Textiles play a decisive role in history: attire not only indicates status, gender, ethnicity, and religion but illustrates how such boundaries are continuously being negotiated, shifted, and recreated. Fashionable Traditions captures the complex reality of Asian handmade textile production and consumption. From traditionalist discourse and cultural authenticity to fashion and market trends, the contributors to this collection demonstrate the multilayered influence of often contradictory forces. In-depth, ethnographic case studies reveal the entangled relationships between local artisans, external interventions, and consumers, while acknowledging the broader frameworks in which such relationships are situated. Together these stories offer a vivid account of the socio-economic, political, and cultural dynamics in various parts of Asia and emphasize that fashion is neither a Western prerogative nor do its roots reside solely in the West.
Ayami Nakatani is professor of cultural anthropology and director of the Discovery Program for Global Learners at Okayama University.
List of Figures and Tables Preface Introduction: Asian Handmade Textiles as Fashionable Traditions Ayami Nakatani Part 1: Fashion Dynamics in Tradition Chapter 1 Ikat Patterns in Flores, Indonesia, and the Global Fashion Trajectory Willemijn de Jong Chapter 2 "New Style" of Ethnic Clothing: Dress between Tradition and Fashion among the Hmong in Yunnan, China Chie Miyawaki Chapter 3 The Pashmina Shawl: Continuity and Transformation from Ladakh to Kashmir Monisha Ahmed Part 2: Politics of Heritage and Beyond Chapter 4 Listing Cultures: Politics of Boundaries and Heritagization of Handwoven Textiles in Indonesia Ayami Nakatani Chapter 5 Between Culture and Technology: "Theme" Saris and the Graphic Representation of Heritage in Tamil Nadu, India Aarti Kawlra Chapter 6 "Heritagization" as a Double-edged Sword: The Dilemma of Nishijin Silk Weaving in Kyoto, Japan Okpyo Moon Chapter 7 Inheriting Weaving Knowledge in Depopulated Communities: Conservation of Wisteria Fiber Textiles in Kyoto, Japan Miwa Kanetani Part 3: Contested Valorization and the Role of Mediators Chapter 8 Branding Tsumugi Kimono in Japan: Kimono Magazines as Mediators between Consumers and the "Mingei" Movement Seiko Sugimoto Chapter 9 "Crafts" to "Art": A Trajectory of Aboriginal Women's Weavings in Arnhem Land, Australia Sachiko Kubota Chapter 10 Translocal Ikat in Contemporary Bali, Indonesia: Imagining Heritage, Imagining Modernities in Ikat Production and Marketing Susan Rodgers Part 4: Ambivalent Encounters with Global Consumers Chapter 11 Embroidering Development: The Mutwa and Rann Utsav in Kutch, India Michele A. Hardy Chapter 12 Strategic Choices of Techniques: Dyed and Printed Textiles for Goddess Rituals in Gujarat, Western India Yoko Ueba Chapter 13 Patchworking in Tradition: The Trends of Fashionable Carpets from Turkey Ulara Tamura Chapter 14 What Do Handwoven Textiles Do? Constellation of Things and the Primal History among Non-Weaving People in Flores, Eastern Indonesia Eriko Aoki Index About the Contributors
This is an intrepid anthology. Even as Asian indigenous textile makers try out a multiplicity of strategies to find a way for their art/craft to survive in the global world, the contributors to this volume explore new frameworks to describe their ingenuity. 'Fashionalization', 'modernization', 'trivialization', '(de)commodification', 'heritagization', all typify trajectories of reinvention, external mediation and experimentation. The usually unseen struggles of indigenous textile producers deserve more spokespeople like these. -- Sandra Niessen, Anthropologist Fashionable Traditions offers significant new insights into the relationship between Asian indigenous textile cultures and their assimilation into the world of global consumption, from heritage industries to fashion. The authors bring anthropological and historical perspectives that are based on original and extensive field research. The volume adds considerably to our understanding of the multiple roles of handmade textiles in a modern world. -- Ruth Barnes, Thomas Jaffe Curator of Indo-Pacific Art, Yale University Art Gallery For anyone interested in the changes taking place where hand-made textiles are produced, this book offers a range of insights into the processes at work. The authors have all produced intelligent, thoughtful studies that are well worth reading. This book makes a valuable contribution to knowledge about the interplay between "tradition" and "fashion" in textile production in the modern world. * Southeast Asian Studies *
