is there a difference in the ethical treatment of animals, whose skins/hides are used to produce leather, between the United Kingdom and China?

Leather, an animal skin treated in order to preserve it (Cambridge Dictionary 2021), has been discovered being used as far back as 5000BC in which it was used by the Egyptians for sandals, gloves and buckets (Moore & Giles 2021). Leather is a result of processing the skins or hides of animals. Hides are referred to as such when they have come from a “large animal or from the bovine group” (Appianing, M. K. 2021) this refers to any hoofed mammal in the Bovidae family which includes the common cow. Skin relates to any other smaller animals usually “animals with a shoulder height of less than one meter”(Leather Dictionary 2021). A by-product, in which leather is usually referred as, is “something produced in a usually industrial or biological process in addition to the principal product”. Leather is described commonly as a by-product of the meat industry.

Leather comes from a variety of animals most commonly cows as they produce the most meat and have the largest surface area of skin that can be produced into leather. However other animals’ skins can be used depending on design and end use such as goat, pig, snake, shark, stingray, ostrich, horse and alligator.

Leather and its ethics therefore, is a complex material and matter to understand as it does not just come from one animal.

Therefore, the regulations around the treatment of animals both vary between animals, within countries and between them.

The choice was made to compare the United Kingdom and China because of their very different views and approaches to animals. China notably still has the dog meat industry which contrasts heavily with the UK where 59% of the population own a pet (Statista Research Department, 2021). In addition, the Uk and China were compared due to their differing status of development. This, coupled with China’s globally recognised practices towards animals could allow for the most contrast with the Uk in the treatment of animals used for their skin. The United Kingdom’s laws around animal welfare within the leather industry will be researched and contrasted with Chinas regulations to explore whether the industry as a whole is unethical or if its ethics vary from nation to nation. Issues around the classification of leather, such as leather coming from dogs in China, will be discussed to identify if consumers are naive to where and what animals leather products come from or actually unable to trace the origins of a lather product. Furthermore, the fashion industries use of leather will be explored with key examples such as New Look used to understand the visibility and traceability to one of the largest consumer groups, the high street consumer. Modern Leather technology will be investigated such as companies like SPOOR to understand the future of leather and how such companies are making the industry more ethical. Key theoretical ideas around the ethical choices within the design phase will be looked at such as in the ‘Design, Ethics and The Designer’ by Sue Thomas 2017. As well as discussions around traceability by Egles-Zanden Hulthen & Wulff 2015 and consumer behaviour towards ethical fashion in ‘Eco-Friendly and Fair Fast Fashion and Consumer Behaviour’ edited by Carolin Becker- Leifhold and Mark Heuer 2018.

According to de Klerk et al 2019, the demand for leather goods in particular handbags is on the rise due to the increase in

working women. Revenue in the bags and accessories segment now amounts to $74.9 million or around £54.5 million. Although, the leather industry is vast with many consumers such as the automotive sector and footwear industry. The global apparel and leather products market is expected to grow from $818.19 billion in 2020 to $971.38 billion in 2021 (The Business Research Company, 2021). With the global market of leather goods only increasing is there a clear difference or lack of regulations for the ethical treatment of animals used for their skins/ hides, in both the United Kingdom and China? It is common to hear about the regulations and ethics around how animals are treated and slaughtered, for example through animal rights activists like the People for The Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), within the meat industry however in terms of the process and ethics in harvesting animals’ skins this is more difficult to discover. However, slaughterhouses often process up to “400 animals per hour” therefore “it is not uncommon for an animal to be stunned incorrectly and so skinned alive”(Lennon. C 2021). Although, “in some countries, (skinning an animal alive) is the actual method for obtaining the skin of animals such as lizards and snakes, because of a belief it keeps the skin supple” (Lennon, C. 2021). Similarly, Veganuary (n.d.) suggests “much of the softest leather comes from new-born or in some cases even unborn calves who are cut from their mother’s womb”. Whether this occurs in the UK or China is unclear. The question is raised however, as to what the regulations and laws surrounding the ethical treatment of animals within the leather industry are and are they nation specific?

China has almost “no laws preventing animal cruelty and investigations have revealed dogs being slaughtered and exported to the United States as traditional leather” (O’Sullivan, S. 2020).

In July 2016, China approved the muchly anticipated “Wildlife Protection Law”. This saw key regulations such as specifying that the purpose of breeding is for “species protection and not profit” (Whitfort, A. 2016). However, animal cruelty “is not explicitly defined In Chinese legislation and so currently there are no nationwide laws that prohibit the mistreatment of any animal” (Animal Protection Index, 2020). In terms of the impact this has on the treatment of animals whose skins/hides are used, in 2020 China was the largest leather producing country. They produced around 6,170 million square feet of leather or around 25% of the worlds leather (BizVibe, 2021). Thusly, placing a vast number of animals in danger of mistreatment when being slaughtered for leather.

Furthermore, China’s absent regulations and laws surrounding the treatment of animals has also caused a serious issue in the identification of the leather they produce. The killing of dogs for meat in China is still legal and such, so is using dogs skin for leather products. An undercover investigation by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals Asia discovered a facility killing “100-200 dogs per day… with the leather intended to be exported to the United States” (Weissman, A. 2016). Peter Li, associate professor of east Asian politics at the University of Houston-Downtown and a China policy specialist and consultant for Humane Society International explained, “government resistance to animal welfare legislation in china remains, due to economic concerns”. The concern is that “such a law could

force a lot of Chinese firms out of business…and the Chinese authorities remain obsessed with GDP growth and employment” (Li, P. 2016).

Interestingly, China “is considered a developing country based on the criteria of the World Bank and the United Nations” (Shvili, J. 2021). Consequently, can it be argued the ethical treatment of animals for leather perhaps varies between China and the United Kingdom due to their differences and status in being either developed or developing. China has become the worlds “manufacturing powerhouse” according to “United Nations data” (Richter, F. 2020). With such high manufacturing demand and concern with GDP growth perhaps is it unsurprising, if not wrong, that China has not implemented any protection or ethical treatment for animals due to such pressures and focus on GDP growth.

In Contrast to China, the United Kingdom (UK) produce around 87 million square feet of leather per year and so are the worlds 5th largest producer (Leather UK, 2021). The main law for the ethical treatment of animals in the UK is the Animal Welfare Act 2006 which makes it “an offence to cause unnecessary suffering to any animal” (GOV.UK, 2013). In the Uk anyone working in a slaughterhouse “must have a certificate of competence to know how to handle, stun, pith, restrain, shackle, hoist and bleed animals as well as to check stunning has worked” (GOV.UK, 2015). One person should be appointed as the Animal Welfare Officer (AWO) for every slaughterhouse “monitoring each slaughter line to check the animal has been stunned correctly” (GOV.UK, 2015). Nevertheless, with around 73,430 animals killed per hour in the UK (Animal Clock, 2021) and one AWO to oversee their slaughter it can be understood how not every animal is killed according to guidelines and so would be considered ‘ethically’ slaughtered.

However, in comparison to China there does seem to be fairly strict controls over the ethical treatment of animals when being killed but, there is no visible or traceable legislation around the skinning of animals after they have been killed. As a consumer of leather this lack of visible legislation is concerning for what is described as a developed country. It could be argued there is no such legislation as the animal is already dead however as a consumer it surprises me there is no regulations at all around the ethical skinning of animals. Interestingly, “With only a small number of tanners and processors in the UK, exports are vital to the UK supply chain”. “China is the dominant buyer of UK hides and skins” (Pate. E 2020). It is this continuous process of the importing and exporting of leather (within and between countries such as the UK and China), as well as leather being exported to varying countries that specialise in drying, tanning and finishing the skins/hides, that makes any traceability surrounding the ethical treatment of the animal that leather originates from nigh on impossible. This is perhaps therefore, where increased regulation around the traceability of leather, not only in both the UK and China but also globally, along the supply and processing journey should be realised and enforced.

“It is now necessary to discuss animal welfare ethics internationally and to make a global standard of animal welfare regulations” (Kondo, S. & Sato, S. 1999). This comment is taken from a journal article written in 1999 however, today this requirement is still unachieved. There are a vast number of recognised bodies that have guidelines on animal welfare however there is no global enforced body causing many discrepancies and differences between the ethical treatment of animals.

Currently, as a consumer there is no clarity as to where the leather used in high street fashion brands such as new-look originates from. According to New-looks’ Animal Welfare Policy 2021, when they do use leather or skins for their products they “only work with suppliers who provide them with information that lets them trace their supply chain down to the farms”.

They further state “All leather must be a by-product of the meat industry and slaughtered in a humane way. “It can never be obtained from live skinning or boiling”. The leather must come from “farms with good animal husbandry… and preferably with an accreditation from a recognised body” (New Look, 2021). Although this ethos and policy by New-look seems quite responsible for a high street fast fashion brand there is no evidence to support that they implement any of these policies.

As a consumer I could not trace or find any information as to who supplies their leather or even which country their leather comes from. New look state they follow “recommendations on animal welfare set out by the World Organisation for Animal Health 2021 (OIE) in their Animal Health Codes” (New Look, 2021). After analysis, similarly to most governing or regulatory bodies the OIE only specify about the ethical slaughter of animals not the skinning of the animal (World Organisation for Animal Health, 2021). Additionally, New Looks’ use of the word “preferably” in relation to accreditation from a recognised body does not re-assure the consumer that the leather they source is always from an accredited source (New Look, 2021).

Researching the many variances in laws and regulations not only between the UK and China but globally also brings into question New-looks statement of having accreditation from a “recognised body”. Many countries, depending on where New Look source their leather, recognise different regulatory bodies or in some cases such as China recognise none (New Look, 2021). Again, with this lack of traceability and unity in regulations around the ethical treatment of animals it is extremely difficult to trust that not only New Look but most fashion brands can achieve the policies they set out around leather and the ethical treatment of animals within this industry. If there was more enforcement around the traceability as well as visibility to consumers of where their leather products originate from, within both the fashion industry and the leather industry, there would be more pressure on both the fashion industry to source ethically, the farmers to slaughter and skin their animals ethically but also on the consumer to consume more considerately.

As well as with the knowledge and transparency to enable them to make a clear decision knowing exactly where the leather for that product has come from.

Supply chain traceability, as defined by Egles-Zanden Hulthen & Wulff 2015, comprises of “Corporate disclosure of the names of the suppliers involved in producing the firm’s products, information about the sustainability conditions at these suppliers and the buying firms purchasing practices”. Many fashion brands such as New Look may disclose their purchasing practices however there is no clarity or traceability of suppliers or their suppliers’ practices. SPOOR is a leather company based in Denmark established in September 2020 due to this realisation of an increasing demand for traceability and transparency within the leather market. Through “investing and developing the right laser technology” SPOOR is able to imprint leather with details about a specific animal, see Figure 1 (SPOOR, 2021). According to SPOOR, “All hides that arrive at our facilities come with ear tags that the animal receives at birth”. “Mandated by EU legislation, all ear tags for cattle must be registered in a database which contains information about the cattle’s country of origin, breed, date and place of birth, any movements it has undertaken during its lifetime, and the abattoir responsible for slaughtering”(SPOOR, 2021). The number on the ear tag, unique to that animal, is then lasered onto the hide which stays on the hide throughout the tanning and finishing process which “guarantees our rawhides come with 100% documented traceability all the way back to the farm”(SPOOR, 2021).

