Fashion and the Embodied Expression of Belief, Worldview, and Religion

Guest lecture by Reina Lewis, Emerita Professor of Cultural Studies at London College of Fashion, UAL.

Abstract

My current research project starts from the premise that whilst fashion has served belief around the world for centuries, the contemporary ‘Western’ globalised fashion industry continues to regard itself as default secular, relegating religion to the exotic domain of artistic ‘inspiration’. These industry conventions are reflected in scholarships, where research in religion had mainly neglected dress and fashion, and scholars had mostly neglected religion. Bridging this gap, I investigate fashion’s role in expressing how people see their beliefs and how fashion shapes the means through which this can be expressed.

My principal objective is to examine the diverse beliefs – religious, spiritual, secular, and philosophical – that influence individuals' fashion choices as consumers and their professional roles within fashion industries. I seek to illuminate how fashion industries (encompassing Western, mainstream, minority, religious, diaspora and indigenous contexts) feed into individual and collective communication of religion and belief. Working from the UK perspective with selected international and transnational comparators, my paper provides an overview of how the fashion industry is responding to demands to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion in the context of changing macro-political factors.

My expansive definition of the fashion infrastructure explores the organisational management of religion, belief and worldview, focusing on three case studies: the place of religion in fashion industry DEI initiatives; the push to decolonise teaching and curricula in fashion and arts education; and the impact on museum staff and audiences of fashion exhibits concerned with religion and belief.

Reina Lewis

Reina Lewis is Emerita Professor of Cultural Studies at London College of Fashion, UAL. Her books include: Fashioning the Modern Middle East: Gender, Body and Nation (ed. 2021 with Yasmin Nachabe Taan); Styling South Asian Youth Cultures: Fashion, Media, Society (ed. 2018 with Lipi Begum and Rohit K. Dasgupta); Muslim Fashion: Contemporary Style Cultures (2015); Modest Fashion: Styling Bodies, Mediating Faith, (ed. 2013); The Poetics and Politics of Place: Ottoman Istanbul and British Orientalism (ed. 2010 with Zeynep Inankur and Mary Roberts); Gender, Modernity and Liberty: Middle Eastern and Western Women’s Writings: A Critical Reader (ed. 2006 with Nancy Micklewright); Rethinking Orientalism: Women, Travel and the Ottoman Harem (2004); Feminist Postcolonial Theory: A Reader (ed. 2003 with Sara Mills); Gendering Orientalism: Race, Femininity and Representation (1996); and Outlooks: Lesbian and Gay Visual Cultures (ed.1996 with Peter Horne).

Reina was the consulting curator for the exhibition Contemporary Muslim Fashions at the Fine Art Museums of San Francisco in 2018.

Reina is a frequent media commentator. Recent press includes: Women’s Wear Daily, Vogue Arabia, the New York Times, Le Monde, the BBC, The Guardian, The Times, Businessoffashion.com, Fortune.com, the Economist, and Huffington Post.

Everyone is welcome to attend without registration.

The lecture will be followed by a reception.