Threads of Globalization - (Studies in Design and Material Culture) by Melia Belli Bose (Hardcover)

About the Book

Threads of globalization is an interdisciplinary volume that brings fashion-specific garments, motifs, materials, and methods of production--into dialogue with gender and identity in various cultures throughout Asia during the long twentieth century.

Book Synopsis

Threads of globalization is an interdisciplinary volume that brings fashion-specific garments, motifs, materials, and methods of production into dialogue with gender and identity in various cultures throughout Asia during the long twentieth century. It examines how the shift from artisanal production to 'fast fashion' over the past 150 years has devalued women's textile labour and how skilled textile/ garment makers and the organizations that support them are preserving and reviving heritage traditions. It also offers examples of how socially engaged artists in Asia and the diaspora use their work to criticize labour and environmental abuses in the global fashion industry.

From the Back Cover

Threads of globalization is the first collection to examine the interplay of gender, textiles, fashion, labour, and heritage across Asia. It features chapters on India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, the Philippines, China, Taiwan, Japan, and the Asian diaspora throughout the long twentieth century.

This richly illustrated interdisciplinary volume situates fashion, including specific garments, motifs, materials, and methods of production, at the nexus of modernity, tradition, and identity, bringing these factors into Pan-Asian dialogue. Exploring the impact of textiles and garments on both national and local cultural identity, as well as gender identity and personal expression, Threads of globalization also investigates how garment and textile production has influenced women's creative agency. The final section of the book examines examples of 'artivism' (art+activism) that critique the often-gendered structural violence and environmental impacts of the global fashion industry.

Threads of globalization's uniquely interdisciplinary contributors - scholars of art history, history, fashion, anthropology, and curators working across Asia - provide a fresh and timely inquiry into these intersectional topics from the late nineteenth century to today.

About the Author

Melia Belli Bose is an Associate Professor of South Asian Art History at the University of Victoria