As conscious consumerism increases it is this type of innovation in traceability that consumers are wanting from the fashion and leather industry. Roccamore is a footwear brand designed by Danish designer Frederikke Antonie Schmidt and her collection, unveiled this year, titled “Traceability” is the first collection and brand to partner with SPOOR to create completely traceable footwear. “Each shoe in the Traceability collection will have a quick-response code printed on the inside, which consumers will be able to scan to find out the full backstory of the individual animal from which the leather came” (Roccamore, 2021). SPOOR believe “with this launch we can demonstrate how brands can make use of the traceability insight we are able to deliver with our premium hides” (SPOOR, 2021).

Traceable Leather is another company supplying leather from fully traceable sources. Founded in 2015, traceable leather unlike SPOOR more so build as well as manage local value chains for leather. A Value chain refers to “the systems and resources to move a product or service from supplier to consumer”

but also in how “value is added to the product or service in this process” (Walker, T. 2021). Traceable Leather, only use the hides from animals that “have been treated with respect and have spent their lives on a regenerative, organic or other sustainable farm” (Traceable Leather, 2021). They believe “The future of leather is on grass” (Traceable Leather, 2021) It is this ethos of transparency between the suppliers, manufacturers, designers and consumers that protects and sustains the ethical treatment of these animals.

Traceable Leather are based in Zurich, Switzerland and SPOOR are located in Denmark both being countries within the European Union (EU). The countries are classed as developed and the products being made using Traceable Leather’s and SPOOR’s leathers are expensive. Therefore, traceable leather may be a solution to increasing the traceability of leather (and so ethical treatment of animals) for high end, designer products however can this business model be scaled up to supply the demand of fast fashion companies continually changing their collections?

According to Sue Thomas 2017 “The design phase … is where key ethical decisions and ethical behaviours begin”. This is important because “According to the European Union more than 80% of the environmental impact of a product is determined at the design stage” (European Union 2012). With this in mind designers need to make ethical decisions and choices at the time of designing to reduce their environmental and ethical impact. Stella McCartney, for example, has not used leather since 2001 and their focus is on “being kinder to Mother Earth, our fellow creatures and each other” (Stella McCartney 2021). It is this responsible conscious design decisions that lead the way in changing the ethical standards for animals as well as brands environmental impact. However, it is vital this process and ethos is followed through and visible to the consumer to keep or establish consumer trust. Consumers do need to appreciate that increased transparency which involves fashion brands buying from ethical traceable suppliers will increase the cost of leather products. It is this continual weigh up by the consumer between choosing ethical fashion which is inevitably more expensive or cheaper, unsustainable fast fashion that keeps the unethical fast fashion industry alive. Furthermore, Carolin Becker Leifhold & Mark Heuer 2017 suggest that “ethical concerns are more likely to be sacrificed before other… hedonistic functions are compromised”. It is this balance of ethical design whilst meeting and fulfilling consumers desires that is the only way to maintain and grow ethical design and fashion. It is also about changing the consumer mindset around the value and longevity of fashion and designers understanding and being accountable for their design decisions which may push both the fashion industry but also the suppliers of leather and governments to protect the welfare of animals killed within the leather industry.

After the Coronavirus epidemic many consumers changed their viewpoints towards fashion and their personal consumption of fashion. “As the ethical consumer grows increasingly aware of the social, political and environmental impact of modern commerce, many are calling for companies to take on the ethical responsibility and debt of addressing these challenges” (Saggese, B. 2021). After the Coronavirus outbreak in 2020 the Edelman Trust Barometer, which tracks global consumerism, saw a “steady decrease of confidence in institutions” (Saggese, B. 2021). The analysis revealed an “epidemic of misinformation and widespread mistrust of societal institutions” (Edelman, 2021). With global studies of the world’s largest fashion retailers reporting that “60% of the brands’ sustainability claims could be classed as either unsubstantiated or misleading” (Edie Newsroom, 2021) is it any wonder consumer trust is at an all-time low. These brand’s claims of sustainability such as “recycled, eco and low impact” were assessed against the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) new guidelines (Edie Newsroom, 2021). The CMA is an “independent non ministerial department” (GOV.UK, 2021). The CMA’s guidelines cover “accuracy; the avoidance of ambiguity; not hiding or omitting important information … and ensuring claims can be substantiated” (Edie Newsroom, 2021). Brands that fared “worse on greenwashing than the average among the group were H&M, with 96% of claims flouting the CMA guidelines, and ASOS and

M&S, with 89% and 88% of claims failing to measure up respectively”(Edie Newsroom, 2021). Greenwashing is the phrase given to companies like H&M and refers to “when companies and organisations mislead their consumers by making them believe that a product, service they provide, or the organisation itself is environmentally friendly or sustainable, when it is not” (Mlaba, K. 2021). The fashion industry is one of the largest perpetuators of greenwashing. With the consumer knowledge that “most of their purchases aren’t as ethical as advertised, scepticism has become an accepted reality from the mass consumer” (Saggese, B. 2021). The consumer “won’t spend time judging the validity of brands claims’, but instead favour systems that objectively ensure reliability, such as blockchain-powered provenance” (Saggese, B. 2021). This links back to the current innovations by companies such as SPOOR and traceable leather in giving consumers objective factual information about the products they consume. Consumers want information from the supplier directly as greenwashing has cause such mistrust in fashion brands that consumers have begun searching for the truth about the products they’re buying on their own.

The Chinese government is setting out new measures to become more sustainable and eco aware. Initiatives such as Beautiful China was set up in 2017 with the aim of promoting a more environmentally friendly China with particular focus on curving pollution and conserving the environment (Fang, C., Wang, Z. & Liu, H. Beautiful China Initiative 2020). “73% of China’s population support a green recovery post-Coronavirus, compared to 57% in Europe”, according to the European Investment Bank (EIB) Climate Survey 2020. With this receptive attitude to a greener China the Chinese population are quickly moving to a plant-based diet. With “wild animal trading in Wuhan markets one of the suspected culprits for the origin of the outbreak of Covid-19” (Chen, A. 2020) the Chinese consumer is concerned about the safety of meat products. This coupled with a global move to a plant based diet has seen a lot of Chinese as well as global brands switch to a plant based menu. This coupled with an “established downtrend in the Chinese leather industry” (Global Agricultural Information Network, 2018) could see either the leather industry become near extinct or animals being killed just for their skin rather than meat. If the meat and therefore leather industry become extinct due to a more plant based diet and conscious consumption, the ethical treatment of animals will be unknown in this instance. At the moment there is or should be a minimum treatment given to animals as they are still of value to suppliers however if this demand is eradicated the animal holds no value and so could be in danger of mistreatment. However, in contrast unlike a lot of textile materials leather is a natural product and although in the process of producing it harmful chemicals are used it could be argued it is still eco-friendlier then substitute materials made of petroleum. Depending on the priorities and direction consumers and governments follow leather may still be a greener material than its counterparts and so retained. With this greener more conscious lifestyle pressure for the ethical treatment of animals is likely to only gain causing regulations and laws to be scrutinised or in Chinas case implemented.

To culminate, leather and its ethics is still a very challenging topic to understand due to such a lack of information in general about it. There seems to be a clear lack of differentiation between the ethical slaughter of the animal and the ethics regarding the skinning of the animal for their skin both in the UK and China (GOV.UK 2013, GOV.UK 2015 and O’Sullivan.

S 2020). It was a surprise in this time that China still have no laws regarding the ethical treatment of animals even in their Wildlife Protection Law 2016. This feels like a regression in humanity’s progress. The only explanation that could account for this is China and the UK’s contrast in development. China is one of the world’s largest manufacturers (Richter, F. 2020) known for producing and supplying cheap materials to the rest of the world. Ethical guidelines and laws would only increase the production costs of the leather and so jeopardise China’s supply connections with the rest of the world. Therefore, it can be understood perhaps China has no incentive to change their ethical stance and the rest of the world including the Uk is not encouraging this to change.

A move to a more eco-friendly, conscious, plant based lifestyle in the aftermath of Covid-19 may cause a downtrend globally within the next couple of years in the leather industry (Saggese, B. 2021). The rise of the conscious consumer should cause demand for regulations to become tighter and more specific as well as measurable by the consumer in the UK. In china the global change to a greener more sustainable lifestyle alongside global pressure should also cause the Chinese government to review their stance on the ethical treatment of animals and implement laws stopping their mistreatment (Fang, C., Wang, Z. & Liu, H. Beautiful China Initiative (2020), European Investment bank 2020). However, it is this constant issue between designers being ethical in their design process (Thomas, S. 2017) but designing on low budgets which preserves the unethical side of the industry. This decision is then really down to the consumer and the pressure and demand for change and an understanding this may come at an increased cost . Consumer trust is at an all-time (Edelman, 2021) low calling for more objective means of proof and traceability of products (Saggese, B. 2021). Large fashion retailers need to begin to implement traceable production such as those invented by SPOOR and traceable Leather to win back the consumer (SPOOR 2021, Traceable Leather 2021). They need to move towards a more visible production and communication method to keep consumers loyalty despite the added time and cost which will inevitably occur as a more traceable production method is adopted. The processes of tracing leather (SPOOR 2021, Roccamore 2021) may in the future be applied to full garments to create complete clarity and honesty with the consumer. Looking ahead there is much uncertainty within the leather industry and the ethics within it, the move to more conscious consumption and a plant based diet could see the leather industry decrease drastically (Global Agricultural Information Network 2018). This decreases the value of the animal and therefore means they are more likely to be subjected to mistreatment. However, leather Is a natural material and arguably better for the environment then synthetic- petroleum made alternatives. This may cause a resurgence in the use and consumption of leather increasing the value of the animal and hopefully bringing about more concern for their welfare globally.

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Reanne Harris ARDENT - The girl that looked for snow but couldn’t find it.

Ardent explores the idea of clothing that can last a lifetime, influenced by ideals of upcycling and customisation. This is supported by my graphic novel discussing global warming and it’s devastating impact on all life forms.

Email: reanneharris@outlook.com Instagram: reanne.harris Web: reanneharris.com

REANNE HARRIS

Taiwo Sofowora Hustle & Bustle - ‘This intangible cultural heritage, transmitted from generation to generation, is constantly recreated by communities and groups in response to their environment, their interaction with nature and their history, and provides them with a sense of identity and continuity, thus promoting respect for cultural diversity and human creativity.’ UNESCO Email: t.sofowora@yahoo.com Instagram: madebytaiwo Web: madebytaiwo.co.uk

TAIWO SOFOWORA

Danielle Grewcock Wit’s End. ”To be in a state of distress because one has no more patience or mental stamina”

Email: daniellegrewcockdesign @outlook.com Instagram: daniellegrewcockdesign Web: daniellegrewcock.co.uk

DANIELLE GREWCOCK

Vashanthiya Varan Collision - Being South Asian in a western society is like two worlds colliding. Through the use of print and surface work, “Collision” explores elements of South Asian heritage combined with western garment style, making it contemporary to the modern world that is all about embracing the culture within second-generation immigrants.

