THREAD for THOUGHT

How fashion intersects politics, economics, gender, race & pop culture.

Posts tagged "Music"
"Punk Style:" An Interview with Monica Sklar

“Punk Style:” An Interview with Monica Sklar

The following interview is with my former colleague from Worn Through, the delightful and insightful Monica Sklar. Monica’s book Punk Style (Bloomsbury) was recently released; I asked her a few questions about this fun and important topic in fashion’s social history. What, if any, is your personal connection to punk? I’ve been associated with the...
Book Review: Boom! A Baby Boomer Memoir

Book Review: Boom! A Baby Boomer Memoir

Boom! A Baby Boomer Memoir, 1947-2022 by Ted Polhemus Lulu.com (January 2012) An anthropologist by degree, Ted Polhemus has written numerous books on style and/or subculture including Streetstyle (2010), Style Surfing: What to Wear in the 3rd Millennium (1996), The Body As a Medium of Expression (1975), Social Aspects of the Human Body (1978), among...
Flamenco Fashion!

Flamenco Fashion!

I have recently become addicted (as in, I watch it every couple of days. Perhaps on repeat.) to Anna Calvi’s simple but mesmerizing video Blackout: Though this particular video spends much time grazing Ms. Calvi’s chiseled jawline and lingering on her sensuous, down-turned red mouth (all of which I heartily approve of!), you unfortunately don’t...
Symposium Recap: Authenticity in Yale's "Urban Catwalk"

Symposium Recap: Authenticity in Yale’s “Urban Catwalk”

It was excitement and ultimate delight that I attended (and presented at) Yale’s “The Urban Catwalk” conference this past weekend. Though ostensibly the theme was street fashion, as with most conferences, this topic was expounded upon by a wide range of scholars from vastly different fields (performance studies, French history, literature, communications, etc.). More even...
Political Irony in Surrealist Fashion

Political Irony in Surrealist Fashion

I’m gearing up to present at CUNY’s upcoming interdisciplinary conference “Jesters and Gestures: Irony at a Crossroads” (February 24 – 25), and as I was brainstorming what I might be able to bring to the table, Surrealist fashion just screamed at me. Here’s a teaser of what I’ll be speaking on: Irony is typically associated...
Janelle Monae, Style Icon and Fashion Industry Commentator

Janelle Monae, Style Icon and Fashion Industry Commentator

A friend of mine sent me a link to Janelle Monáe’s “Tightrope” video earlier this summer, and I have been obsessed with the dame ever since (I give you permission to play it when you want to cheer yourself up, and/or have an impromptu dance party, as I do). Not only are her pipes amazing...
Men's "Feminine" Styles

Men’s “Feminine” Styles

I recently gave a lecture on cross-dressing to a terrific sociology class at FIT, and I had such ridiculous fun (and stress!) researching it that I thought I’d share with the blogosphere to spread the wealth. You don’t get the pleasure of my witty repartee, but you do get a decent, if slightly inferior, substitute....
Anatomical Fashion & Lady Gaga

Anatomical Fashion & Lady Gaga

As friends and family already know, I love me some anatomical charts, grotesque dissections of the intricate layers of the human body, old-timey skeletons and medical charts of muscle groups and the nervous system, etc. It appeals to my love of dissection in general, I think: peeling away layers of a body — or a...
Who Inspired Michael Jackson's Fashion?

Who Inspired Michael Jackson’s Fashion?

In the wake of Michael Jackson’s recent sudden death, there has been a predictable spike in pictures, radio and videos runs, articles and blog posts about the star. We often have the tendency to think of style icons as Athena: “born,” emerging from Zeus’s head swathed in what was to be her trademark ensemble of...
Art Deco Fashion & Social Commentary

Art Deco Fashion & Social Commentary

Yesterday I attended a lecture at the New York Public Library accompanying their current exhibit “Art Deco Design: Rhythm and Verve.”  There was another lecture on art deco architecture that I attended a few weeks ago, but this one– “Fashions of the Art Deco Era”– was tailored for me.  Paula Baxter, curator of the exhibit...