Decolonizing fashion [studies] as process

Abstract

In this Special Issue, we explore decolonizing fashion studies not as a destination but as non-linear process, ever revised, re-evaluated, revisited and relived. Situated within a space of self-questioning, the authors in this Special Issue embrace unresolved contradictions and unresolvable paradoxes inherent to the very being of fashion. They are participants, aware that there is no pure pre-colonial space to return to, no ‘authentic’ pre-colonial dress to resuscitate, accept the multiple means to liberation that emerge through layered/interconnected/tangled histories. In pieces about India, Nigeria, Senegal, Argentina, the United Kingdom and the United States, contributors demonstrate that oftentimes decolonial efforts reinscribe the very power relations they seek to dismantle as a seemingly inescapable condition of capitalist modernity. Yet these conflicted efforts make valuable contributions to social justice. Turning these problems into our theme, we see incompleteness as a path forward rather than an impasse. This introductory essay examines the unanswerable questions that ‘process’ or ‘being in process’ creates. Reflecting critically on the processes of academic publishing as well, we explore giving equal weight to unconventional, open-ended and situated analysis, as well as performative modes of storytelling, illustration and videography, as a strategy toward a future path in fashion studies.