Email: vashanthiyavaran@gmail.com Instagram: vashanthiyavaran Web: vashanthiyavaran.com

VASHANTHIYA VARAN

EXTRACT:

Vashanthiya Umamaheswaran

BRITISH-ASIAN YOUTH SUBCULTURE: How does MIA make us reconsider British identity?

Introduction Since the mass immigration in the 1950s caused by Second World War, the number of South Asian immigrants in densely populated regions have now expanded and established local communities with their children having gradually entered mainstream institutions, such as schools, universities, and the workplace, and progressively becoming more visible (Leonard 1997; Lessinger 1995). Second-generation South-Asian mass culture has become centred around dance and music, particularly the fusion of hip-hop, rap, reggae, and techno.

This conceptual essay is uniquely focused on British-South Asian youth culture through an interdisciplinary lens bringing together psychological and socio-cultural theories, working on countries like India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and its diaspora to see how South Asian pop culture makes us realise that Britishness itself is a “bricolaged” fusion of multicultural identities and that there is no pure “Britishness” (Bhabha, 1994), at least in the way that it is represented in the media and historical culture. The idea of bricolage introduced by French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss’ work was essential for developing the theories of structuralism and structural anthropology. The concept of hybridity and there being no pure, uncontaminated culture is one of postcolonialism’s most eagerly debated concepts by Homi K. Bhabha. The key focus will be on gathering more research that intergrades the theory of bricolage (Lévi-Strauss C., 1962) and the theory of hybridity (Bhabha, 1994) with the media representation of South Asian culture to explore multicultural Britain.

As one of the few British South Asian music artists who have entered the mainstream of western pop, Mathangi Arulpragasam (MIA) self-representation has managed to avoid the dominant pure culture discussion which exoticizes and reifies South Asian creatives (Saha A., 2012). It challenges the normative way of understanding South Asian culture, as well as undermining a nationalist, racist discourse that relies on the complete difference between the white ‘Self’ and the non-white ‘Other’ (Hall, 1996; West, 1990). Over the course of this essay, MIA’s potential representation as a progressive example of effective diasporic cultural production in the media will be unravelled in detail through the use of examples such as her shoot for the Jealous Magazine (2013), her album “Matangi” (2013) and her documentary “Matangi/Maya/M.I.A” (2018).

At present, there is hegemony in South Asian studies because India metonymically stands for South Asia. However, this use of the term has been widely criticised by some as it normally suggests negating and neglecting people with disparate backgrounds and struggles.

South Asian Immigrants in Britain After World War II and the dissolution of the British Empire, South Asian immigration from newly independent Commonwealth countries such as Sri Lanka, India, and Pakistan (including today’s Bangladesh) to the United Kingdom raised between the 1950s and 1960s (Zaiceva & Zimmermann, 2008).

The term “South Asian” was introduced during the 1980s-90s’ transnational movements to encompass people with backgrounds from Bangladesh, Afghanistan, India, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and the Maldives (with numerous different cultures and languages in each country) (Carsignol, 2014). Some may consider it an appropriate name to describe cultures that are inherently alike and have connected history, whereas others argue it paints over a vast array of individuals who make up the

subcontinent and its diasporas. There is a difference in specificity between generalising labels. Despite having a connection between histories, beneath those labels, there are different people with backgrounds and struggles of their own and therefore autonomously and differently relate to South Asian diasporas (Shukla, 2001).

This can be evident when looking at the two countries: Sri Lanka and India. Despite being neighbouring countries, they both have different historical reasons to migrate. Almost three decades of dispute between the Sri Lankan Government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) led to a significant number of its Tamil population relocating, who are now found dispersed across the world, with refugees migrating to western states uniting with earlier waves of skilled workers and student (Daniel & Thangaraj 1995, 240–248; Velamati 2009, 272).

Sri Lankan Tamils formed a majority within the Tamil population in many western settlement sites due to conflict-induced refugee migration, whereas most Tamils of non-Sri Lankan origin, migrated as skilled workers or students, or through associated-dependant migration (Gibney & Hansen 2005, 296; Fuller & Narasimhan 2008, 184-186; Jones 2013, 31-32). Although they nominally share Tamil ethnicity, Sri Lankan Tamils are majorly invisible in consideration of the ‘South Asian diaspora’ that focus on Indian origin (Siddhisena K. & White P., 1999).

Psychological and Socio-Cultural Theories Bricolage: Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks, Matthew J. Karlesky and Fiona Lee (2015) came up with the term psychological bricolage to describe the intra-individual processes enabling people to retrieve and reintegrate knowledge that was previously unrelated. This draws from two different disciplines: social bricolage and creative cognition.

Social bricolage, introduced by cultural anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss (1962), examines how societies construct new solutions using already existing resources in the collective social consciousness. The intra-psychic approach of “Creative cognition” focusses on how individuals retrieve and reintegrate knowledge in novel ways (Finke, Ward & Smith, 1992; Leung, Maddux, Galinsky, & Chiu, 2008).

In cultural studies, bricolage explains the way in which individuals obtain objects from different social divisions make new cultural identities. It is an aspect of subcultures such as hip-hop or rap culture (Subculture: The Meaning of Style by Dick Hebdige, 1979). In this case, objects possessing one or no meaning in the dominant culture are obtained and given a new connotation.

Hoodies, for instance, went from being worn by monks in Medieval Europe (Kinney A., 2006; Grömer K. & Bunčić M., 2012) to becoming sportswear staple and then being adopted by hip-hop, B-Boys and rap culture (Streetstyle by Ted Polhemus, 2010). It has now become synonymous with comfort.

Hybridity: Postcolonialism is a part of cultural studies that aims on socio-cultural analysis. One of the most used terms in postcolonial theory, Hybridity, often refers to the cross-cultural ‘exchange’ (intrinsic and extrinsic) caused by colonisation (Bhabha, 1994). This exchange appears in society in numerous ways, one of which is fashion and attitude.

The study by famous European anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski, who travelled to the island of Papua in 1914 (later became Papua New Guinea) to study the natives in their original setting, represents them as “uncontaminated by foreign influence” (A diary in the strict sense of the term, 1989 by Malinowski B.).

However, Bhabha contends this in his collection of essays, The Location of Culture (1994), stating that culture is not a static entity; on the contrary, it is constantly in motion with several different elements which are constantly being added and are transforming our cultural identities. Modern-day anthropologist James Clifford’s papers (Cultural studies - Travelling Cultures, 1992) supports this view. For Malinowski to travel to this uncontaminated island, there must have been some way of transportation, destroying the idea of isolation and pureness as this field of study is now connected to the metropolitan area. Therefore, as Bhabha argues, there is no pure Britishness, Sri Lankan-ness or Africanness that can be returned to, grasped, or studied. Such pure, uncontaminated culture is a myth. As Prof. Sayan Chattopadhyay (of English literature at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences) puts it in his lecture about postcolonial literature (2017): “Bhabha views culture not in its unchangeable essence, but characterised by change, flux and transformation and most importantly by mixedness or interconnectedness, which Bhabha terms “hybridity”” (Lecture no.14: Homi Bhabha and the Concept of Cultural Hybridity, 2017) Both the terms, Bricolage (1962) and Hybridity (1994), connect to American anthropologist Ted Polhemus’ idea of ‘The Supermarket of Style’ (Streetstyle, 2010); created as a representation of a post-modern world where everything goes; where contemporary style influences get mixed and matched by a new generation of imaginative and expressive buyers who dress in their own way; with a fashion industry where diversity would not be squeezed into a single ‘direction’.

“We are all breaking the rules - mixing sportswear with workwear, the old and the new, crossing traditional gender divides, leaping between the proletarian and the elitist, juxtaposing the natural and the artificial, mating the vulgar and the respectable... deliberately sending out confusing, even contradictory signals. And why? Because we don’t want to be categorised - to become just a stereotype.”

(Style Surfing, 1996 by Ted Polhemus) Cultural assimilation vs appropriation: Cultural exchange and cultural appropriation are different from one another. Different cultures have shared techniques such as artisan craft and goods like exotic textiles between them throughout history. As they do not involve power, these ‘borrowings’ are not cultural appropriation. When cultures unite on equal terms, an exchange takes place. On the other hand, when dominant cultures take from an oppressed culture, we are dealing with appropriation. Cultural appropriation could be a celebration of cultural exchange if carried out with respect and can be considered as bricolage. However, it can also take inspiration from people’s culture and heritage, excluding them from their own stories.

Hebdige (1979) described cultural appropriation as people taking everyday items from their original cultural meaning and combining them into fashion to make novel resistant and subversive meanings. An example of this could be the punks using safety

pins that were originally a haberdashery as piercings. Appropriating cultural items into style challenges hegemonic meanings and destroys dominant cultural representations of particular item at the semiotic level (Hebdige 1979).

Cultural assimilation is also different to cultural exchange. ‘Assimilation’ refers to what happens when minority cultures such as immigrants are made to adopt aspects of a dominant culture to meld in and experience upward mobility. This is different from appropriation as it is carried out to be accepted and to avoid discrimination (They Take Our Jobs! By Chomsky A., 2007). An example of this could be South Asians starting to wear jeans once they move to western countries.

MIA’s influence on British South-Asian youth culture Mathangi Arulpragasam’s (MIA) impact as a British-Sri Lankan musical artist on the media has helped many British-South Asian youths construct their identities. As one of the few British South Asian music artists who have entered the mainstream of western pop in the early twenty-first century, the way she has achieved this as well as putting forward a clear anti-racist and anti-imperialist message in her work is considered as a remarkable musical-political involvement. The controversies followed by her music shows the challenges that South Asian creatives continue to deal with in getting recognition in the western mass culture (Saha A., 2012). She has managed to express a disavowed South Asian identity without getting stuck in the marginal space that does not include Asian culture, which is remarkable.

In the Givenchy Haute Couture collection by Riccardo Tisci (Fall 2009 Show), Tisci took inspiration from two contrasting worlds, that of David Bowie and eccentric Moroccan culture and fused them. The show started with fiercely tailored, padded-shouldered coats moulded into the waist and then moved on into gold embroidery, sarouel-inspired pants, draped and veiled silhouettes with a Middle Eastern influence. In Look 4 (Figure 1), one of the models wore a black dress with a veil over the head and multiple pieces of Middle Eastern dramatic, gold statement jewellery layered across the face, head and body that were the centrepieces of these ensembles, “accessorized” by sheer fabrics.

Despite trying to pay homage to the Middle East, this could be a subject of controversy. For fashion industry players, using inspiration as a way of justifing taking from a culture may seem like an easy way out for something that could account for a cultural appropriation. As mentioned by Hebdige in his book, Subculture: The Meaning of Style (1979), the source communities are disadvantaged in scenarios like these, risking losing out on the economic front of a fashion venture and having their heritage cherry-picked and removed for the advantage of their appropriators. This means that cultural appropriation in fashion monetises years of traditions, family business, and symbolism behind cultural garments.

