Global Denim Project

[soepom]

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/global-denim-project/

For an academic approach to a subject you love best

"The intention behind the global denim project is to provide a meeting place for anyone from any discipline who wants to carry out academic research on the topic of denim. We hope to provide on this site individual web-pages for each of these projects so that anyone carrying out denim research can describe it and update it ith news of its progress. Already we have heard about quite a few either current or potential projects some of which we list here."

Perhaps we could submit a link to our dirty dozen +1 thread?

[tweeds]

hmmmmmm....

This study will focus on two aspects of Japanese denim which both explore how high-fashion jeans are created from, in one case, second-hand jeans, and in the other, the revival of traditional dying and weaving techniques. In doing so it will look at how indigo denim is a material that is subject to purposeful destruction and defacement, as well as being the object of intense care and consideration in its manufacture. In this sense, denim is like a blank canvas, (despite being predominantly indigo coloured) and I will discuss how jeans further act as a universal backdrop to the creation of an entire outfit. I will carry out this fieldwork during 2008 in Japan, where I will be affiliated with Sophia University, with support from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

My anthropology PhD fieldwork centred around a youth fashion scene in Tokyo characterized by creativity, individuality and influences from both street and high-fashion. Customization of garments by individuals within the scene, whether consumers or producers (such as shop staff) was an important practice and such ‘re-made’ items were frequently combined with avant-garde designer brands and unmodified second-hand clothes to achieve an overall ‘balanced’ outfit. Denim was one of the most often customized materials, whether by ripping, painting, sticking, sewing, cutting, studding or by any other technique. One of the reasons for this was the widespread availability of second-hand denim at low prices, often imported from America. The resilience of denim as a material meant that jeans do not often wear out until the point that they are thrown away, and the way denim changes consistency as it wears gives second-hand jeans qualities lacking (although often emulated) in new jeans. I will track the chain of acquisition of old denim through to the production of the ‘remake’, which through customization has achieved a different social significance. That is, a generic, often unbranded denim garment will be transformed into one that is branded or infused with the some element of the customizer.

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/global-denim-project/pk

[beatle]

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/global-denim-project/

[/i]Perhaps we could submit a link to our dirty dozen +1 thread?

I think we should...great idea...

[jubei]

so jealous that people are doing this for academic credit...

though I guess if pursuing my hobbies were my job then I'd have neither a hobby nor a real job... *sigh*