Call for Papers

Culture Costume and Dress
Fashioning the Diaspora: Dress as a medium of cultural expression

Faculty of Arts, Design and Media, Birmingham City University
15 – 17 November 2023

Please note that this year’s conference will be online.

The Dress in Context Research Centre is pleased to announce its fourth international conference. This year’s theme will be the role of dress in expressing culture, and its manifestation in fashion, history, literature, art, and other fields.

Dress has always been used to express who we are. The way we present ourselves, and how we are perceived by others, is to a large extent, created by the clothes we wear. Clothing also reinforces our internal self-awareness, such that we create a persona that allows us to navigate our social and psychological milieu. It is little wonder then that our sense of group awareness is also underpinned by the clothes we wear. Whether professionally, socially, or culturally, we gain a sense of belonging by dressing in a similar way to those we relate to (Johnson et al., 2014). On a cultural level, this belonging aspect has political and societal implications that are worth exploring in some detail, and it is this that will be the focus of this year’s conference.

Culturally, the clothes we wear establish our affiliations, whether our ethnicity, our nationality, or in many cases, our religion: sometimes all three, since these identities are intertwined. Generally, we are born into a certain nation or religious group, and the form of dress becomes habitual; individuals are only aware of how they differ in comparison with others. Thus, the sari, the shalwar kameez, the abaya, the kanga and dashiki, may all appear exotic to a westerner, but seem perfectly normal to those who wear them. And let us not forget that western clothes are also group signifiers. Not only does European dress denote a certain ethnicity, but countries also tend to have characteristic dress; fashion sites on social media abound with articles on French, Scandinavian or American style, for example.

For individuals, wearing the customary clothing of their homeland promotes a sense of identification, and becomes an integral part of their psyche. So much so, that when they are transposed to new contexts, whether through trade, migration, or other means, there is a tension between preserving their traditional dress and adapting it to new conditions (Safdar et al., 2020). In the nineteen fifties, for example, immigrants coming to the UK from hot countries, often continued to wear the clothes that suited the climate in which those clothes were the norm rather than the one they inhabited. In this way, as the incomers begin to adapt their dress to conform to the norms of their new home, so too do aspects of their diasporic dress percolate through to influence that country’s style and fashions.

Sadly, the very qualities that bolster identity and offer a sense of security, can also generate a negative response. The corollary of our desire for identification is the perceived pressure to conform, even when no external pressure has been exerted (Asch, 1951, Smith, 1998). In The island of Missing Trees, Meryem, who has grown up in Cyprus wearing the black modest clothing that predominates in her culture, in her fifties comes to the UK with a suitcase full of the brightly coloured, slightly racy clothes that she has always longed to wear. Such is the hold of her upbringing, however, that they are never taken from the suitcase (Shafak, 2021). In a similar way, young women who have grown up in traditional Middle Eastern societies can feel uncomfortable discarding the modest dress they have grown up with and adopting western dress (Boultwood and Costa, 2019).

That influence is so compelling that it is often exploited within the society by those seeking power. An example is the niqab, an all-enveloping garment, usually black, that covers the face, and is an extreme version of the hijab. Traditionally, this was worn by Muslim women in a small area of Saudi Arabia, but since the resurgence of Islam in the late twentieth century, its use has become widespread across the Middle East and beyond. While not legally compulsory, in more extreme societies the pressure to wear it has increasingly resulted in intimidation, even violence, against women. A similar situation arose in seventeenth century England under the Parliamentarians, when modest dress was enforced throughout the country. One of the interesting aspects of such decrees, of course, is that they are usually directed towards women.

Dress, because of its cultural significance, will always provide a locus of control. No more so than when one cultural regime seeks power over another. The history of conquest and colonialism is littered with such instances. The banning of highland dress in eighteen century Scotland was designed to undermine the Scottish nationalism embodied in it. The forceable removal of the veil for women imposed by the French colonial government in the early twentieth century was similarly designed to undermine cultural mores, and thus to compound French power (McDougall, 2017). While possibly not arising from the same cause, the recent banning of the hijab in many European countries has had a similar effect.

In our present climate, as migration grows, and diasporas disperse across the globe, we are seeing another aspect of this interplay. As communities spread, aspects of their dress become integrated into other societies, and influence their fashions. While elements of dress from various diasporas can be discerned in fashionable clothes, the growth of modest fashion is one of the most significant trends of recent years, and its influence has been seen in the recent collections of designers such as Chanel, Dior, and Balenciaga. Fashion loves to mine other traditions, whether historically or geographically, for inspiration. This can bring new perspectives to their creativity. The problem lies when cultural appreciation becomes cultural appropriation, an issue that has become a source of much discord recently. The Gucci turban, for example, was withdrawn from retail, because of the outrage from Sikhs at what was deemed cultural insensitivity.

Dress then can be both socially cohesive and politically divisive. By bringing together a range of disciplines and approaches, the conference will explore its cultural significance We invite submissions from any discipline for academic papers or posters that address the conference theme. Topics include, but are not restricted to:

The role of dress in collective identity
Dress as a signifier of ethnicity
The role of dress in supporting a diaspora
National costume
The role of dress in social control
Colonialism and its effect on traditional dress
The influence of diasporic fashion
Cultural appropriation vs cultural appreciation

ASCH, S. E. 1951. Effects of Group Pressure on the Modification and Distortion of Judgments. In: GUETZKNOW, H. (ed.) Leadership and Men. Pittsburgh: Carnegie Press.

BOULTWOOD, A. & COSTA, S. Fashion, Dress and Identity in Muslim Women. In: BOULTWOOD, A., ed. Culture Costume and Dress: Regarding fashionable society, 5-7 June 2019 2019 Birmingham. Dress in Context Publishing.

JOHNSON, K., LENNON, S. J. & RUDD, N. 2014. Dress, body and self: research in the social psychology of dress. Fashion and Textiles, 1.

MCDOUGALL, J. 2017. The Impossible Republic: The Reconquest of Algeria and the Decolonization of France, 1945–1962. Journal of Modern History, 89, 772-811.

SAFDAR, S., GOH, K. & CHOUBAK, M. C., 36–47. 2020. Clothing, identity, and acculturation: The significance of immigrants’ clothing choices. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science / Revue canadienne des sciences du comportement, 52, 11.

SHAFAK, E. 2021. The Island of Missing Trees, Penguin.

SMITH, P. B., & BOND, M. H. (1993). SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY ACROSS CULTURES: ANALYSIS AND PERSPECTIVES. HEMEL HEMPSTEAD: HARVESTER WHEATSHEAF. 1998. Social Psychology Across Cultures: Analysis and perspectives, Pearson.