Peer Reviewed Articles by Harriette Richards
Continuum, 2021
For fashion, which is connected so intimately to our bodies, senses, emotions, and memories, valu... more For fashion, which is connected so intimately to our bodies, senses, emotions, and memories, value is more than a matter of cost. In order to illustrate the true value of fashion ‘radical transparency’ is framed as a tool through which brands can counter supply chain opacity and tell stories about the production of their garments. However, models of transparency often conceal more than they reveal. This article unpacks the concept of ‘radical transparency’ by exploring the differing approaches taken by three fashion brands: two large international brands and one boutique Australian label. It asks: how might radical transparency contribute to rethinking fashion value? By critically analysing the capacity for fashion businesses to communicate complex details of their supply chains to consumers who may suggest they want such information yet are also frequently overwhelmed by it, this article demonstrates the potential as well as the limits of transparency. It argues that while the degree to which models of transparency are ‘radical’ varies significantly, such methods of disclosure nevertheless introduce an important sense of openness to an industry otherwise defined by dislocated and difficult to trace modes of production.
Continuum, 2021
This industry dialogue, facilitated by Harriette Richards, co-founder of the Critical Fashion Stu... more This industry dialogue, facilitated by Harriette Richards, co-founder of the Critical Fashion Studies research group at the University of Melbourne, is an edited version of an industry panel discussion that took place during the International Critical Fashion Studies conference at the University of Melbourne in February 2020. The panellists, Yatu Widders Hunt, Courtney Holm and Teslin Doud, were asked to reflect on how they approach cultural and material sustainability, think about ethics and responsibility, and navigate the complexity of the often competing or contradictory demands inherent in attempting to run profitable, sustainable businesses whilst remaining true to ethical convictions and commitments to Country and community. In addition to the original conversation, this dialogue also includes reflections from the panellists on how the global Covid-19 pandemic affected their lives and work and how they are sustaining hope in the face of crisis. We would like to acknowledge that this conversation occurred on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation and we would like to extend our respects to Wurundjeri Elders past and present. In sharing this event, we hope to continue the tradition of gathering together for the purposes of renewal, knowledge-sharing and celebration.
Critical Studies in Fashion & Beauty, 2021
Familiar narratives of fashion history in Aotearoa New Zealand recount the successes of P keh (Ne... more Familiar narratives of fashion history in Aotearoa New Zealand recount the successes of P keh (New Zealand European) designers who have forged a distinctive fashion industry at the edge of the world. This narrative overlooks the history of M ori fashion cultures, including the role of 'style activism' enacted by political figures such as Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan and collectives such as the Pacific Sisters who advanced the status of M ori and Pasifika design in the twentieth century. It also ignores the changing nature of the New Zealand fashion industry today. One of the most significant recent initiatives to alter perceptions of fashion in Aotearoa New Zealand has been Miromoda, the Indigenous M ori Fashion Apparel Board (IMFAB), established in 2008. By championing the work of M ori fashion designers and prioritizing the values of te ao M ori (the M ori world-view), Miromoda is successfully contributing to the 'decolonization' of the New Zealand fashion industry. This article foregrounds practices of cultural Harriette Richards 132 Critical Studies in Fashion & Beauty collectivity, including that of style activists such as Tirikatene-Sullivan and the Pacific Sisters, and M ori fashion designers such as Kiri Nathan, Tessa Lont (Lontessa) and Bobby Campbell Luke (Campbell Luke), to explore the expansion of a more affirmative fashion future in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Cultural Studies, 2021
The Covid-19 pandemic precipitated an ‘existential crisis’ in the global fashion industry. The ef... more The Covid-19 pandemic precipitated an ‘existential crisis’ in the global fashion industry. The effects of the crisis on the retail sector resulted in many brands deferring or cancelling orders from supplier factories without paying workers, which had an instant and calamitous impact on the lives of garment workers in the global South. While activist organizations were quick to launch campaigns demanding that fashion brands #PayUp and take responsibility for their producers, these calls seemed futile in the face of fashion supply chains that have long been structured in ways that absolve brands of responsibility. The stories of worker exploitation and abuse in the garment industry that emerged during the pandemic were not discussed as effects of global capitalism, but rather were recast as evidence of a world suddenly in ‘crisis.’ In this article, we reflect on how the language of ‘crisis’ adopted in the early months of the pandemic produced particular modes and instruments of (ir)responsibility. We present an analysis of the effects of the pandemic on the global fashion industry, as well as the #PayUp and #WeWearAustralian campaigns, and argue that the exceptionalism underpinning the crisis discourse has both diffused and narrowed responsibility for garment worker exploitation, reiterating the very racialised inequalities that allow such exploitation to occur in the first place.
