course<\/a> sets out to \u201cstudy the emergence of the concept of the \u2018new\u2019 as a term understood as \u2018new fashion.\u2019\u201d In other words, \u201cWhat is the \u2018fashion of the new,\u2019 and how is the concept linked with the material production of fashion?\u201d the course description thoughtfully poses.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201c[What] I am not doing is fashion in all countries [or] fashion in all periods. I am focusing on a certain concept of fashion that is European in a way and American, and also now international, and it starts with the nineteenth century by coincidence,\u201d Rabat\u00e9 explains.<\/p>\n
Referencing Emile Zola\u2019s fashion book which translates to the English title The Ladies\u2019 Delight, he further clarifies that the focus of his course takes a distinct approach: \u201c \u2026 it\u2019s more a philosophical and literary concept of fashion as a certain way of talking about modernity.\u201d<\/p>\n
The concept for the course dates all the way back to the 1960s when Rabat\u00e9 was still a student in France. In charge of a film club in Paris, Rabat\u00e9 explains that, five years later in 1973, they made the decision to screen documentaries made in May of 1968.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd when we saw those films, what struck us was how much fashion had changed in five years, so it was really a discovery that what had been [the] result of students\u2019 rebellion had also brought about a new type of fashion, and so that was one thing that was always in my memory. It\u2019s kind of [a] notion of fashion in an extended sense, not just clothes, but also the way we behave,\u201d Rabat\u00e9 says.<\/p>\n
He was also influenced by French Poet Mallarm\u00e9, whom he both worked on and published about. Particularly, Rabat\u00e9 was fascinated by La Derniere Mode, the name of a year\u2013long project in which Mallarm\u00e9 created his own fashion publication.<\/p>\n
More recently, Rabat\u00e9 notes that over a decade ago, \u201cthere was a show in Paris that then went to the Met, called Impressionism, Modernism, and Fashion, and so that’s when I decided to do the class,\u201d he explains. \u201cIt gave me enough ideas to think.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Rabat\u00e9 first taught the course, things looked somewhat different. \u00a0The course content was far more focused on French 19th\u2013century culture as it relates to themes of modernity and invention, drawing from pivotal thinkers such as Walter Benjamin and Theodor Adorno. Now, Rabat\u00e9 has made some adjustments.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I have decided to do is to extend a little bit the historical period, so we begin with the French Revolution and Marie Antoinette and the idea of fashion\u2014even before Marie Antoinette\u2014as a tool of power for the king in Versailles, and how fashion was connected with a very strict code called etiquette, as a way of creating surveillance and forcing the noble families to ruin themselves, and I am now moving much more into contemporary stuff, ending with Rick Owens and many contemporary designers. So broader vision and optic,\u201d Rabat\u00e9 explains.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Although his course begins with the French Revolution and Marie Antoinette, it takes a series of turns through time. Supplemented by a carefully selected list of readings from the likes of Charles Baudelaire and Mallarm\u00e9 in addition to the course text Fashion Theory: A Reader by Malcolm Barnard, alongside several films, the course stitches together a wide variety of 20th and contemporary 21st century designers including Elsa Schiaparelli, Martin Margiela, and Virgil Abloh. At the end of the course, students complete a portfolio in which they are tasked with selecting a designer, finding a theme, and illustrating it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When it came to the selection of which designers to hone in on, Rabat\u00e9 notes that, in the past, he has worked with fashion curator and historian Valerie Steele, director of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Rabat\u00e9 \u00a0cites Steele\u2019s Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body, & Culture, as many of the works featured designers are ones that strongly resonated with him, including Comme de Gar\u00e7ons, Yves Saint Laurent, and Thierry Mugler. He also recalls a show in Paris called \u201cTemple of Love\u201d that inspired his decisions.<\/p>\n
So how exactly does Rabat\u00e9 begin to draw connections between, for instance, the Rococo\u2013movement\u2013inspired, lavish 18th century style of Marie Antoinette with her luxurious, frilly gowns and the edgy, \u201cgoth\u201d aesthetic of Rick Owens, with his asymmetrical necklines and high\u2013top leather geobasket sneakers?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOne question that I have always wanted my students to work on is this idea: What is a revolution in fashion?\u201d Rabat\u00e9 poses.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Juxtaposing fashion with the political, the modern, and the everyday allows for thoughtful interrogation when it comes to style and dress: \u201cWas punk a revolutionary movement? Was it anti\u2013fashion simply or a new fashion? Isn\u2019t it always recuperated by fashion?\u201d he muses.<\/p>\n
Mentioning the work of philosopher Walter Benjamin, he also notes that the cyclical nature of fashion anchors the course. \u201c \u2026 It\u2019s the eternal return of the new. See, the new returns all the time. So that is a paradox, of course. What does it mean? The new returns,\u201d Rabat\u00e9 says. Trends and styles that were once outdated always seem to find their way back into the public consciousness, complicating our perceptions of the old and the contemporary.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, when you deal with fashion, you pose many, many questions that one could ask about the arts [or] history of the arts. But it\u2019s also connected with everyday life.\u201d<\/p>\n
To the extent of Rabat\u00e9\u2019s knowledge, he hasn\u2019t encountered many other fashion\u2013based courses here at Penn, so he appreciates the English Department\u2019s flexibility when it comes to course teachings. Sometimes Rabat\u00e9 is interested in film and theory, or other times it might be classical literature.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBut fashion, I think, is a good way of combining a certain philosophical, literary, and I would say artistic knowledge, because it’s art in a sense,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Penn students that are interested in bringing fashion into their academic coursework, perhaps Rabat\u00e9\u2019s course can open up opportunities and conversations for more fashion\u2013oriented classes in the future. In spring 2027, Penn is slated to offer a few more fashion\u2013related courses for students to enroll in, including Dress and Fashion in Africa, Modern Italian Culture: Italian Fashion, and a Critical Writing Seminar in Toxic Fashion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Looking back at the history of his own class, Rabat\u00e9 recalled the very first iteration he taught. Going over a text by Roland Barthes about fashion, signs, and language, he remembers how one student who had to present opted not to say anything at all.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe came and she said, \u2018Read me,\u2019 and almost everybody in the class could see what she was wearing and why and how connected they were,\u201d Rabat\u00e9 says. \u201cAnd so this is what I expect: [it] is not so much more knowledge about literature [or] philosophy on fashion, but an awareness of how fashion permeates everything in our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From late September to early October, Jean\u2013Michel Rabat\u00e9, a Penn professor of English and comparative literature, was in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":["post-316675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}