Local fashion, global imagination: Agency, identity, and aspiration in the diasporic Hmong community

Abstract

Dress has been used as a visual avowal of social status, personality, personal taste, identity, and philosophy throughout history. This article aims to assess the changing dress practices and understand the meaning of ethnic dress in the diasporic community in a super-connected era. This article examines the cultural–historical contexts that contribute to dress practices at the macro level and individuals’ perceptions at the micro level. This article demonstrates how the Hmong experience can contribute to the knowledge of dress as a vehicle of agency, identity, and aspiration in fashion and material culture studies. In doing so, this article provides new insights into a growing area of research by exploring the emotionality of materials in terms of how imagination and aspiration of ethnicity are inscribed in and ascribed to dress and clothing in diasporic groups.