Gender, Work and Organization, 2021
This article considers how entrepreneurs’ fashion themselves as founders. Based on ethnographic r... more This article considers how entrepreneurs’ fashion themselves as founders. Based on ethnographic research conducted in Australia, we discuss whether the informal dress codes of the startup world neutralize gender differences. Our findings suggest that informal dress codes reinforce the normative positionality of men as archetypal entrepreneurial actors. They re-inscribe gendered hierarchies that affect the everyday entrepreneurial experience, and extend distinctly different allowances for nonconformity and unconventionality to men and women. Founders attempt to inhabit these gendered inequalities, performing a kind of aesthetic labor that mobilizes their appearances to play into as well as counter the gendered expectations of the ecosystem and extract value from their personal and professional fashioning.
Journal of Business Anthropology, 2020
In the contemporary neoliberal university, practice-based learning is increasingly necessary as a... more In the contemporary neoliberal university, practice-based learning is increasingly necessary as a means to foster dynamic thinking and bolster student employability. However, for students who feel like customers, this type of 'messy' practical experience is difficult to reconcile with their expectations and anxieties about the future. Students who embrace the 'customer' education approach expect their learning to be packaged in a manner that practice-based programs are ill-equipped to provide. Based on our qualitative observations teaching a collaborative design anthropology subject at the University of Melbourne, we unpack the various ironies and disconnections between theory and practice around practice-based learning. While experimental, practice-based courses such as ours entail multiple challenges, they are nevertheless worthwhile and necessary, not only for the continued evolution of anthropology but also for our students.
Antipodes: The Global Journal of Australian/New Zealand Literature, 2017
Journal of Fashion, Style & Popular Culture , Mar 2017
In Subculture: The Meaning of Style ([1979] 1988), Dick Hebdige noted that 'somewhere between Tre... more In Subculture: The Meaning of Style ([1979] 1988), Dick Hebdige noted that 'somewhere between Trenchtown and Ladbroke Grove the cult of Rastafari had become a " style " : an expressive combination of " locks, " of khaki camouflage and " weed " '. For cultures of resistance such as Rastafari, aesthetic determinants are more than simple visually identifying features. Rather, these elements are the foundation of unity, a shared aesthetic that points to a shared world-view, a shared consciousness or livity. However, in the processes of cultural appropriation, the significance of such aesthetic qualities are often entirely re-determined. This article considers the cultural appropriation of Rastafari in the context of Aotearoa New Zealand in order to reflect upon the intricate ways in which the aesthetic elements of culture play into the processes of appropriation. In so doing, this article illustrates the contradictions and ambiguities involved in processes of cultural appropriation and suggests that such processes be considered in relation to their contextual adoption, rather than by way of simple reductionist binaries.
Australasian Journal of Popular Culture, Nov 2016
Clothes have a significant presence in literature, in terms of both the construction and the reco... more Clothes have a significant presence in literature, in terms of both the construction and the reconstruction of a historical moment and its literary representations. Of particular interest in this article is the role of clothes and sartorial fashion in the aesthetics of such historical moments, and how the literary representation of dress contributes to the production of distinctive national aesthetics in the antipodes – New Zealand and Australia. In particular, this article considers the use of light and dark in the dress represented in two contrasting texts, in order to explore the ways in which fashion functions in the writing of melancholia. The aesthetics of melancholia are determined by both light and dark, not simply by darkness. It is the contrast between the two that produces the sense of unease and loss that engenders the melancholy aesthetic. In considering the use of light and dark in the sartorial aesthetics of two antipodean literary texts it is possible to reflect upon the particu- larities of sartorial aesthetic modes in order to open up questions concerning the role of literary fashion in the construction of national aesthetic identity.
Forum: Journal of Culture and the Arts, Dec 2015
This article presents an exploration of the division, or lack of division, between the private an... more This article presents an exploration of the division, or lack of division, between the private and the public in relation to online fashion personalities. In the contemporary fashion world, where technology prevails, any girl-next-door can become a recognised fashion ‘personality’, seemingly qualified to present her private thoughts to a public apparently hungry to hear them. In discussing this assumption, this article examines how conceptions of private and public fit within the realm of the fashion spectacle, with particular reference to Instagram, and how the process of fashioning a self-brand is enacted within this sharing, attention economy.