On the right side of Figure 1, MIA is wearing the same garment, which may prove controversial for similar reasons of cultural appropriation beyond the fact that she is a refugee herself, speaking for all refugees through her music and visual art. At the age of 11, she immigrated to the UK as refugees with her family in 1985 due to the Civil War in Sri Lanka. Her music video “Borders” (2016) deals with the refugee crisis. In her documentary (Matangi/Maya/M.I.A, 2018), MIA mentions that discrimination against refugees and immigrants is a status she is familiar with growing up as a Sri Lankan refugee in London.

This is not the first time MIA has represented severely underrepresented cultures on the world stage. Her bold drive for social justice is evident in her music video exposing the socio-political conflicts of the Middle East (Bad Girls, 2012). The video shows women wearing burkas and driving at full speed through the sand in Morocco that looks like the Arabian desert. The video denounces the cultural oppression and the Saudi laws, where women were prohibited from driving unless they were with a man (Al Alhareth Y., Al Alhareth Y. & Al Dighrir I., 2015). Indirectly referring to a cause other than her embodiment of feminism and sexual empowerment, “Bad Girls” is a powerful way of calling out

equality. Through her music, she loudly and publicly challenges women to demand freedom and effectively puts out this message on the sands of one of the countries with the most inequality.

Some may argue that MIA makes use of people as props, using poverty as an aesthetics for her profit, and mixing cultural symbolism. Not only is MIA known for celebrating her own culture and heritage, but also other cultures. Gayatri Spivak’s commentary on the Subaltern Studies, questions the postcolonial historians’ and the intellectuals’ belief that it is possible to recover the perspectives and voices of the oppressed (Can the Subaltern Speak?, 1985). Through mixing and matching, MIA only speaks up for those who do not have a platform to voice up about their issues without stripping those struggles from the culture. therefore, her work cannot be considered as appropriating cultures.

“I want it both ways... I’m political and I’m pop and I’m this and I’m that.... And if who I am is confused, and the portrayals are all about having or not having an identity because of where I come from, that’s kind of an alright state to reflect in my work... I’m simply representing the refugee, a faceless thing, and I will always speak to that...”MIA’s story reflects that of so many other youths growing up in such diasporic community. Fashion and beauty reflect them of home. It is an exploration of both resistance and acceptance.

Embracing their heritage through fashion amplifies what makes South Asian culture what it is.

In the Jalouse Magazine 2013 issue (Figure 2) the singer wore a mix of luxury brands like Kenzo, Paco Rabanne, Dior, Armani, Sonia Rykiel and Azzedine Alaïa, combined with jewellery and streetwear brands Vans, Carhartt and American Apparel. The mix and match of the hoodie with the gold accessories shows a sign of bricolage (Lévi-Strauss C., 1962). Something that was once considered casual sportswear is now gracing the runways of luxury fashion brands such as KENZO. For her album (Matangi), MIA started finding inspiration for creating her new album by looking into her namesake, the Hindu goddess Matangi (Figure 3). She then travelled to India to do further background research for her concept. Figures 2 and 3 have a lot in common in terms of the pose, the vibrant colours and layering of gold jewellery.

Her pose also resembles the Bharatanatyam pose “Aramandi” which is perhaps a key posture in Bharatanatyam. “Arai” is Tamil for “Half” and “Mandi” means “to sit”. Which is why the posture involves “Half-Sitting” with heels facing together and the toes of both legs facing the opposite directions. Nearly each step in Bharatanatyam involves the dancer sitting in this posture (Puri R., 2004).

Previously known as “sādir aatam” until the 1930s, Bharatanatyam is the most well-known South-Asian classical dance form learnt in countries like India and Sri Lanka today. It incorporates art, music, and movement through storytelling (O’Shea J., 2003). It was previously a dance performed by dēvadāsis (translated as “servants of God”) at the temple to show Hindu religious stories and devotions and was rarely performed in public until the twentieth century (Puri, R., 2004). Like MIA’s Jalouse Magazine issue, a Bharatanatyam dancer’s costume is made of hand-woven silk beautifully adorned in jewellery. In addition to the legacy of dēvadāsis, due to changes in historical contexts of colonialism and post-colonialism, Bharatanatyam’s audiences, performance settings, way of training, and gender norms recontextualises.

The way its structured lets the artistry remain true to traditional practices while accepting artistic freedom which has made the dance form into an ever-evolving craft. This form of dance provides a path of infinite development, thereby allowing it to mix with other modern-day forms and concept to make sure there is relevance and progression whilst having a strong sense of origin and tradition drawing upon its rich history. Whilst reflecting traditions as well as being a window into the future of never-ending possibilities, this form of dance could be “bricolaged” with contemporary work (Juhi T., 2021).

MIA has proven herself to be someone who unabashedly embraces her culture and heritage. Her style of clothes and music

has been inspired by both her Sri Lankan past and her British upbringing, which she mentions in her documentary:

“But I’m also proud of what I learned in England too, the vast amount of information and opportunity and education.

I use those things to apply what I want to say. The rest is figuring out which stories I can and want to tell.”

MIA in Matangi/Maya/M.I.A, 2018 igure 5, showing MIA Matangi for Jalouse magazine proves an interplay between British and South Asian culture. The combinations of western trousers, floral printed blouse, South Asianstyled headpiece, and the wall resembling a royal palace shows a bricolage of the West and the East (Hebdige, 1979). South Asians were strongly rooted in the Arts and Crafts movement. This also proves that culture is constantly in motion with different elements that are constantly being added and are changing our cultural identities.

Postcolonial cultural theorists such as Homi K Bhabha (1994) has mentioned the problematic but also liberating ambiguities of cultural identity emerging from the cross-cultural hybridity and cultural dislocation currently in the world. The way craftmanship and architecture was involved in cross-cultural hybridity in western countries and colonial-modern South Asia helps bring into light the inherited inventiveness by both cultures.

The hybridity of Britishness is evident when looking at European-styled elegant furniture imitated by South Asian craftsmen with local materials and South Asian touch, such as the ivory chair made in Murshidabad, the nawabi capital of Bengal and a famous centre of ivory carving. Mani Begum of Murshidabad gave these pieces as a special present to the first British Governor-General of India, Warren Hastings (Victoria and Albert Museum). The fusion of western forms and exotic craftsmanship reflect the blend of tastes in both East and the West, ruing the notion of pure Britishness, supporting Bhabha’s view (1994). Similarly, the “Throne and footstool” of carved ivory (1840-1850) presented to the queen as a gift from the Indian colonies is one of the centrepieces of the Great Exhibition of 1851 (Figure 6).

A British Royal Throne designed and produced in India, suppositionally, could show the power of Britain over India. On the other hand, the craftsmanship of this piece could show India to be superior in many ways to British manufacture. Subaltern voices and identities therefore have increasingly more visibility, more agency, and more opportunities to show how their culture is richer and more interesting than the colonising culture which has increasingly kept them silent (Spivak G., 1985).

Cross-cultural hybridity has majorly influenced fashion as much as it has influenced design and architecture. In Sri Lanka, women did not wear trousers and jeans as much as men. However, once they moved to western countries, the started to wear jeans to blend in with the western culture and avoid discrimination.

Therefore, this shows signs of cultural assimilation (Chomsky A., 2007). As Anoma Pieris explains in her book “The Trouser Under the Cloth” (2013), the peculiar way of clothing consisting of a trouser wrapped using a piece of cloth was adopted by the local community of the colonial administration under British rule (1815-1948) as well as the westernised elite. This hybrid garment was then developed into western trousers and jeans. Even though mid-length skirts and dresses that are considered acceptable are also not indigenous to Sri Lanka; jeans and trousers, when worn in some areas and by certain groups of women, are a trigger point as they are a symbol of women’s westernisation, which is viewed as a major cause for ‘authentic’ customs and values being undermined. As a result, there is resistance to women wearing trousers, and deviating from what is seen as ‘respectable’ clothing for young women (Styling South Asian Youth Cultures by Begum L., Dasgupta R., & Lewis R., 2018).

Painted and printed textiles were admired by Britain, as they had vibrant colours superior to what was made in Europe at that time, creating a textile trade between India and Britain. The traditional patterns painted on the fabrics were considered unsuitable for British clothing style, and England gave specifications as to how the patterns should be modified. These modifications resulted in a hybrid ‘exotic’ style; normally based on floral patterns, that was used on bedspreads, wall-hangings, and garments during the eighteenth century (Victoria and Albert Museum).

Conclusion Britain had experienced small scale immigration multiple times for nearly thousand years compared to the size of its population.

Between the Second World War and the late 1990s, immigration from foreign countries increased steadily at a relatively modest rate (report taken from official census records).

The result of being a South Asian individual in western society is like two worlds colliding in their personal style. There is a mix and match of the western with the South-Asian, which became so powerful. The two identities interplay with each other and coexist through the form of Bricolage (Lévi-Strauss C., 1962).

British identity was investigated by analysing psychological and socio-cultural theories such as the theory of Hybridity (Bhabha, 1994) and the Theory of Bricolage (Lévi-Strauss C., 1962), relating them to South Asia and its diaspora to see how South Asian pop culture makes us realise that Britishness itself is a “bricolaged” fusion of multicultural identities and that pure ’Britishness’ does not exist (Bhabha, 1994). Hybridity has a dual effect. Despite get rid of pure identities, which can be seen as a loss of authentic culture and history, it can also be seen as something potentially liberating. The arrogance and cultural superiority of colonial nineteenth century Britain also gets lost and diluted, making it more uncertain. It has been proven through both South Asian colonial history and MIA’s work that South Asians have continued to contribute in major ways to British culture.

Comparing the different impacts MIA has had on the media representations of south Asians proved that British and South Asian cultures are influenced by one another. Signs of bricolage and hybridity is shown in her work through mixing and matching (Ted Polhemus, 1996) cultural influences. MIA is a part of both the South Asian and British culture, which makes her work not be considered as cultural appropriation and rather a celebration of cultural exchange. She has successfully used her music and media presence not only as an opportunity to stand up for her culture but also to represent and speak up for the subaltern (Gayatri Spivak, 1985) who are severely underrepresented on the world stage and does not have a platform to speak.

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Parneet Kaur

BHUMI (means Land). Agriculture is one of the essential industries in the world. My project is inspired by the landscapes of farms, repetitive patterns of fields and textures of the natural world.

A collection designed with practical sturdiness, longevity, and the flexibility to modify and adjust accordingly.

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PARNEET DULLT

Shauna Porter Altered Perspective - a exploration and development in image data distortion, experimentaion and physical manipulation through print processes.

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Elsa Habben A Gothic Romance - Inspired by the harsh beauty of the West Country landscape experienced during a visit to Dartmoor, and reflected in gothic romance literature such as Wuthering Heights and Jamaica Inn. Explores the dark, unearthly atmosphere of the moors through hand-drawn print observations and a contrast of rough and delicate materials.

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ELSA HABBEN

EXTRACT:

Elsa Habben

How did the Two-Tone movement create a shared culture between working class Black and White British teenagers?

This essay aims to examine the influence Two-Tone had in creating a shared youth culture between Black and White working-class young people in the late seventies, and early eighties. As rebellious and political as the Punks and as stylish as the Mods, the movement carved out it’s own niche in the cultural landscape.

Two-Tone had the reputation as the most actively anti-racist of Britain’s musical subcultures, encouraging two at-odds group to come together as a collective, sharing an ideology of multiculturalism and racial cohesion. Dick Hebdige’s concept of Bricolage (1979) expands on the idea of cross-pollination of different cultures and trends, which go onto create new youth subcultures.

