Fashion, History, and Mediation

Dr. Jonathan Michael Square
squaj264@newschool.edu
Office Hours: By appointment only

Parsons School of Design
School of Art and Design History and Theory
66 West 12th Street, Room 410
Monday, 4:00am - 6:40am

Course Description

Fashion forms part of a society’s rich tapestry and can serve as an entry point into contemplating how marginalized and racialized communities understand themselves and their place in the world. "Fashion, History, and Mediation" will examine the role of fashion in challenging inequality through various forms of media and mediation. The course bridges key concepts in fashion studies with methodologies from sociology, anthropology, art history, and material culture. Students in this course will come away with a deeper understanding of the intersection of fashion, race, labor, and capitalism, and will critically address historical and contemporary social issues within the fashion system. The course seeks to help students understand how marginalized communities harness fashion to negotiate the complexities of power and visibility (and the lack thereof), proposing substantive solutions for a more just fashion system.

Learning Outcomes

By the successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Deepen their understanding of foundational theories and systemic issues regarding fashion, race, and inequality

2. 
Develop fluency in critical thinking and writing skills that address fashion, race and power in a cogent manner

3. Develop familiarity with methodologies used in the study of visual and material culture 


4. Recognize and problematize existing business practices and design strategies challenging the fashion system today

grade breakdown

Class presentation (in the last two of classes) 10%

Attendance & participation 20%

Fashion exhibition review 30%

10-page Final Paper 40%

Course Schedule

Week 1 – August 31: Introduction to the Course

Week 2 – September 14: Defining and redefining Fashion?

• Abby Lillethun, Linda Welters, and Joanne B. Eicher, “(Re)Defining Fashion,” Dress 38 (2012): 75-97.38 (2012): 75-97

• Jonathan Square, “Introduction,” in Negro Cloth: How Slavery Birthed the American Fashion Industry. (manuscript in process)

Week 3 – September 21: sex and suits

• Anne Hollander, Sex and Suits: The Evolution of Modern Dress (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994), 63-115.

Week 4 – September 28: Race, Masquerade, and the Fashioned Body

• Rhae Lynn Barnes, “Introduction: The Hidden History America Lives With,” in Darkology: Blackface and the American Way of Entertainment (New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2026), 1–30.

Week 5 – October 5: suitable

• Chloe Chapin, “The Suit and the State,” in Suitable: The Sartorial Revolution and the Fashioning of Modern Men (New York: Oxford University Press, 2026), 173–212.

Exhibition review due

Week 6 – October 12: superfine

• Virgil Abloh, “Insert Complicated Title Here.”

• Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (United States: Standard Publications, Incorporated, 2007).

Week 7 – October 19: slaves to fashion

• Monica Miller, “Crimes of Fashion: Dressing the Part from Slavery to Freedom,” In Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity (Durham: Duke University Press, 2009).

Week 8 – October 26: Workshop Day

Week 9 – NOVEMBER 2: Zoot suits

• Luis Alvarez, “Zoot Style and Body Politics,” in The Power of the Zoot: Youth Culture and Resistance during World War II (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008), 77–112.

Week 10 – November 9: marx’s coat

• Peter Stallybrass, “Marx’s Coat,” in Border Fetishisms: Material Objects in Unstable Spaces, ed. Patricia Spyer (New York: Routledge, 1998), 183–207.

Week 11 – November 16: plantation goods

• Seth Rockman, “Complaints and Compliance,” in Plantation Goods: A Material History of American Slavery (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2024), 319-346.

Week 12 – NOVEMBER 23: Ghetto Roots, American Dreams

• Nan Enstad, “Ladies of Labor: Fashion, Fiction, and Working Women’s Culture,” in Ladies of Labor, Girls of Adventure: Working Women, Popular Culture, and Labor Politics at the Turn of the Twentieth Century (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), 48–83.

• Howard Markel, “How the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire transformed labor laws and protected workers’ health,” pbs.org, March 31, 2021, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/how-the-triangle-shirtwaist-factory-fire-transformed-labor-laws-and-protected-workers-health

• The True Cost, film

Week 13 – November 30: Women in sportswear in the 1970s

Please bring a physical or digital family photo to today’s class.

• Alexis Romano, “1970s Fashion and Women: Finding the Everyday at the Intersection of Image, Archive and Oral History,” in American Fashion: Agency, Identity and Everyday Life, ed. Hazel Clark and Lauren Downing Peters (London and New York: Bloomsbury, forthcoming 2024).

Week 14 – December 7: Sparking a Fashion Revolution

In-class 15-minute presentations of the research for final papers

Week 15 – DECEMBER 14: Sparking a Fashion Revolution II

In-class 15-minute presentations of the research for final papers

Final paper due