Book chapters by Harriette Richards
Rethinking Fashion Globalization
Encyclopedia entry by Harriette Richards
Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, 2019
The early 1980s were a boom time in the history of New Zealand filmmaking and since the late 1990... more The early 1980s were a boom time in the history of New Zealand filmmaking and since the late 1990s the so called “Jackson effect” (referring to the influence of director Peter Jackson on the reputation of the New Zealand film industry) has bought New Zealand cinema into the mainstream. The 1980s also witnessed the emergence of a group of New Zealand fashion designers who, in the late 1990s, came to international attention and prominence. With the expansion and governmental promotion of both the film and fashion industries, cinematic and sartorial representations of the nation have played an important role in shaping perceptions of New Zealand cultural identity. Internationally recognized films such as The Piano (1993), Once Were Warriors (1994), Lord of the Rings (2001, 2002, 2003), Whale Rider (2003), Boy (2010), and Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016), and work by fashion designers such as Elisabeth Findlay at Zambesi, Margi Robertson at Nom*d, Karen Walker, and Kate Sylvester have been instrumental in this process, informing understandings of Aotearoa New Zealand as simultaneously dark and moody—even gothic or melancholic—and witty and humorous. New Zealand film and fashion since the 1980s has been threaded with the symbolism of a multifaceted population and history, representative of the myths and stories of Māori and Pākehā, as well as Pasifika and immigrant communities. Debates around the decolonizing of New Zealand fashion and film are of particular contemporary significance as both fashion and film in Aotearoa New Zealand continue to evolve in the twenty-first century.
Conference Presentations by Harriette Richards
CUI 2021 - 3rd Conference on Conversational User Interfaces, 2021
Interactions with intelligent systems have become common in domestic and professional life. Howev... more Interactions with intelligent systems have become common in domestic and professional life. However, little is known about how pilots, who already work in a highly automated environment, envisage using intelligent systems in their work environment. This preliminary analysis investigates pilots' needs and wants for digital flight assistants (DFAs) through an interview study. We show that the adoption of DFAs may be hindered by pre-existing concerns, such as inadequate automatic speech recognition, linked to past experiences with digital assistants. Furthermore, we identify important contextual and environmental factors that will need to be accounted for in the design of DFAs such as "cross cockpit" relationships, noisy environments, or pilot's cognitive workload. CCS CONCEPTS • Hardware → Emerging interfaces; • Human-centered computing → Natural language interfaces.
Book and Exhibition Reviews by Harriette Richards
Fashion, Style & Popular Culture, 2018
Media International Australia, May 2017
Allegra Lab, Feb 16, 2017
http://allegralaboratory.net/review-sex-and-unisex-fashion-feminism-and-the-sexual-revolution
Media International Australia, May 2016
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Peer Reviewed Articles by Harriette Richards
Book chapters by Harriette Richards
Encyclopedia entry by Harriette Richards
Conference Presentations by Harriette Richards
Book and Exhibition Reviews by Harriette Richards
It is, as Svetlana Boym put it in The Future of Nostalgia, “a romance with one’s own fantasy”.
Nostalgia is central to fashion. Every season, the fashion industry reaches into the archives with cyclical predictability, echoing historical trends and stimulating nostalgic feelings through marketing that makes the consumer “miss things that never were”. At the same time, fashion reflects present culture, mirroring the social imagining of the moment.
One recent trend to cycle through this system – and stick – are “mom jeans”.
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Much of the commentary on ethical and sustainable fashion focuses on how to make people ‘better’ shoppers. The aim is not only to ‘look good,’ but to ‘do good’ and to ‘feel good’ as a result of how and what we buy.
Apps like Good On You and Shop Ethical! provide information for consumers wanting to make more ethical and sustainable consumption choices, and online marketplaces like Well Made Clothes, Thread Harvest, and eco.mono provide destinations where people can shop.
While these are welcome antidotes to fast fashion online retailers like Asos or The Iconic, they nevertheless reproduce the same forms of desire-production that keep us consuming...
After the bikini was advertised during TV episodes of the UK’s Love Island, the company struggled to keep up with customer demand. The bikini sold out within 45 minutes of being restocked.
The marketing stunt proved effective, catapulting sales for the fashion business.
At the same time, British MPs rejected the proposed ‘fast fashion’ tax, aimed at charging fashion producers £1 per garment and using the funds raised to improve clothing collection and recycling.
Drawing attention to the throw-away nature of consumer relationships to fashion, many commentators were prompted to question the true human and environmental cost of a £1 bikini...