Hebdige’s perspective on subcultures are particularly interesting as his first book ‘The Meaning of Style’ (Hebdige, 1979) was published prior to the emergence of Two-Tone. Therefore, it is relevant to analyse the crossover of his ideas when discussing TwoTone and see how or if it compares with his chapter on Two-Tone in his later book ‘Cut ’n’ Mix: Culture, Identity and Carribbean Music’ (Hebdige 1987). To answer my research question, I am first going to examine the origins of Two-Tone, and it’s links to anti-racism, in addition to analysing the effect of class of solidarity through examining Britain’s socio-political context at the time.

Next, I will investigate the equality of hybrid cultures. Finally, Two-Tone style as an expression of the hybridity between British and Jamaican streetstyle, and the way it presented young people with the means to rebel and connect with one another, analysing it through the perspectives of Homi K. Bhabha and Fred Davis.

Two-Tone began it’s life in the West Midlands, in the city of Coventry. During the post-war period it became a hub for immigrants from Britain’s colonial territories, especially the West Indies. Through working alongside their English colleagues and their children growing up with their White British peers (Hebdige, 1987), the new arrivals introduced their music and fashion tastes to the local population, including 2-Tone’s primary founder Jerry Dammers. Dammers was a Mod and former Skinhead, before it was co-opted by the Far Right, who like many of his peers grew up with an admiration for Black youth culture (Dammers, 2021). Though Dammers was not from an immigrant or working-class background, his father was at one point the Dean of Bristol Cathedral, (Smith-Laing, 2021) he empathised with the struggles of his peers. In 1977 he formed the band, The Coventry Automatics, after he collaborated (Spitz, 2009) with fellow student Horace Panter to record Dammer’s self-written takes on reggae songs, much like the ones he had heard in between acts at Punk gigs in the early seventies. Taking pains to make the band a multicultural affair, Dammers invited Jamaican-born musicians, in addition to artists on the mostly white punk scene, the band eventually changing it’s name to The Specials (SmithLaing, 2021). Dammers acted as a svengali figure, (Smith-Laing, 2021) performing as keyboardist and chief songwriter, before he founded the band’s label 2-Tone Records to launch similar acts, such as The Selecter, Madness and The Beat, among others.

He stated in letter to the Daily Mirror during the early 2000s, ‘When I formed the Specials in 1978, the intention was to make an anti-racist statement by combining punk rock with reggae and ska in a multi-racial band. I put these ideas into the lyrics of the songs, at a time when the Nazi National Front were on the rise.

We were part of a huge campaign which included Rock Against Racism and The Anti Nazi League’ (Dammers, 2009). The rise of the Far Right in Britain made it evident that despite being over a hundred of years since the Slavery Abolition Act, slavery’s foul legacy was still alive and well. Even ignoring the most extreme views popularised by the likes of the National Front and Enoch Powell (Rachel, 2016), racism in the UK was a normal, everyday occurrence. Pauline Black, frontwoman of The Selecter remembered Coventry as a particularly ‘violent city’ where ‘nothing united the tribal configurations of the youth more than the general unspoken policy of hating the blacks or newly arrived Indians and Pakistanis’ (Black, 2011). The build-up of resentment came to head in April 1981, when an aggressive protest against the city’s Asian community, became a homicidal after a twenty-year old boy named Satnam Singh Gill was murdered in Coventry city centre in ‘broad daylight’ (Hebdige, 1987). Perhaps, this was one of many watershed moments for The Specials and TwoTone as the different bands started to develop ‘a less hipsterish stand on the issue’ (Hebdige, 1987) of racism. This invigorated Dammers position even more, taking it upon himself and the band’s message to convert any right-wing contingent of their audience. ‘I thought maybe we should try and get through to these people… I thought if we played music they could relate to and dressed in that way maybe we could get our antiracist message across and turn it into something more positive’ (Dammers, 2021).

Though Dammers and The Specials may not have been able to reach the skinheads, the movement’s idea of addressing racism was breath of fresh air for their Black and Asian fans, such as director and former Two-Tone fan, Gurinder Chadha who commented that to see other young people who ‘made a big deal about being black and white, and in a band together, to challenge racism and to stamp racism out… I was like “Yes, here’s the first sign I’ve seen in Britain of a possibility where life doesn’t have to be, so scary” (Chadha, 2004). So unprecedented was a subculture like Two-Tone, in terms of it’s active antiracism, was that even the most subtle gestures managed to make a statement.

For example, on The Selecter’s first appearance on the BBC’s Top of the Pops, guitarist Neol Davies purposefully positioned himself and his bandmate Charley Anderson to be in the camera’s line of fire during the chorus as he thought ‘the white guy and the locs guy, standing next to each other, I wanted that to come out on people’s screens as a really positive image’ (Davies, 2021). It could be argued that this exemplifies an example of bricolage (Hebdige, 1979). Alone, Davies and Anderson are only individuals, one representing White British working class, and the other a combination of Jamaican, Rastafarian and rudeboy.

Together, however they create a new meaning as juxtaposed entities. Though completely different in their physical appearance, they depict a united front through their sharp suits and posture around the microphone, as if sharing one purpose. For British audiences to see Black and White people onstage and active in equal roles, would have been an uncommon sight, therefore the simplicity of just seeing Black and White interact normally ‘made the encounter between black and white young people an ordinary feature of life, it liberated those encounters from the kind of weight they were made to bear’ (Gilroy, 2004). Hence,

by normalising interactions between Black and White appearing together, Two Tone encouraged a unity and curiosity between both groups.

At the core of 2-Tone’s ability to create a common cause was it’s emphasis on the struggles of the working class. In immediate post-war Britain, there had sprung a new commitment to social equality. Former soldiers and civilians alike, fresh from fighting fascism were not content to go back to the status quo of the depression-ridden pre-war era where, as one interviewee from Ken Loach’s documentary ‘Spirit of 45’ commented ‘everything was run by rich people for rich people’, and the working-class were kept in “their place” in cramped housing, poor conditions and financial insecurity. In July 1945, the country voted in the Labour Party as it’s new government, whom swiftly introduced what would become known as the ‘Welfare State’, designed to care for the well-being of all, confronting what Labour called the Five Giants of ‘disease, want, squalor, ignorance and idleness’ (Timmins, 2017). However, by the late 1970s, times had changed. As of the 1979 general election, Britain had voted in it’s first female prime minister, conservative politician Margaret Thatcher, whom soon after her appointment set about dismantling the post-war reforms, on which she thought the country had become over-reliant. Thatcher became infamous for her brand of austerity politics, deciding to privatise much of the UK’s manufacturing and commercial interests, in the hope that it would incentivise the independence of the working classes, including those in Britain’s industrial heartlands (Timmins, 2017). However, this had a direct impact on cities such as Coventry, who’s local economy was inexplicably tied to it’s car manufacturing businesses, such as Jaguar or Leyland. Despite Thatcher’s aspirations, her policies instead had a detrimental effect on Coventry’s residents, leaving many of the population unemployed, (Jenkins, 1981) which in turn lead to a rise in crime and racial tension. The Specials’ drummer John Bradbury, summed up the situation: ‘I saw it [Coventry] develop from a boom town, my family doing very well, through to the collapse of the industry and the bottom falling out of family life.

Your economy is destroyed’. Similarly, Pauline Black who moved to Coventry as a young student, also painted a bleak portrait Coventry as ‘just a rundown, concrete urban sprawl, with a ring road that only seemed to help you find the M1 going south’ (Black, 2011).

‘I saw it [Coventry] develop from a boom town, my family doing very well, through to the collapse of the industry and the bottom falling out of family life.

Your economy is destroyed’.

John Bradbury

Arguably, the most famous of The Specials’ songs, ‘Ghost Town’ (1981), perfectly illustrated that this was happening all over the country, not just in Two-Tone’s hometown. The song was an exercise in social realism, it’s grim representation of a decaying Thatcherite Britain gleaned from what Dammer’s observed on The Special’s October 1980 tour. The lines; ‘No job to be found in this country, can’t go on no more’ summarised that whole situation, evoking a potential return to pre-war levels of poverty and desperation.

Dammers’ recollections of seeing Liverpool shops ‘shuttered up’ and in Glasgow ‘little old ladies on the streets selling all their household goods’ (Dammers, 2002), encapsulated the increasing deprivation of the working class in Britain’s inter-cities, the idea of selling homeware reminiscent of a time before WW2, where families would routinely put their valuables into pawnshops in order to just meet the weeks’ rent. In four words; ‘the country was falling apart’ (Dammers, 2002). The lyrics depicted the lived experiences of inter-city young people, describing the most pressing issues such as the deterioration of local culture, (‘all the

clubs have been closed down’), infighting (‘why must youth fight against themselves’) and the Government’s indifference (‘Government leaving the youth on the shelf’), the latter being a particular grievance for the UK’s Black community, often segregated into deprived neighbourhoods, where opportunities and public spending was usually nonexistent (Belchem, 2014). The release of ‘Ghost Town’ came at a opportune moment, as the same month, Britain’s cities erupted in a series of riots from stretching all the way from Moss Side, Manchester to Brixton. The causes varied, some cited the events as ‘a revolt of the unemployed, a riot of the dispossessed’ (Belchem, 2014) whilst others noticed in the several cities, the strong racial factors. Looking specifically at the Toxteth riots in Liverpool 8 area, academics such as historian Phillip J Waller, came to the conclusion, that although it was the both the cause was down to the Black and White communities’ resentment of the police, the riot would have never occurred if not for the police’s over-reactionary enforcement in Black areas (Belchem, 2014). From the perspective of theorist Albert Cohen (1956), the UK at this time was prime breeding ground for ‘working-class male delinquency’, the realisation that ‘middle-class values of success’ were unattainable sparking status frustration.

Whereby, Black and White working-class boys created ‘subsystems’ to mitigate the hopelessness of unachievable expectations.

In the case of Two-Tone, it was their shared working-class identity and their ability to relate to another over class struggles with poverty and over-policing that allowed them to bond and share the new British-Caribbean culture. Via their adoption of subcultural systems, Two-Tone created a hybrid culture that would be accessible to all. This was especially important for the Black-British community. Already living in a pressurised environment from the heightened threat of racism -by both the public and authorities- there was an onus put on them to assimilate into White British middle-class culture, as a way of becoming more ‘acceptable’, in a way that was often inaccessible to them, expecting them to shed their traditions, culture, history and in effect; their blackness. The writer, Afua Hirsch identified this as exemplifying Britain’s attitude of ‘confidence in one culture’s inherent superiority over others’, adding that ‘it’s for exactly this reason that it is becoming more widely recognised that assimilationist thinking – the idea that a particular culture is preferable, and that others should therefore adopt it – is a racist ideology. (Hirsch, 2019).

Most opposed this ‘assimilationist’ view, finding in Two-Tone a place where their dual identities as Black and British could unquestionably coexist.

