Fashion’s Global Capitals

3 Credits · Level: Graduate

Twice a year the global fashion industry descends on New York, London, Milan, and Paris for seasonal fashion weeks, during which established and emerging designers present their latest collections in highly publicized runway shows. This class will introduce students to the history of these four major “fashion capitals” and consider how they each cultivated an international reputation as hubs of style, taste, and creativity. The class will then trouble this global hierarchy as it explores fashion cities around the world including Lagos, São Paulo, Istanbul, Tokyo, Delhi, and Shanghai, among others. Central to the course are themes of the Global South, Euro-American bias in fashion, global taste, creativity, and cultural capital.