This book takes an in-depth look at the integration of fashion and philosophy. It challenges the deeply rooted prejudice or misconception that fashion is a field limited to body-oriented and appearance-related themes and practices. It also reveals that fashion is intermeshed with distinctively modern issues that belong to the realm of the mind as well as the body. In doing so, it refashions philosophy and philosophizes fashion, which ultimately amount to the same thing. The book argues that while the philosophization of fashion can give a clearer understanding of some esoteric areas of philosophy and fashion's close connection to modern societies and politics, it also shows that philosophy can assist in redeeming fashion from the objective, bodily world, positioning it as an indispensable part of the humanities. This is because fashion manifests critical aspects of human culture in our time, and is an expression of the zeitgeist, which is interwoven with the unfolding of history. This book will be highly relevant to students and researchers in fashion studies who are looking for the theoretical underpinnings and insights for their own work. It will also be of keen interest to scholars in the field of philosophy who are seeking to apply philosophical concepts to both everyday life and our empirical world.

Offers philosophers new ways of examining philosophical questions through the medium of fashion Applies concepts from the German tradition of dialectical philosophy to a greater understanding of fashion Examines the attributes of modernity in the context of philosophy, providing theories and insights that can spark further fashion research

Autorentext
Eun Jung Kang is an adjunct professor at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, South Korea. She earned her PhD at Cornell University in 2012, her MA from New York University in 2005, and her BA from Sungkyunkwan University in 1997. Her MA thesis examined the relationship between art, design, and popular culture from the 1890s to the 1920s in the US, while her PhD dissertation delved into fashion through the lens of critical theory, political theory, and modern social theory. Her research interests are interdisciplinary, and they touch upon various fields of study, such as art, design, cultural studies, sociology, philosophy, and visual culture. She has received various fellowships, grants, awards and honors for her research, and has published several articles on her areas of research. She has also served as a referee for Theory, Culture & Society.

Inhalt
1 Introduction.- 1.1 Why Should Philosophy Matter to Fashion.- 1.2 Why Does Fashion Matter to Philosophy.- 2 What Immanuel Kant Would Say about Fashion: Metaphysics of Pursuit of the Self by Way of Fashion.- 3 Fashion and Freedom: An Adornian Critique.- 4 In Search of Unintentional Truth: From Experience ( Erfahrung ) through Dialectics to Fashion.- 5 The Dialectical Image: The Redemption of Fashion.- 6 Universal Consciousness, Experience ( Erfahrung ), and Fashion.- 7 Fashion as A Utopian Impulse: The Inversion of Political Economy via the Consumption of Fashion.- 8 The Dialectical Sublation by the Consumption of Fashion.- 9 Fashion History in Light of the Philosophy of History.