Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2999-01-01

Diss. Stockholm : Stockholms universitet, 2005.

This diploma thesis deals with the critical mapping of British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood with a focus on the relationship between her activist actions and branding. The goal of this thesis is to analyse discourse practice and uncover the meaning behind creating Westwood's media image. Westwood is actively involved in political, social and environmental matters. She's known for her critical stance towards the establishment, consumer society as well as economic system. She stood at the beginning of punk and helped to define its visual identity. She belongs amongst known sustainable fashion advocates which reflects her famous quote 'buy less, choose well, make it last'. On the other hand, she built a global fashion brand with annual turnover of more than 40.7 million pounds in 2017 and she herself became the subject of criticism because of this contradiction towards her own actions. Some critics pointed out that she urges the public to consume less but owns a global network of stores under her name at the same time. From a methodological point of view the thesis is based on qualitative research, specifically on critical discourse analysis whose mechanisms help to uncover power relationships and put this issue into a broader context.

Both the fashion magazine and the fashion exhibition are powerful and authoritative sites for the representation, interpretation, and construction of fashion. Despite various intersections between the two, their relationship has remained relatively unstudied. This thesis aims to reveal and problematize the relationship between leading institutions in the United Kingdom: British Vogue and the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). An analysis of British Vogue’s content and the V&A’s fashion exhibitions of Vivienne Westwood: 34 Years in Fashion (2004) and Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty (2015) is employed in order to unpack how these institutions are involved in defining and institutionalizing what fashion is in a national context. This institutional analysis considers the wider implications of the conception of British fashion produced by these institutions in regard to class, race, and gender, as Great British fashion is dependent on a system of representations that reveals hierarchies and exclusions.

The following thesis investigates the British punk movement of the mid-late seventies and suggests that, by performing acts of imaginative re-identification, we may gain greater insights into both the phenomenon of punk and aspects of Jesus’ life, ministry, and teaching despite their axiomatic and sometimes problematic differences. To do this we explore the power of the sartorial creations that the movement adopted and the way in which they conveyed an oppositional protest message and stance. We explore punk graphics and the way in which they could offer a targeted critique of the nation. We look at punk performances and how they confrontationally engaged with their audiences and what they wanted to elicit in return. We reflect on women in punk, punk in Northern Ireland and the relationship between punk and the black community and the degree to which punk exhibited a counter-cultural attitude to relationships. Concluding our look at punk we investigate how society, the authorities and commerce reacted to the movement, before investigating punk as a trans-historical essence. Having explored punk and established imaginative connections we then revisit aspects of Jesus’ life and consider him as a subversive who negated some of the national symbols of Israel, collided with Jewish national authority and reversed many of the nation’s perspectives. We look at the more confrontational nature of Jesus, his use of symbolic physical statements and his interaction with women, teaching on enemies and the way he related to the outcast. We then conclude by showing the degree to which the present-day church has been absorbed into the surrounding culture and explore two instances in post-war theology where there has been a recovery of the more seditious pattern within Jesus’ life before seeing whether there is anything that the church may learn from imaginatively identifying with punk.

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