This study investigates the potential for integrating Chinese historical costumes with modern fashion with particular reference to shuitianyi (水田衣), a historical dressing style of China. The shuitianyi was worn by ordinary people in the Ming and Qing dynasties (Ming: 1368-1644; Qing 1644-1911); made of patches, the composition of various colours and fabrics made this style distinct from the other Chinese costumes. However, this style has disappeared from Chinese dressing culture with little historical or material reference left. The investigations undertaken for this research into the cultural and social background of the shuitianyi have established a new and relatively comprehensive understanding of its history; further, the discovery of new visual references during the course of this study has offered a clearer depiction of this style of garmenThis study investigates the potential for integrating Chinese historical costumes with modern fashion with particular reference to shuitianyi (水田衣), a historical dressing style of China. The shuitianyi was worn by ordinary people in the Ming and Qing dynasties (Ming: 1368-1644; Qing 1644-1911); made of patches, the composition of various colours and fabrics made this style distinct from the other Chinese costumes. However, this style has disappeared from Chinese dressing culture with little historical or material reference left. The investigations undertaken for this research into the cultural and social background of the shuitianyi have established a new and relatively comprehensive understanding of its history; further, the discovery of new visual references during the course of this study has offered a clearer depiction of this style of garments. The discoveries and analyses undertaken by this research overthrow previous misapprehensions and errors about the origin, history and style of the shuitianyi. An investigation into the history and status of the Chinese qipao enabled a better understanding of Chinese dressing culture. Furthermore, the comparison of the qipao and the shuitianyi has resulted in a greater understanding of the disappearance of the shuitianyi. Based on the theoretical study, a series of practical works was produced, aiming to demonstrate the intended integration of historical reference through an embodied outcome. Taking inspiration from the shuitianyi, patchwork design became the central theme of a fashion collection, showing a new approach to integrating various materials and fabrics. Further, a three-dimensional effect was sought in the Chinese-inspired collection, as Chinese traditional clothing and patchwork appeared to be structurally flat. To demonstrate the new patchwork designs and technique, an initial work was made as design statement; it inspired the production of a ready-to-wear collection that integrated Chinese dress forms and other sources of inspiration such as Art Deco style, within a contemporary womenswear collection.ts. The discoveries and analyses undertaken by this research overthrow previous misapprehensions and errors about the origin, history and style of the shuitianyi. An investigation into the history and status of the Chinese qipao enabled a better understanding of Chinese dressing culture. Furthermore, the comparison of the qipao and the shuitianyi has resulted in a greater understanding of the disappearance of the shuitianyi. Based on the theoretical study, a series of practical works was produced, aiming to demonstrate the intended integration of historical reference through an embodied outcome. Taking inspiration from the shuitianyi, patchwork design became the central theme of a fashion collection, showing a new approach to integrating various materials and fabrics. Further, a three-dimensional effect was sought in the Chinese-inspired collection, as Chinese traditional clothing and patchwork appeared to be structurally flat. To demonstrate the new patchwork designs and technique, an initial work was made as design statement; it inspired the production of a ready-to-wear collection that integrated Chinese dress forms and other sources of inspiration such as Art Deco style, within a contemporary womenswear collection.

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This thesis concerns class-privileged young women in Lagos, Nigeria, who dress m a 'hyper-feminine style' characterized by the spectacular use and combination of elements such as cascading hair extensions, long acrylic nails, heavy make-up, false eyelashes and towering heels. Understanding gender as discursively and performatively constituted, and the practice of 'dressing up' as one of its technologies, the thesis explores what kinds of gendered subjectivities such women are constituting in and through their particular style. It is based on semi-structured qualitative interviews with 18 women aged between 18 and 35, and takes a discursive analytic approach to explore the subject positions that the women variously negotiate as they talk about their style and its requisite practices, considerations and meanings. Repertoires of individualized choice, pleasure, entitlement and empowerment run through the women's talk, while contrary notions and also experiences of their dress practice as normative, disciplined, laborious, physically risky and painful are downplayed and deflected. The research participants position themselves as knowing and skilled consumers of fashion and beauty, and proffer this as both an empowered and empowering feminine rationality. Asserting simultaneously black, Nigerian and cosmopolitan positionalities, they reject any suggestion of performing a racially or culturally inauthentic style of femininity. They name their fashion as 'girly' and themselves as 'girly-girls' but emphasize that these discursive positions signify neither feminine frivolity nor traditional domesticity but stylized freedom. Abstract: As such the thesis argues that the women see themselves as postfeminist subjects: already individually empowered, beyond gendered politics and power. The thesis supports this empirical contention by re-theorizing postfeminism as a classed and commodified transnational cultural sensibility. In its concern with the performative intersections of gender, race, class, consumption, locality and transnationality in the fashioning of contemporary African femininities, the thesis makes unique and critical contributions to feminist and African cultural studies.