Furthermore, within Two-Tone, Jamaican culture was celebrated and embraced as a different form of British culture. Jamaica’s rudeboy fashions and ska music, were greatly cherished by the second- generation of Black-British teenagers, whom associated it with their Caribbean roots, whilst their White British peers found it desirable. The theorist Homi. K Bhabha (1994) ‘emphasizes the hybridity of culture and rejects the notion of a pure, essential identity—both for the colonizer and the colonized’, exemplified by Two-Tone’s proponents fitting Jamaican street culture with British Punk philosophy, creating a hybrid culture that valued both West Indian and British culture in equal stead, neither one being superior over the other. Many like Chadha felt for ’the first time that there was something around that I felt part of, and was a part of Britishness I could definitely buy into’ (Chadha, 2004). By combining their two cultures, both groups were able to apply their new shared culture to rebel against the status quo. Whilst, White British teenagers displayed their antiracist sympathies and shared identity their black peers in their outward appearance of the rudeboy uniform and enjoyment of Ska music, Black teenagers absorbed the music’s punk-like outspokenness, finding the within it the confidence to express their dissent against racism expelled by the National Front and the ambivalence of the Thatcher government. Therefore, using ‘strategies of subversion’ to ‘turn the gaze of the discriminated back upon the eye of power’ (Bhabha, 1994), by loudly criticising

their treatment or attending protests an events such as Rock against Racism, (Rachel, 2016) behaviour which was in deep contrast to their parents’ generation, whom as the first arrivals in Britain had a hard time adjusting to the everyday racial abuse, often internalising and ignoring it, fearing what consequences of “rocking the boat” would have on their job and their ability to keep their family afloat (Rachel, 2016).

Two-Tone’s proponents, may not have been aware of it, but as they established their style of dress, they acted as ‘subcultural bricoleurs’ (Hebdige, 1979). In this case it was the cross pollination of the British and Caribbean street styles, juxtaposing ‘two apparently incompatible realities…on an apparently unsuitable scale’(Ernst, 1948). It was distinctive look; sharp tonik suits, pork pie or trilby hats with thin ties and loafers, a mixture of the sharp Mod and Skinhead styles, whilst also reminiscent of two decades before when the first members of the Jamaican diaspora who arrived en masse to assist the ‘mother country’ just after WW2.

After they’d settled down permanently in the UK, their style began to influence the local White population such as the original skinheads, great lovers of reggae whom had evolved from ‘the hard end of Mod, and the football terrace boot boys’ (2 Tone Britain, 2004), their largest influence being the Jamaican rude boy from which they adopted the too-short trousers and closely cropped hair, therefore creating ‘…new transcultural forms within the contract zone produced by colonisation’ (Bhabha, 1994).

The original rudeboys, working-class, unemployed, sometimes violent young men gained a controversial reputation in newly-independent Jamaica (O’Hagan, 2014). Becoming anti-establishment figures, they courted shock with their antisocial and often violent tactics, carrying around German ratchet knives and handguns (Hebdige, 1987) forming themselves into street gangs to ‘defend’ their neighbourhoods or attaching themselves as enforcers to sound-system crews in the dancehall scene, simultaneously evoking disgust and admiration in different levels of Jamaican society (O’Hagan 2014). The cross-over to Britain could perhaps could be attributed to the popularity of reggae artists through whom ‘the rude boy survived as an archetype and an often threateningly real presence through sharp-dressed, but edgy, artists such as Tapper Zukie and former Wailer Peter Tosh’ (O’Hagan, 2014), in fact Two-Tone’s logo Walt Jabsco was based on Tosh’s image from the cover of the Wailer’s Wailing Wailers album.

According to writer and academic Paul Gilroy, ‘the figure of the rude boy with his swagger and casual disrespect for the law harks back to older archetypes like the semi-mythical Stagger Lee character in black American folk blues, the bad man who seems invincible’. So it is no wonder that ‘the emergence of the rude boy at this particular moment also marked out the acquisition of a new self-confidence and sense of self-reinvention among the young and disaffected’ (Gilroy). From this it could be interpreted that the style of Rudeboys acted as armour for those involved in 2-Tone, that and that it ‘served the same function then as they do now: to dissent, protest, ridicule, and outrage’ (Fred Davis, 1992). This suggests that Black teenagers perceived the rude boy style as defiant sign of identification with their parent’s homeland, which rebelled against ‘assimilationist thinking’ (Hirsch, 2019) in a Britain that was discomfited by difference in addition to a stance against the rising tide of racism and dismissal by the government. In this they were not too dissimilar from White teenagers whom revolted against the constraints of the expectation that the working class should ‘stay in their place’. Furthermore, Two-Tone’s fans could identify with the original rude boys, whom came from disadvantaged backgrounds in the ghettoes of West Kingston, who were often so ‘angry’ and desperate with their situation that they ‘took to the street and to crime’(Hebdige, 1987).

’two-tone is in my estimation is a subculture, but it’s like an umbrella for a whole load of subcultures, they all have their

own individual styles of dress, but one thing I think I can say about all 2-tone is that it is rooted in working class youth.’

- Pauline Black Though their situation may have been more extreme, many rude boys endured the same poverty and oppression that working class Black and White teenagers would endure decades later under the Thatcher government. Pauline Black summarised, ’twotone is in my estimation is a subculture, but it’s like an umbrella for a whole load of subcultures, they all have their own individual styles of dress, but one thing I think I can say about all 2-tone is that it is rooted in working class youth.’

Additionally, the Two-Tone style could also be seen to unite the female members of the movement. In the case of The Selecter’s Pauline Black, this was a ‘protest’ (Davis, 1992) against gender norms. One of the lone female figures in the Two-Tone movement, she became very conscious of the need to ‘fit in with the lads’ (Black, 2010), but was simultaneously concerned by the potential implications of how female musicians were treated by the musical establishment and the press. This brand of sexism was all the more diffcult for female artists in predominantly male bands, as their value was often measured up against their male peers, or at best, regarded as a novelty. Not taken as seriously as their male peers, they were not ‘judged… as to the merits of your music, or what you were trying to say’ (Black, 2010), but rather reduced down to a series of narrow stereotypes. Black’s situation was further complicated by the fact that she was a Mixed Race woman, in a still fairly White industry that had little nuance when it came to it’s vision of Black women. White female singers, though often still tarred with the same reductionist misogyny, at least had a variety of stereotypes to choose from, Black female singers seemed to have only two as either ‘sexy or tragic’ (Black, 2010). Rebelling against the idea of her identity being chosen for her, Black instead decided to copy her male bandmates by forgoing ‘any typically sexy image’ and dressing ‘like a Jamaican rude boy, in a tonik suit, Ben Sherman shirt, trilby hat and loafers’ (Black, 2010). By rejecting the ‘sexy’ image, and taking on swaggering coolness of a rude boy, Black recreated herself in an image that was entirely prioritised her own comfort. Even then, she made a complete departure from tough rude girl she had cultivated by subverting her ‘sharp’ look, wearing makeup and splashes of bright colour, almost making herself a one-woman example of ‘bricolage’ (Hebdige, 1979) contrasting the masculine and the feminine together, in a way rarely represented in Britain at the time. Therefore, it could be implied that Black’s adoption of the rude boy style exemplified Davis’ point to ‘dissent, protest, ridicule, and outrage’ (Davis, 1992), in this case against the perceptions of eighties womanhood. Black herself viewed ‘going on stage as kind of girding your loins’ (Black, 2018), and perceived her rudeboy uniform as ‘armour’, from this it could be suggested that the rudeboy style acted as protection from the potentially misogynistic views of others, helping her to avoid the narrow limitations that other female artists had to navigate. If this the way Black perceived her own style, it follows that Two-Tone style had a similar effect on young Black and White female fans of the movement. As can be seen from this image, even for the female fans, the style remained tomboyish, with short hair, tailored trousers and loafers, not deviating much from that of their male counterparts. The look would have been a large digression from the mostly uber-feminine fashions of the eighties, where ‘pussycat bows and big handbags’ (Borrelli-Persson, 2018) reined supreme. Two-Tone fan, Christine Staple, an interviewee from the BBC documentary, 2 Tone: The Sound of Coventry, remembered specifically of Pauline Black, ‘I was watching Top of the Pops, and there was Pauline Black, this mixed race women in a very male-dominated world at the time…it was that prominent to me as I had very short hair, I wore the Harrington… looking like that, I thought wow, that’s me, I want to be like that’.

However, in the 1970s and early eighties Britain to traverse the parameters of gender expression could mean to risk ridicule, and as their subcultural predecessors, the female punks, discovered a few years earlier; your personal safety. Viv Albertine, guitarist of Punk band The Slits recalled ‘men would be half turned on, half scared by us, and we not get only verbal abuse, but Ari’ The Slits’ lead singer ‘was stabbed a couple of times when were together, we’ve been chased, we’ve been hit…threatened I think through fear’ (Albertine, 2010). Consequently, though not as deliberately outrageous as the Punks, female Two-Tone fans had an often androgynous appearance, so perhaps it is not naive to think that attitudes would have changed so much in half decade, that they would not have at least drawn some derision. Nevertheless, it could be suggested that Two-Tone’s tomboyish style was a potential shared element between the movement’s Black and White female followers, as an empowering moment, which allowed them to rebel against sexist ideas through the subversion of gender expression.

‘I was watching Top of the Pops, and there was Pauline Black, this mixed race women in a very male-dominated world at the time…it was that prominent to me as I had very short hair, I wore the Harrington… looking like that, I thought wow, that’s me, I want to be like that’.

Christine Staple In conclusion, Two-Tone was the first time politics and music came together en masse to create a subculture, that could be shared by all. Two-Tone’s blunt challenge of racism sought to encourage normalise relationships between Britain’s working class Black and White communities, as well as empathising the connection of a working class background through the songs they produced. The movement was not exclusionary in any way, valuing it’s influences equally, and creating a space and identity that could be shared by all, through music, philosophies and the eclectic mix of fashions. In the words of director and DJ Don Letts, ‘music is a tool for social change, music that can help you be all you can be and Two Tone was part of that lineage, that heritage, that tradition, and long may it live’ (Letts, 2015).

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[Online] 9th Jun. Available from: https://www.apollo- magazine. com/2-tone-lives-and-legacies-herbert-museum-coventry-review/ SPITZ, M. (2009) The Oral History of 2 Tone. Spin Magazine. [Online] 28th Sep. Available from: https://www.spin.com/2009/09/ oral-history-2-tone/ [Accessed 31/10/21] The Spirit of 45’. (2013) [Film] Directed by KEN LOACH. UK: Dogwoof Productions.

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WELLS, T. (n.d) Rude Boy Swagger. [Online] The Museum of Youth Culture. Available from: https://museumofyouthculture. com/rude-boy/ [Accessed 11/11/21] WICKERT, C. (2019) Subcultural theory (Cohen). [Weblog] SozTheo. 10th May. Available from: https://soztheo.de/theories-of-crime/learning-subculture/subcultural-theorycohen/?lang=en [Accessed 12/11/21] Women of the New Wave. (2010) [Radio] BBC RADIO 4. 14th March, 1330 hrs. LIST OF FIGURES

Cameron Cooley Topographic Forms - Topography can be used to outline the natural and artificial features with both land and human anatomy. By contorting those lines on the surface, an illusion is created that distorts how the human eye views shapes. Focusing on patterns, tailoring to the body and fabrics the allow skin to show. The aim of this is to not forget the silhouette of the natural human body.

