Fashions - Synne Skjulstad - English Book

Beskrivelse

Fashions thematises alternative approaches to fashion against the backdrop of a world in crisis. The book presents the work of independent and artistically driven Norwegian fashion creators as cultural expressions that straddle the line between art and industry. It challenges our very understanding of fashion as a phenomenon, opening up a discussion about expanding the boundaries of our comprehension of fashion and the systems within which it operates.

The book provides an in-depth presentation of the work of contemporary Norwegian independent fashion designers, situating it within a broader discussion of fashion. It highlights the presence of diverse voices, systems, artistic projects, and success criteria within the Norwegian fashion scene, inviting us to reconsider what fashion is and what it has the capacity to be.

Fashions takes a broad approach to fashion, exploring it within alternative or parallel systems, timelines, and diverse frameworks for production and dissemination, including digital platforms. By combining academic research, essays, descriptions, and photography in book format, Fashions problematizes our understanding of fashion. It showcases work that comments on and attempts to influence its own context. The book elevates Norwegian fashion practices that exist outside the dominant understanding of fashion, where fashion is often synonymous with the "fashion industry."

By highlighting and contextualizing "narrow" expressions of contemporary Norwegian fashion as exemplified by the work of a number of artistically leading Norwegian actors in the fashion field, the book treats these as cultural expressions with their own artistic value rather than as products. Through presentations of the work of Norwegian fashion designers, all of which have been acquired by the National Museum, the book demonstrates that there is a rich Norwegian fashion scene, but one that often goes unnoticed outside the field's inner circles. In the book, a selection from this artistic practice field in fashion is gathered and presented and placed in academic discussions about our fundamental understanding of fashion.

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