(no subject)
Interesting blog post @ Racialicious:
http://www.racialicious.com/2009/06/09/history-and-the-harem-pant/
"In 1911, the same year that Morocco was named a protectorate of France, famed Parisian fashion designer Paul Poiret “introduced” the harem pant to avant-garde aesthetes alongside caftans, headdresses, turbans and tunics in an Orientalist collection. Those items deemed “traditional” and “backward” when worn on a native body were thus transformed as “fashion forward” when worn on a Western one, in what amounted to the blatantly uneven, and undeniably geopolitical, distribution of aesthetic value and modern personhood."
That last line makes me all giddy.
I am going to read it again and follow some links. Some good stuff there.
http://www.racialicious.com/2009/06/09/history-and-the-harem-pant/
"In 1911, the same year that Morocco was named a protectorate of France, famed Parisian fashion designer Paul Poiret “introduced” the harem pant to avant-garde aesthetes alongside caftans, headdresses, turbans and tunics in an Orientalist collection. Those items deemed “traditional” and “backward” when worn on a native body were thus transformed as “fashion forward” when worn on a Western one, in what amounted to the blatantly uneven, and undeniably geopolitical, distribution of aesthetic value and modern personhood."
That last line makes me all giddy.
I am going to read it again and follow some links. Some good stuff there.