Sartorial Fandom

Fashion, Beauty Culture, and Identity

Subjects: Media Studies, New Media
Open Access : 9780472903382, 294 pages, 21 illustrations, 6 x 9, April 2023
Paperback : 9780472056040, 294 pages, 21 illustrations, 6 x 9, April 2023
Hardcover : 9780472076048, 294 pages, 21 illustrations, 6 x 9, April 2023
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Explores the intersections of fandom and fashion

Table of contents

List of Figures. 
Acknowledgments
Introduction: “Fandom, But Make It Fashion”. 
Elizabeth Affuso and Suzanne Scott
PART I: Histories of Sartorial Fandom
1. “Hollywood Fashions for Everygirl’s Wardrobe!”: Stealth-cosplay and 1930s Photoplay
Kate Fortmueller
2. “Anorak City”: Indie Pop’s Resistance through Regression
Elodie A. Roy
3. Five Little Victorian Londons
Samantha Close (DePaul University)
PART II: Sartorial Fandom as Business, Lifestyle, and Brand
4. Fanning The Flames of Fan Lifestyles at Hot Topic
Avi Santo (Old Dominion University)
5. Flying Under the Radar: Culture and Community in the Unlicensed Geek Fashion Industry
Lauren Boumaroun
6. Droids on the Runway: Fandom, Business and Transmedia in Star Wars Luxury Fashion
Nicolle Lamerichs
7. “I AM NOT IN A CULT”: Poppy and the Gendered Implications of Ironic Beauty Fan Cult(ure)
Paxton C. Haven
8. In the Navy: Savage X Fenty’s Fandorsement Work
Alyxandra Vesey
PART III: Fans of Fashion + Fashion as Fan Expression
9. Drop Culture: Masculinity, Fashion Performance, and Collecting in Hypebeast Brand Communities
Elizabeth Affuso
10. This is my (floral) design: Flower Crowns, Fannibals, and Fan/Producer Permeability
EJ Nielsen and Lori Morimoto
11. From Muggle to Mrs.: The Harry Potter Bachelorette Party and ‘Crafting’ Femininity on Etsy
Jacqueline E. Johnson
12. Retcon: Revisiting Cosplay Studies
A. Luxx Mishou
PART IV: Fashioning Fan Bodies
13. DisneyBounding and Beyond: Fandom, Cosplay, and Embodiment in Themed Spaces
Rebecca Williams
14. Wigs, Corsets, Cosmetic, and Instagram: The Prosthetics of Crossplay
Minka Stoyanova
15. “MODEL TRIES CRAZY IU KPOP DIET”: Embodied K-Pop Fandoms and Fashionable Diets on YouTube
Anthony Tran
16. Underwear That’s Fun to Wear: Theorizing Fan Lingerie
Suzanne Scott
Contributors
 

Description

In recent years, geeks have become chic, and the fashion and beauty industries have responded to this trend with a plethora of fashion-forward merchandise aimed at the increasingly lucrative fan demographic. This mainstreaming of fan identity is reflected in the glut of pop culture T-shirts lining the aisles of big box retailers as well as the proliferation of fan-focused lifestyle brands and digital retailers over the past decade. While fashion and beauty have long been integrated into the media industry with tie-in lines, franchise products, and other forms of merchandise, there has been limited study of fans’ relationship to these items and industries.  

Sartorial Fandom shines a spotlight on the fashion and beauty cultures that undergird fandoms, considering the retailers, branded products, and fan-made objects that serve as forms of identity expression.  This collection is invested in the subcultural and mainstream expression of style and in the spaces where the two intersect. Fan culture is, in many respects, an optimal space to situate a study of style because fandom itself is often situated between the subcultural and the mainstream. Collectively, the chapters in this anthology explore how various axes of lived identity interact with a growing movement to consider fandom as a lifestyle category, ultimately contending that sartorial practices are central to fan expression but also indicative of the primacy of fandom in contemporary taste cultures.

Elizabeth Affuso is Academic Director of Intercollegiate Media Studies at The Claremont Colleges.

Suzanne Scott is Associate Professor in the Department of Radio-Television-Film at the University of Texas at Austin.

Sartorial Fandom reveals new threads of research in traditional fan studies topics like cosplay, while also contributing additional wrinkles to complicate—and develop—current lines of scholarship. This is an exciting new collection of voices that deepens our understanding of the
links between fashion, media, and fandom.”
—Paul Booth, DePaul University

- Paul Booth

“Bridging fashion and fan studies, Sartorial Fandom interrogates the rich intersection and offers critical contributions to both academic fields. Elizabeth Affuso and Suzanne Scott bring together an impressive array of scholars and perspectives in chapters that range from examinations of traditional fan products like Star Wars and Disney cosplay to fashion-forward work on Savage X Fenty, drop culture, and fan lingerie. It’s hard not to read the volume without finding deeper insights into popular culture and exciting avenues for future research. The book is sure to be well-used by students and researchers alike.”
—Myles Ethan Lascity, Southern Methodist University

- Myles Ethan Lascity

"Recommended."

- Choice, C. Hendrickson, emerita, Marlboro Institute at Emerson College