TY - JOUR
T1 - Fashioning ethnicities
T2 - The commercial spaces of multiculture
AU - Crang, Philip
AU - Dwyer, Claire
PY - 2002
Y1 - 2002
N2 - This article discusses the entanglement of commerce and culture in the production of ethnicized commodities. Drawing on a case study of fashion label Ghulam Sakina and its designer Liaqat Rasul, we explore how he engages with a notion of `multicultural' as both sociological, aesthetic and commercial. We argue that commodification is not something done to pre-existing ethnicities and ethnic subjects, but is a process through which ethnicities are reproduced and in which ethnic subjects actively engage with broader discourses and institutions. We conclude by arguing that commodity culture does not inevitably result in the production of superficial, thin and bland ethnic differentiations. Nor does it inevitably involve the appropriation of ethnic forms constructed as `authentic'. Rather, our case study suggests that commodity culture can mobilize varied `multicultural imaginaries'.
AB - This article discusses the entanglement of commerce and culture in the production of ethnicized commodities. Drawing on a case study of fashion label Ghulam Sakina and its designer Liaqat Rasul, we explore how he engages with a notion of `multicultural' as both sociological, aesthetic and commercial. We argue that commodification is not something done to pre-existing ethnicities and ethnic subjects, but is a process through which ethnicities are reproduced and in which ethnic subjects actively engage with broader discourses and institutions. We conclude by arguing that commodity culture does not inevitably result in the production of superficial, thin and bland ethnic differentiations. Nor does it inevitably involve the appropriation of ethnic forms constructed as `authentic'. Rather, our case study suggests that commodity culture can mobilize varied `multicultural imaginaries'.
U2 - 10.1177/14687968020020030701
DO - 10.1177/14687968020020030701
M3 - Article
SN - 1741-2706
VL - 2
SP - 410
EP - 430
JO - Ethnicities
JF - Ethnicities
IS - 3
ER -