JHASS
Fashion as Material Culture Project
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Abstract
This study focuses on the cultural biography of donkey leather jackets, exploring their evolution from functional workwear for the British working class in the 19th century to a contemporary fashion item. Through Kopitov's "cultural biography" theory and Appadurai's "paths and bifurcations" theory, the classification and reclassification of donkey leather jackets in different periods are analyzed, revealing their dynamic transformation from workers' clothing to subcultural symbols and then to high-end fashion items. This evolution not only reflects the changes in social values but also shows the important role of objects in shaping identity, class, and cultural symbols while revealing the adaptability and recontextualization process of objects in different historical and cultural contexts. The case of donkey leather jackets shows that the life of objects is not limited to their original functions, but is deeply rooted in complex social and cultural systems, providing important theoretical support and practical inspiration for material culture research, and also highlighting how fashion carries multiple historical memories and cultural values through objects, providing a unique way of expressing social dynamics.
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How to cite this paper
Fashion as Material Culture Project
How to cite this paper: Saisai Zhuang. (2024) Fashion as Material Culture Project. Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Science, 8(12), 2748-2753.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/jhass.2024.12.015
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