{"id":51692,"date":"2012-10-18T11:00:44","date_gmt":"2012-10-18T16:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=51692"},"modified":"2017-09-17T15:39:59","modified_gmt":"2017-09-17T20:39:59","slug":"bag-lady-fashion-in-vogue-germany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2012\/10\/18\/bag-lady-fashion-in-vogue-germany\/","title":{"rendered":"“Bag Lady” Fashion in Vogue Germany"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s post marks the third time that we’ve highlighted a fashion-related appropriation of homelessness. \u00a0We saw it on America’s Next Top Model<\/a> and in a catwalk show for a\u00a0Vivienne Westwood collection<\/a>. \u00a0This time it’s a fashion editorial in Vogue Germany<\/a>\u00a0in which a model\u00a0poses as a “bag lady.” \u00a0Thanks to Ann Marie N. for sending it in.<\/p>\n

When homelessness is made into a fashion object, it trivializes the pain and suffering of the homeless, transporting the issue into “something hip adopted by the beautiful people.” \u00a0 Dressing like a “bag lady” can only be understood as fashionable when it’s a purposeful choice. \u00a0As I wrote in a previous post<\/a> about the topic, “actual homeless people are not and never will be ‘fashionable’ in this sense; they will always simply be homeless.”<\/p>\n

Or, as Judith Williamson was quoted saying on Threadbared<\/a>\u00a0(a sociology and fashion blog):<\/p>\n

It is currently “in” for the young and well-fed to go around in torn rags, but not for tramps to do so. In other words, the appropriation of other people\u2019s dress is fashionable provided it is perfectly clear that you are, in fact, different from whoever would normally wear such clothes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, while the appropriation of homelessness in the fashion industry may look like an homage, really it’s just a way to further marginalize and “other” the actual homeless. \u00a0It’s a way for fashionable people to demonstrate difference from, not similarity to, actual homeless people.<\/p>\n

For the same phenomenon with race and people from post-colonial countries, also see: whiteness in fashion<\/a>, non-whites as fashion props<\/a>, black bodies as props<\/a>,\u00a0exotification of people and places in fashion<\/a>, Orthodox Jew-inspired fashion show<\/a>, and\u00a0exoticizing India in Vogue UK<\/a>.<\/p>\nLisa Wade, PhD<\/a> is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of <\/em>American Hookup<\/a>, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender<\/a>; and a forthcoming introductory text: <\/em>Terrible Magnificent Sociology<\/a>.\u00a0You can follow her on Twitter<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s post marks the third time that we’ve highlighted a fashion-related appropriation of homelessness. \u00a0We saw it on America’s Next Top Model and in a catwalk show for a\u00a0Vivienne Westwood collection. \u00a0This time it’s a fashion editorial in Vogue Germany\u00a0in which a model\u00a0poses as a “bag lady.” \u00a0Thanks to Ann Marie N. for sending it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[29,225,1777],"class_list":["post-51692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-class","tag-clothesfashion","tag-nation-germany"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51692"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71578,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51692\/revisions\/71578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}