Understanding Fashion Scandals

Annamari Vänskä is Professor of Fashion Research at the Aalto University in Finland. She is the author of Fashionable Childhood (Bloomsbury, 2017) and the co-editor of Fashion Curating (Bloomsbury 2018). Vänskä’s work spans fashion as embodied culture and digitalization of fashion. She is currently the Deputy-PI of the consortium “Intimacy in Data-Driven Culture” and PI of the research project “Intimacy, Creative Work and Design,” funded by the Strategic Research Council at the Academy of Finland (2019-2025).Olga Gurova is a Senior Researcher in circular economy and consumer citizenship at Laurea University of Applied Sciences in Finland. She is the author of Soviet Underwear: Between Ideology and Everyday Life (2008) and Fashion and the Consumer Revolution in Contemporary Russia (2015). Gurova works on projects aimed at building an ecosystem of sustainable fashion through the enhancement of business models and consumer behavior in Finland and the Baltic countries, financed by Uudenmaan liitto and Interreg.

• IntroductionThe Two Types of Fashion ScandalsScandal as Politicization of FashionDecolonizing FashionPositioning OurselvesEpistemic PositioningsStructure of the BookPART ONE THE FASHION SCANDAL—PAST AND PRESENT1. Framing the Fashion Scandal: The Platformization of FashionVisualization of FashionMediatization of FashionSocial Media and the Platformization of FashionThe Instagramification of Fashion2. Fashion Brands Negotiating Identity PoliticsCultural Approach to Brands and BrandingNegotiating Identity Politics3. Changing Strategies of Fashion Brands: From Shock to ScandalA Short History of the Fashion Scandal: Deliberate ShockContemporary Shock: The Unintentional ScandalSocial Media and New Identity PoliticsDismantling White Privilege and Introducing Intersectionality to Fashion4. Emotional Effects of Social Media on Fashion: Calling-out and CancelingEmotional BrandingEmotional Reactions and CancelingNew Cultural Intermediaries and the Creation of the Unintentional ScandalConsumers Empowered to Speak UpWhat if a Brand is Canceled?PART TWO CASE STUDIES5. RussiaLove is (Not Just) LoveFeminist Resistance in a Conservative WorldRace Across Time and Space6. FinlandMaternity Clothes for 12-Year-Old African GirlsFlirting with Fascists7. Global ScandalsWhose Identity? The Problem with “Cultural Appropriation”Casual Racism: “Eating with Chopsticks”Blackface and Structural Racism in the Fashion Industry“Mental Health is not Fashion”PART THREE THE RESPONSE TO FASHION SCANDALS8. Just Don’t Do It!Corporate World Response, Part One: Corporate Social ResponsibilityCorporate World Response, Part Two: Brands as Political ActorsCorporate World Response, Part Three: Diversity OfficersAcademic Response, Part One: The Danger of “Diversity Washing”Academic Response, Part Two: the “Glossification of Diversity”Academic Response, Part Three: Reimagining the Fashion CurriculumPolitical Response, Part One: Supply Chains and Human RightsPolitical Response, Part Two: Advocacy Groups BenchmarkingBusinessConclusion: A Call for Cultural and Social SustainabilityPART FOUR EPILOG9. The Counter NarrativeHeidi Karjalainen, FinlandErvin Latimer, FinlandJahnkoy, USAClaudia Lepik, EstoniaMuslin Brothers, BelgiumKristian David, SwedenBibliographyIndex

This is a fresh, updated and comprehensive book on the phenomenon of fashion scandals, which has gained media and consumer attention in recent years. The reader will find both rich case studies and an analysis of how fashion scandals deal with broader processes such as mediatization and cultural appropriation.