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This research has aimed to establish and then explore, the relationship between fashion and the body. Both involve aspects of psychological and social awareness that apparently impact on the individual's understanding of the self, and any relationship between them seems to involve this self-awareness While such a relationship has generally been accepted it has not previously been formally established and it was for this reason that the research was undertaken The research was interdisciplinary involving the application of psychological concepts and knowledge to the experience of fashion and the body. Tbus, it combined fashion theory with that of the social pychology of the body. A qualitative approach utilising in-depth interviews and clothing diaries, was adopted. This involved female participants aged from 40 to 58. Research findings were analysed using the approach of interpretive revealed relationship that is ( innovate and the functional) that seemed to correspond with two aspects of the body( the ideal and the ought), and suggested two fashion processes The innovative process of fashion appears to relate to the ideal body( the body we aspire to), and is responsible for fashion change. The functional process of fashion appears to be primarily related to the ought body( the body we think we should have),and is responsible for the maintenance of fashion trends. In both cases the relationship between fashion and body seems to be mediated by clothing at the interface between clothing and the body, The driving force of both processes seems to be the psychological experience of self-discrepancy. Research resulted in the development of a conceptual model of the relationship that accounted for the processes involved in fashion change. ii

This practice-based thesis focuses on the Emirati burqa or ‘mask’, a form of face covering worn by the majority of Emirati women in the United Arab Emirates until the late 1960s that reveals the eyes but does not cover the hair or body. Framed by Daniel Miller and Aida Kanafani’s theories of material culture and embodiment that focus on dress as an intimate sensory object, this practice-based thesis is the first in-depth study of the Emirati burqa that engages with the histories and materiality of the burqa as an intimate object once made and worn by Emirati women. At the core of this thesis is women’s practice: the practices of women burqa makers, the diverse female practices of burqa wearing and my practice as a woman artist from the UAE. Through experiments with traditional craft materials, inscription methods, workshop initiatives, film, photography and installation, my engagement is with performing the material culture of the female burqa as a response to its disappearing practices and its previously little recorded history. The thesis first analyses the history of the burqa face covering in the Arabian peninsula through a specific focus on the written and visual accounts of mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth-century British travellers in Arabia. It then examines and records the material craft of Emirati burqa-making based upon interviews with burqa makers and textile producers and accompanying ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the UAE and India. This includes photographic documentation of the processes involved in the production of the burqa textile, a study of burqa manufacturing brands and packaging, and an analysis of the material construction of the burqa and how it is worn in the UAE. Based on interviews in the UAE, Bahrain and Qatar and a variety of visual and textual sources, the thesis identifies the different types of Emirati burqa in relation to age, status, and regional identities. It further shows that the Emirati burqa differs from those worn in the neighbouring Gulf States of Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and Saudi Arabia, and focuses on burqa wearing practices and associated uses of the burqa textile in the UAE. Engaging with these research findings, the culmination of the thesis is the body of art works exhibited in the 2014 London exhibition, ‘An Intimate Object’, that re-animates the burqa as a living object with its own history and new contemporary meanings. Focusing on the significance of the body and senses in knowledge production, the art practice shows the burqa has ‘a voice’ in a conversation that draws upon past traditions referencing protection and its value as a personal and precious object. The burqa speaks, its indigo residue bleeds as an active witness to its lost past. It also plays a part in rediscovery or keeping the past of this material object alive through contemporary art practice as an aesthetic and political strategy.

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Orientador: Pedro Paulo Abreu Funari / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciencias Humanas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-09T12:18:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Carlan_ClaudioUmpierre_D.pdf: 95461994 bytes, checksum: 6115f0ed8c3c47679be2915a0ca09fff (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / Resumo: A partir da análise das características físicas contidas nas moedas dos Imperadores Romanos do século IV, este trabalho propõe realizar um estudo da função da moeda, tanto sobre o ponto de vista material como pagamento das tropas e abastecimento do Império, como também do caráter simbólico: as representações dos govemantes e de sua política administrativa, utilizada com um agente legitimador do poder. Para isso realizamos uma série de identificações iconográficas, através das representações políticas, militares e religiosas existentes nas imagens monetárias do mesmo período. Para isso, além das fontes numismáticas, analisamos as evidências textuais e arqueológicas relativas a Antigüidade Tardia, isto é, da tetrarquia a divisão do Império no final do século IV, cuja característica fundamental é ascensão do cristianismo comoreligião oficial. As fontes aqui utilizadas para o trabalhado fazem parte do acervo existente no Museu Histórico Nacional / RJ. Possuindo o maior espólio de moedas da América Latina, importante coleçãoarqueológicabrasileira, ainda pouco explorada / Abstract: The paper begins aims at studying the Rome History just before Constantine ruled the Empire, considering that Constantine is considered as a direct heir of his four predecessors. The main sources is the coins issued by Diocletian and Constantine, both collections stored at the National Historical Museum at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. By discussing political issues relating to the Roman worId in the 3rd.c. AD and in the beginning of the 4th c. The paper emphasizes the importance of using a variety of historical sources, such as iconographic, archaeological, and art historical. Using iconographic sources to study a numismatic collection at the National Historical Museum, at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the paper aims at studying images as a source for propaganda aiming at justifying imperial rule / Doutorado / Historia Cultural / Doutor em História