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Foretelling the future: The fashion designer as shaman
Author(s) -
Vangkilde Kasper Tang
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
anthropology today
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.419
H-Index - 24
eISSN - 1467-8322
pISSN - 0268-540X
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8322.12336
Subject(s) - zeitgeist , shamanism , face (sociological concept) , fashion design , sociology , ethnography , aesthetics , mode (computer interface) , epistemology , history , social science , computer science , anthropology , clothing , art , philosophy , law , political science , human–computer interaction , archaeology
Based on ethnographic fieldwork in a fashion company, this article explores how fashion designers face the uncertain but critical challenge of foretelling the future. It is argued that fashion designers seek to become possessed by the zeitgeist , which attests to an animistic mode of being and a shamanic practice by means of which they turn into prophetic agents with a particular vision of the future. This makes them able to act on the future, and demonstrates more generally how magical processes are indeed at work in the world of fashion.