Email: cameroncooley@me.com Instagram: cam.cooley Web: camcooley.com

CAMERON COOLEY

Jasmine Tang F L U I D I T Y - The concept of a smooth, continuous motion. My designs have been created to represent the organic flow of nature, embracing the shape of the body.

Email: jtdesigns@gmail.com Instagram: jasminetangdesigns Web: jasminetang.co.uk

JASMINE TANG

Alice Lilly In this project I explored the history of queer culture and fashion and seeing how this has influenced contemporary fashion today. Taking strong influences from the club kids and icons like Leigh Bowery. I researched how people use queer fashion as self-expression which I’ve used to develop innovative design ideas.

Email: alice.lilly.howard@gmail.com Instagram: alice_lilly_design Web: alicelillydesign.co.uk

ALICE LILLY

Poppy Backhouse The concept behind my collection explores a romanticised version of my home in Suffolk. Imagery from landscapes, sunsets and florals from home inspired my initial art work and helped me to translate the essence of this feeling into a collection of digital and screen prints.

Email: poppybackhousedesigns @gmail.com Instagram: poppybdesigns Web: poppybackhousedesigns.com

POPPY BACKHOUSE

EXTRACT:

Poppy Backhouse

‘How did 90s Rave fashion represent freedom?’

‘There’s no such thing as society.’

(Thatcher, 1987) By 1989 an entire generation of had grown up under Conservative rule, statistics show that this was not an entirely a good thing. Poverty in the UK had increased under a conservative government, and with the highest earners of the population earning 10 times more than the lowest (Dean,2013) the gap between the class divisions was widening. Times were hard for working class people and potentially left people feeling isolated in their struggle. When the 90’s came, it saw an end to Thatcher as Prime minister, and this was channelled into the vibrant rave scene. Illegal raves were taking place across the country in post-thatcher disused buildings (Taper,2021), which created a space that bridged the gap between classes and allowed people to express their love for the emerging acid house scene. In this essay I will be exploring how the clothing of 90s rave culture reflected this new found sense of freedom. I will do this by looking at fashion theories including Dick Hebdiges ‘Subculture the meaning of style’ (1979: pp.101-102) and his theories about how what we wear can communicate, and show subcultural style. Another theorist I will be looking at is Fred Davis (2007: pp.89-95) in ‘Fashion Theory: A Reader’ where he discusses his theory of ‘conservative scepticism’ as a form of antifashion, and how it can be used by individuals to dress as a form of resistance to

authorities. I will also be analysing Sarah Thornton’s’ book ‘Club Culture’ (1995:32) and her views on the liberating aspects of the 90’s rave and dance culture. I will be comparing this to ‘Carnival theory’ by philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin (1984:10), in which he explores the euphoric feelings created by carnivals in the medieval period and the lack of authority experienced at this time. I will be accessing how the carnival experience is relevant to the rave subculture and I will also be looking at different interpretations of this theory from Arizona state University (2008) and political theorist Andrew Robinson (2011). In the second half of this essay, I will be applying these theories to examples that express the freedom experienced at the peak of rave culture including similarities the Manchester rave flyer for ‘Herbal Tea Party’ (1996) has with the whimsical Matisse painting ‘Dance’ (1910) and what this represents about the feelings experienced at the time. I will also be examining photography of fashion examples of the time such as Terence Donovan’s (1996) photography of Que Club in Birmingham and how it represents the air of unity experienced in rave and how it brought different subcultures together. I will also be looking at Dave Swindell’s ‘Spectrum Tent Girls’ (1988) and how it not only embodies the carnivalesque but shows the freedom women at raves felt to be able to wear gender neutral clothing.

It is not uncommon to think about what we wear in relation to how it portrays our overall image and what impression it gives

off to other people. This is an idea talked about by subcultural theorist Dick Hebdige in his book: ‘Subculture: The Meaning of Style’. Here Hebdidge (1979:101) states that the choices we make about what we wear ‘contain a whole range of messages which are transmitted through the finely graded distinctions of a number of interlocking sets - class and status, self-image and attractiveness’. This quote would suggest that what someone chooses to wear not only gives off a sense of who they are but style can be interpreted in much greater depth than this. The ‘interlocking sets’ Hebdidge talks of, suggest that clothing can give away not only information on our ‘self-image’ but can also be used to predetermine your place in society by giving away ‘class and status’.

......what we wear “are expressive of ‘normality’ as opposed to ‘deviance’’ Dick Hebdige The idea that what we wear can be used to categorise a person is particularly relevant to how we define members of a subculture.

It could be said that Hebdidge (1979:101) implies this as he goes on to say that above all else, these choices we make about what we wear ‘are expressive of ‘normality’ as opposed to ‘deviance’’.

The use of the word ‘normality’ is suggestive of the conformis to mainstream culture; however, the idea of ‘deviance’ is related to how subcultures communicate through dressing. Subcultural dress is identifiable by the contrast it has against mainstream fashion. This idea is supported by Hebdidge (1979:102) later on when he talks about characteristics that distinguish a subcultures dress. He states that subcultures ‘go against the grain of a mainstream culture whose principal defining characteristic, according to Barthes, is a tendency to masquerade as nature’.

Hebdidge idea that subscribers of popular culture ‘masquerade as nature’ suggest that subcultural style stands out and is identified in this way. This supports the idea that not only does what we wear communicate various factors about ourselves but it is also used as a tool to express a subculture.

This resistance to the mainstream fashion is an idea also discussed by Fred Davis (2007:89) in ‘Fashion Theory: A Reader’.

In this chapter Davis talks about ‘The Varieties of Anti- fashion’ which cover the various types of style that dress against popular fashion. This is usually due to holding a particular political stand point, however, one type of Anti fashion that Davis (2007:95) talks about that is non-political is ‘Conservative Scepticism’. This is described as a group of individuals who are ‘not against fashion per se, only against that which the fashion industry, the fashion press, and other assorted “authorities” are trying at a particular time to foist on them.’. The use of the word ‘authorities’ suggests there is a higher power that partakers of conservative scepticism resist and they show this defiance through clothes. This subject relates back to Hebdidge’s (1979:101) idea of clothes being expressive of ‘‘normality’ as opposed to ‘deviance’’, and in this instance the conservative sceptics are outwardly showing deviance. Another idea Hebdidge (1979:107) discusses is subcultures need to dress against the ‘natural’ claiming ‘the rule would seem to be: if the cap doesn’t fit, wear it’. This relates to Davis idea of dressing against authorities, and using fashion to express this.

Both Fred Davis and Dick Hebdidge talk of particular groups of people who resist conforming to mainstream fashion, however Hebdidge talks about it in terms of subcultural dressing and it could also be said that Davis theory of ‘Conservative Scepticism’ links closely to subcultures too.

When talking about pushing against authorities, 90s rave culture is an example of this. It was an outlet for breaking down social barriers. This is talked about by Sarah Thornton in her book ‘Club Culture’, where she explores the aspects of rave culture that gave these feelings of freedom. Thornton (1995:32) explains that ‘Going out dancing crosses boundaries of class, race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality,’. The idea that rave was a

place where social constructs lost all importance suggests that partakers could be who they wanted to be without fear of judgement. This also implies that this was a space that deviated away from regular society, where people were usually divided by these categories.

It could be said that rave was not just an escapism from social constructs but also from authority. This is suggested in this quote where Thornton (1995:32) claims that ‘A loss of interest in clubbing coincides with moving out of the parental home, which has repercussions for young people’s desire to get out of the house and escape the family.’ This quote explains the link between clubbing and the freedom it gave young people from their parents.

In this instance, parents could be considered a form of authority, meaning that clubbing not only created freedom from social divisions, but also from a place where they felt watched over.

Thornton (1995:33) describes that this escapism from the family also meant that ravers could partake in the ‘adult’ activities of flirtation, sex, drink and drugs’. The use of the word ‘adult activities’ suggests it was not socially accepted for people of that age group to partake in these behaviours. This links back to Hebdidge’s (1979:101) idea of showing ‘deviance’, young people going to these clubs can deviate away from what is expected of their age. Although Hebdidge talks about ‘‘normality’ as opposed to ‘deviance’’ in the sense of clothing, Thornton (1995:33) also suggests subcultural style and goes on to say that this environment allows young people to ‘explore cultural forms (like music and clothes) which confer autonomous and distinct identities.’. This use of the words ‘distinct identities’ suggests they stand out from mainstream culture.

The atmosphere of freedom in rave and club culture which is described by Sarah Thornton links closely to a theory the philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin called ‘The Carnivalesque’ which is discussed in his book ‘Rabelais and his World’ (1984). In this theory Bakhtin talks about the feelings and events that took place in carnivals across medieval Europe. Carnival has been described in an article by Arizona state university (2008) as ‘occasions in which the political, legal and ideological authority of both the church and state were inverted — albeit temporarily — during the anarchic and liberating period of the carnival.’. This suggests that during carnivals the main higher power of the time had very limited control over its celebrators and for a short while none of the usual rules applied to society, and revellers of the carnival could feel a sense of freedom. This is similarly related to the ideas discussed by Thornton about the escapism club culture provided for ‘young people’s desire to get out of the house and escape the family.’ As essentially, a young person’s parents are their ‘authority’ in this situation and club culture allowed them to be free from it.

Another similarity Carnivalesque shares with the descriptions Thornton has of club culture is the obliteration of social barriers experienced in this state. Bakhtin (1984,10) describes there being ‘a special form of free and familiar contact reigned among people who were usually divided by the barriers of caste, property, profession, and age.’. This quote describes how carnival allowed society to come together. This kind of unity experienced in carnival was described by theorist Andrew Robinson (2011) in an analysis of Bakhtin’s theory.

Robinson described carnival as ‘a vision of mutual cooperation and equality’. Both quotes describe the coming together of carnival revellers at this time, and the lack of barriers between people that were usually prominent in everyday life. This is similar to Thornton’s descriptions of how ‘Going out dancing crosses boundaries of class, race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality,’. It could be said that club culture evokes the carnivalesque as it shares similarities in breaking down social limitations.

However, this breaking down of limitations in carnival did not take over the way life was normally lived, this was only something

that was experienced in carnival. This is an idea talked about by Robinson (2011) where he states that ‘Carnival is also taken to provide a positive alternative vision. It is not simply a deconstruction of dominant culture, but an alternative way of living based on a pattern of play.’. The idea of carnival being an ‘alternative way of living’ suggests that it isn’t set to take down mainstream culture but it is a separate space entirely. This relates back to Thornton’s idea of clubbing being a space where none of the usual limitations exist, both theories suggest that these conditions are only experienced in these spaces.

Although Robinson (2011) interprets that carnival ‘not simply a deconstruction of dominant culture’, it is discussed by Arizona state university as allowing a space for ideas and beliefs of mainstream culture to be revaluated. Arizona State University (2008) explains that carnivals ‘true liberating potential can be seen in the fact that set rules and beliefs were not immune to ridicule or reconception at carnival time’. This suggests that the deconstruction of these beliefs was not the aim of carnival, as is suggested by Robinson but it was part of the freedom carnival gave the revellers. It suggests that not only did it provide the atmosphere for ‘rules and beliefs’ to be mocked but carnival created the conditions for potential change.

