Decentering Fashion on the Silk Roads

Decentering Fashion on the Silk Roads focuses on the dynamism of fashion, textile craft, heritage and sustainability in Central Asia and beyond. This rich travelogue is a refreshing resource for international scholars and postgraduate students studying and researching fashion theory and management in particular.

Stefanie Mallon is a cultural anthropologist and textile scientist at the University of Göttingen, Germany, with a research focus on Materiality and Sustainability in Fashion and Textiles. Recent publications include an article on 'Digital fashion and the future of fashion' which analyses users' garment experience, a paper on 'Performative aging in swim wear', and an empirical study on fungus as an alternative for leather. Further works are the co-edited anthology 'Death and the thing' with studies about the meaning and functionality of textiles in the context of 'death', and an article titled 'Thinking through fashion - Thinking fashion through', which reflects on students' perspectives on the future of fashion. Galina Mihaleva is an artist, fashion and wearable technology designer. Mihaleva's artistic practice and academic research deals primarily with the dialogue between body and dress, driven by the idea of having both a physical and a psychological relationship with a garment as responsive clothing.

Introduction I. Decentering fashion 1. The Impact on fashion of the World's centre of gravity shift. Trade, identity and religion in emerging territories 2. Responsible Fashion in Central Asia 3. Cultural Identity and Memory in Clothing Design in Kazakhstan 4. The contemporizing of Uzbek traditional textiles through collaboration and entrepreneurship II. Crafting decentred and responsible fashion 5. (Re)Felting the future: From ancient craftsmanship to contemporary fashion design 6. Social Enterprises support Textile Artisans and Designers in Afghanistan 7. Discourses of craftsmanship in fashion media. On (in)visibility and (dis)empowerment within the fashion system 8. An Embroidery diary 9. Building Inclusive Culture through Tradition, Craft and Emerging Technologies III. Collaborating and diversifying to decentre fashion 10. The power of diversity: The interaction between craftspeople and designers as a resource for a diverse fashion system 11. Courtyard as Classrooms: Empowering Learners through Design Research in Rural India 12. Fashion and disability. From diversity to equality? Analyzing practices in the fashion industry