Open AccessPERFORMING LIFESTYLE POLITICS: EXPLORING THE SLOW FASHION COMMUNITY ON INSTAGRAM
Author(s) -
Jimil Ataman
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
selected papers of internet research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2162-3317
DOI - 10.5210/spir.v2021i0.11857
Subject(s) - politics , identity (music) , movement (music) , sociology , fashion industry , public relations , media studies , aesthetics , political science , law , clothing , art
This paper explores the unique discursive register being created byslow fashion practitioners on Instagram. The slow fashion movement includes people,practices, ideas, and things from all over the world and online - all of which are broadlyconnected through a shared effort to resist and transform the waste-driven, profit-seeking,inequitable and unjust system(s) which produce and sustain contemporary fashion. In thispaper I analyze three key performable roles which slow fashion practitioners are embodyingon Instagram as a way to perform the politics of the movement: (1) Outfit of the Day Posts(OOTD), (2) wardrobe tracking, and (3) knowledge-sharing posts. In discussing each of theseinstances of popular slow fashion performances, I will examine what each example is “saying”and “doing” within the slow fashion community and analyze how these performances arepositioned within the community’s broader ethical and political goals. By exploring thekinds of performances most commonly posted on Instagram I draw attention to the ways slowfashion practitioners’ performances are both assembling individual practitioner identity (or‘self’) to the wider slow fashion community as well as producing a wider register oflifestyle politics in the slow fashion movement.