‘Going out dancing crosses boundaries of class, race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality,’.

Sara Thorton These feelings of freedom and liberation that are portrayed throughout carnival theory and in Sarah Thornton’s description of club culture are channelled through various aspects of rave.

An example of this is seen in figure one which pictures art work from a Manchester rave flyer that is titled ‘Herbal tea party’ (1996). The flyer shows five people dancing in a circle which is an appropriation of Henry Matisse’s ‘Dance’ (1910) (figure two). In the original Matisse painting, the five dancers are holding hands, each with their heads bowed and their eyes closed, almost in concentration, which gives them an appearance of being in na trance like state. All of the dancers are painted without clothes which gives a freeing and almost whimsical feel to the painting.

This is exaggerated by the way the dancers all seem to be floating and due to the very minimalistic blue and green background it is seemingly dream like. These elements of Matisse’s painting create a freeing, whimsical feel which could be said to link back to the idea of carnivalesque. The use of nudity could be said to lend itself to Andrew Robinsons analysis of carnival being a ‘pattern of play’ as it exudes the freedom and playfulness experienced at the time of carnival. This playful approach is also seen in the ‘Herbal Tea Party’ rave flyer which shows a slightly adapted version of Matisse’s painting, and is set on a black background so that the dancers appear to be in space. Both the original painting and the poster share similarities in the lack of detail in the painting, which creates a simplicity that is suggested in carnival theory. This is due to there not being any barriers of class, profession or age in carnival and also a time when the ‘authority of both the church and state were inverted’ meaning the usual rules of society did not apply.

The lack of barriers in carnival is described by Robison as creating ‘a vision of mutual cooperation and equality’. It could be said that this is what is shown in Matisse’s painting as the figures are all dancing together in ‘mutual cooperation’. The liberation and freedom implied by Matisse’s ‘Dance’ could be the reasoning behind why it was used for the ‘Herbal tea party’ flyer as these were common feelings felt within rave culture at the time. This is also supported by Thornton’s descriptions of dancing crossing ‘boundaries of class, race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality,’, creating a liberating atmosphere where all areas of society were united together. By applying carnival theory and Thornton’s descriptions

of rave culture to these two images, it can be said that Matisse’s painting was referenced in this way to represent the freedom felt in rave at this time.

These feelings of freedom the 90s rave subculture generated can be seen in the photography of the time. An example of this is pictured in figure three, a photograph taken by Terence Donovan (1996) in the Que club in Birmingham. In an article written about the upcoming exhibition of Donovan’s rave photography, Donna Ferguson (2022) writes about how the photos reveal ‘the range of subcultures in the club – punks with Mohicans, bare- chested skinheads, girls in tight dresses and youths in tracksuit tops’. This is shown in figure three which pictures two people at a rave, both smiling whilst there are others in the background. The two main people in this photo have a punk like appearance with the person on the left having a shaved side of their head and the person to the right having a mohawk. The other people in the background do not appear to share the same style, as you can see a woman wearing a regular zip up jacket and a man to the far left wearing a graphic t-shirt. There is a range of styles in this photograph and it is suggestive of how rave culture brought all kinds of people together and broke down the barriers between different subcultures.

This kind of atmosphere was described in an interview by Jez Collins (2022), the curator of the exhibition, as showing ‘the intimacy of the dancefloor, the unbridled expression of people having a good time’. The description of the dancefloor being an ‘intimate’ place suggests that everyone there felt comfortable despite there being a range of people from different backgrounds.

It also infers the mixing of the different subcultures, and that they didn’t just stay in their individual groups. The idea that raves brought different subcultures together and broke down the social barrier between them lends itself towards Bakhtin’s (1984,10) theory of carnival and its uniting of ‘people who were usually divided by the barriers of caste, property, profession, and age.’.

In this case the boundaries between subculture were blurred and people were meeting in one space and coming together. This was not a regularly seen occurrence in society for subcultures to merge in this way and it is relevant to Arizona State University’s (2008) idea of how in carnival ‘set rules and beliefs were not immune to ridicule or reconception’. It could be said that, similarly to carnival, rave allowed the space for ‘rules and beliefs’ about the differences between subcultures to be redefined and allowed different groups to come together. This created a freedom that transcended boundaries and is clearly shown through the variety of clothing that was worn to 90s raves.

Dave Swindell’s (1998) ‘Spectrum Tent Girls’ (figure four) is another example that could be said to show the freedom experienced at raves. Figure four shows two women dancing at a rave, with others dancing behind them. In the image you can see that the women are both dressed in baggy, loose clothing that is typical to menswear. This could suggest this is an environment where they feel free to wear what they want, regardless of social normalities and expectations. The way the women appear to be dancing could also imply it is an active choice to wear loose baggy clothes as this will allow freedom of movement. What these women are wearing supports Thornton’s (1995:32) emphasis on the lack of social barriers at raves where she states that ‘Going out dancing crosses boundaries of class, race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality,’. This crossing of boundaries is also seen in the way that both men and women are dancing together in the same space, showing how rave united people in this way. The two women in figure four show an apparent indifference when it comes to catering to gender assigned clothing, this example could lend itself to be the form of anti- fashion Fred Davis (2007:95) describes as ‘Conservative Scepticism’ which is described as a group of people who go against what ‘assorted “authorities” are trying at a particular time to foist on them.’. This could suggest that it’s not only that they wanted to be free from social barriers but also a form of anti-conformism against social normalities of how to dress.

It could be said that by wearing loose, baggy clothing these women are physically expressing their freedom. The idea that rave has created the space for people to express themselves in this way relates back to the way Thornton (1995:33) describes rave culture as allowing young people to ‘explore cultural forms (like music and clothes) which confer autonomous and distinct identities.’. This freedom allowed ravers a space to explore these different styles without the pressures of conforming to mainstream culture, which is seen in figure four with women being able to feel comfortable wearing genderless clothing. This suggests that mainstream culture has little influence or power over people who would take part in these raves. This links to Bakhtin’s theory of carnivalesque (1984,10) and the lack of control that the higher powers of the time had. It was described by Arizona state university (2008) as a time when the ‘authority of both the church and state were inverted’. Therefore, it could be concluded that what people wore to raves could be expressive of the freedom felt from being able to dress in a way that wasn’t controlled by mainstream culture and allowed ravers to dress outside of gender stereotypes.

This essay has been trying to investigate the links between 90’s rave culture fashion and how it could represent freedom. After analysing the theories of Dick Hebdidge’s ‘Subculture-the meaning of style’ (1979: pp.101-102) and how what we wear is relevant to the image that we portray of ourselves, it became apparent that the clothing seen in the examples chosen have a significant relevance to the freeing time that surrounded rave culture. The descriptions of rave in Sarah Thornton’s ‘club culture’ (1995:32) built up the picture of the freedom that was experienced at this time. This freedom was created by creating an escapism for young people that was away from their family home and creating a space that ‘crosses boundaries’, allowing all walks of life to come together at this time. My research of this question was also heavily supported by the work of Mikhail Bakhtin and his ‘Carnival theory’ (1984:10), which explored the untamed freedom created by carnivals. This theory proved in some ways that it had a relation to the feelings experience in raves that are described by Sarah Thornton, in terms of creating an environment that united people and that was free from authority. By applying these theories to different examples, it appears that the clothing that was worn in 90’s raves could be seen as representing freedom.

This was particularly apparent in figure three, which showed a photograph taken by Terence Donovan (1996) at ‘Que club’ in Birmingham and pictured two people with hairstyles typically associated with the punk subculture. The contrast between what people in the background were wearing in this photo showed the mixing of different subcultures which represented the idea of rave allowing the crossing boundaries that Thornton discussed.

The uncommon mixing of different subcultures at raves as pictured in figure three, shows the freedom ravers felt to dress in the ways that were true to their individual subculture.

Another example of how what people wore to raves could be seen as expressive of freedom was seen in figure four which pictured two women dancing dressed in baggy, genderless clothing.

This was suggestive of a freedom from mainstream culture which usually promotes these gender norms, and could be said to link to Fred Davis (2007:95) ‘conservative scepticism’ in which groups of people are against what ‘assorted “authorities” are trying at a particular time to foist on them.’. In conclusion both figures three and four showed fashion examples that could be related to the idea of freedom. Figures one and two showed the similarities between Manchester rave poster ‘Herbal Tea Party’ (1996) and Henry Matisse’s ‘Dance’ (1910). Although these examples proved how rave culture in general promoted this kind of freedom by the use of Matisse’s painting that evoked the ‘Carnivalesque’, it did not show examples of fashion in rave. Moving forward from this, the theories that suggested a sense of freedom such as the

carnivalesque (1984), Thornton’s description of club culture (1995) and Fred Davis freedom from authorities in (2007) can be applied to examples of 90s rave fashion. Due to this it could be said that with the figures used, the clothing shown represented freedom, however, it would be interesting to see how these theories could be applied to a wider range of examples in rave fashion. This would allow further investigation to get a broader picture of the different types of clothing worn at raves in the 90s.

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Thornton,S., 1995. Club Cultures. Cambridge: Polity Press Archive. Available at: <https://www.mdmarchive.co.uk/artefact/10714/ROB_FLETCHER_IAN_FLETCHER_PSYCHE_ OUT_NEW_ARDRI_DISCORD_ RECORDS_FLYER_1996> [Accessed 21 January 2022].

Chloe Leckning F=GMmr2.- This project explores the forces of attraction that occur in space. Playing with the idea of gravitational influence and travel through black holes. Alongside the concept of red shift and blue shift and the notion that materials can lust and move toward each other.

Email: chloeleckning@gmail.com Instagram: chloe.l_design Web: chloeleckning.com

CHLOE LECKNING

Jasmine Williams Cabinet of Curiosities - Is about weird and wonderful objects that fascinated people of the Victorian era. Often prized in Victorian display cases known as ‘Cabinets of Curiousities’. Extracting patterns and textures from archaeological and paleontological findings such as plant and animal fossils, bones and crystals. This project, in reference to Kusama’s: cosmic nature, also celebrates the infinite amount of circular forms present in nature.

Email: jasminewilliams1@live.co.uk Instagram: jasminerosetextiles Web: jasminerosetextiles.co.uk

JASMINE WILLIAMS

Abigail Lowe MUTE - The act of covering, deadening and restricting what needs to be relieved - how mute can become something physical and pronounced.

Email: abbie.lowe@yahoo.co.uk Instagram: a.lowedesign Web: alowedesign.co.uk

ABIGAIL LOWE

Leyla Kuman Pharmaceutical Preservation An exploration of containment, protection and preservation through the medium of material experimentation.

Email: Leylakuman@icloud.com Instagram: leylakuman Web: lkuman.com

LEYLA KUMAN

Poppy Backhouse Cameron Cooley Danielle Grewcock Elsa Habben Reanne Harris Ryan Alexander Henson Esmee Jackson Parneet Dullt Leyla Kuman Chloe Leckning Alice Lilly Abbie Lowe Shauna Porter Rachel A Revell Evie Seal Tiegan Simmonds Taiwo Sofowora Jasmine Tang Anna V Thorn Vashanthiya Varan Jasmine Williams