Fashion as Technology

The course explores the interplay between fashion, subjectivity and technology, tracing a genealogy of clothing and adornment as a fundamental tool for gendering and racializing subjects – from analog prosthetics to the Click-and-Buy apps of today, from tattooing to the burkini. Central to the course will be the status of the material body (along with its cosmetic and pharmacological appendages and enhancements) in an increasingly digital world. We will gain critical literacy in the history of fashion and luxury, assessing the role of dress in fabricating sexual difference and holding it into place, as well as fashion’s potential for subversion.