FROM BRAND PHILOSOPHIES TO CULTURAL CITIZENSHIP

In this print version of his MA thesis the author deals with the fashion creation practice of a few contemporary Hungarian designers (from the fashion brands Je Suis Belle and Use Unused). At the intersection between fashion theory including a gender perspective, social history and cultural studies he examines how brand philosophies and Hungarian references project and shape consumer identities. While the designers constantly redefine "Hungarianness" at a fashionable, internationally appealing level, they maintain the cultural connections of the clothing fashion with Budapest, Hungary. Being a means to assert identities, cultural citizenship is viewed here as emerging through fashion; however, it becomes a double-barreled load: while offers to rethink relations to women's position and state-regulation not just in the present, but also related to the past, it is rather universal in its essence, and thus applicable to men and menswear also. Seen as a cultural practice, fashion and its design can serve as a new angle when discussing issues like "national" culture, cultural memory; and, it can expose the gender order of past, historically constituted regimes as well.

Autorentext

Born in 1978, he has taken a twisting road so far; he earned a BA degree in communication and public relations and holds an MA in Gender studies from the Central European University. Presently he is employed at the Romanian Institute for Research on National Minorities. His interests lie in copywriting, music and (sub)cultures of fashion.