CFP: Fashion Reality TV: Fashion as Process, Fashion as Product (3/15/05; 11/30/05-12/4/05)

Proposed Session
American Anthropological Association (AAA), Nov 30-Dec 4, 2005
Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, Washington DC

The recent popularity of shows like Project Runway, America's Next Top
Model, and Manhunt represents both a shift in reality TV programming
and the fashion industry itself. Such programs highlight the
increasing commodification of fashion's production processes over and
above its tangible, material goods by emphasizing the labor/practice
of designers, models, and other actors.

No longer only a product separated from its production (i.e. a Gucci
bag, a pair of Manolo Blahniks, etc.), fashion-as-commodity can also
be the production process itself. Through fashion reality TV,
production is made seemingly more transparent and accessible through
behind-the-scenes footage, competitions, and character profiles. While
new practices are obscured (i.e. TV production, etc.), new ideas
emerge about participation, labor, and consumption within the field of
fashion.

Given the fashion industry's intimate relationship with mass media and
its historical role in popular debates on taste, how does the
foregrounding of agents rather than aesthetics complicate the ways in
which audiences encounter seemingly unquestioned assumptions about
quality and beauty?

This panel seeks to address these issues through the following
questions:

• What kind of commodity is fashion reality TV?
• How is the model/designer/trendsetter represented?
• How is the labor/practice of the model/designer/trendsetter
represented?
• How are the aesthetic and economic spheres reconciled in these
shows (i.e. quality and beauty with sustainability and marketability)?

Please send abstracts (250 words) for 15-minute papers and a brief bio
or cv to Stephanie Sadre-Orafai, sso212_at_nyu.edu, or Todd Nicewonger,
ten2001_at_columbia.edu by March 15, 2005.

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Received on Wed Mar 02 2005 - 10:20:18 EST