Fashioning the ‘Little Parises’ of the World.
Interlaced National Symbols
Introduction:
In April 1947, Vogue Paris heralded the beginning of a new world on its way to leave World War Two in the past with the New Look paraded by “mythical” and “composite” models dressed by Christian Dior. Seventy-four years later, in the autumn of 2021, Vogue Paris ceased to exist in favour of Vogue France, reflecting globalisation, as “creativity, culture, art and fashion are everywhere”. Both moments represented social and cultural turning points most visible through fashion and one of its main avenues of expression, Vogue. Dior’s New Look utilised the remains of Parisian exclusivity as an inspiration for women to forego scarcity-laden habits and appearance imposed during the war. On the opposite side of the spectrum, the effort ignited by Anna Wintour is centred around inclusivity, where Paris seems to have lost its symbolic value, at least at face value. But is this the demise of the proverbial Parisienne, the transnational elegant woman embodying the esprit parisien (Rocamora 2006, p. 51)? Are Paris, the Parisienne and fashion still synonymous as Valerie Steele (2017, p. 93) had asserted shortly before the Vogue shift? Is this apparently inconsequential name change part of a decolonisation movement that has now come to be manifested through a needed change for one of the most recognisable fashion publications? Has Paris as a symbolic marker of modernity and elegance finally declared itself obsolete? Then why do notions like ‘Little Paris’ still draw so much attention and significance around the world? What of cities like Bucharest attempting to reclaim its pre-Communist spirit by sometimes over-inflating the ‘Little Paris’ notion? What of cities that in some way, materially or symbolically emulate “something of Paris”?
This book uses a multi-perspective approach to urban spaces applicable to the ‘Little Paris’ designation. It blends Mike Featherstone’s (1995, p. 1) assertion that global culture transcends society and national borders with its application to fashion as an inherently transnational phenomenon, as explained by Djurdja Bartlett (2019, p. 33). This book aims to explore the various possible interpretations for the ‘Little Paris’ symbol outside of the ‘original Paris’ context and its relationships to other major cities across the world. It inquires whether the ‘Little Paris’ mythology itself is an extension of colonial expansion, a global phenomenon using the French capital as the best manifestation of creative and cultural modernity through fashion, an acknowledgement of the official, collective and individual efforts within and around Paris to foster and promote fashion, or is it a hybrid symbol, perfectly compatible with the ambivalence and fluidity of modernity itself. Fashion’s ability to sustain material-symbolic, elegance-kitsch, creativity-intellect or tradition-innovation dichotomies as extended timelines including everything in-between is the perfect backdrop for a panoramic analysis of the spread, effect, reception and continuation of the esprit parisien.
In a gendered context, fashion industry, as one of the main phenomena linked to Paris, is a traditional professional path for women as creators, technicians, disseminators and in many cases commentators, strengthened during modernity (Lundén 2020, p. 252). Even more, the fashionability lure attributed to the ‘original’ Paris during modernity is heavily reliant on its active and burgeoning community of talented artistic, creative and technical immigrants, especially from Eastern Europe (Kurkdjian 2020, p. 379). This would then come as a counter-argument to the idea that Vogue Paris was only relevant for Parisians, understood as physical residents of Paris and possibly Île-de-France as the extended Greater Paris area. This book and its contributions contribute to a deeper, nuanced understanding of Parisian fashion within a transnational, transdisciplinary frame of reference. It comes to reconcile discourses on inclusivity and exclusivity under a comprehensive interpretation of esprit parisien beyond physical, geographical, cultural or ideological limitations.
The Book’s Objective
As Vogue Paris, the only edition containing a city name, became Vogue France, the question of Paris as fashion capital is ever more pressing on grounds built upon dichotomic pairs like inclusivity-exclusivity, material-symbolic, global-local. Fashioning the ‘Little Parises’ of the World is a collective, edited volume exploring the Parisian spirit (esprit parisien) through fashion, using a diverse host of urban locations drawing material and symbolic inspiration from Paris, beyond ‘Little Paris’ nicknames. It inquires how national identities and each location’s specific spirit are enforced or encroached when blended with the esprit parisien. Each contribution offers a unique interpretation of a global symbol, Paris, through one of its chief associations, fashion. Fashioning the ‘Little Parises’ of the World relativises the meaning of Paris fashion, understanding that, at least in the twentieth century, foreign Western and non-Western cityspaces and urban enclaves readily and enthusiastically assumed some sort of connection to Paris using aesthetic, conceptual or physical reasonings. It inquires whether Paris as a cultural, artistic and craft cosmopolitan hub was not inclusive from the start as it emanated exclusivity through exquisite physical and symbolic results that could not have been achieved anywhere else.
Target Audience:
This book addresses English-speaking academic and non-academic audiences who wish to explore global fashion cultures and their relationship to Paris as a long-standing point of influence. It will be accessible to readers with a basic understanding of the connection between Paris and global fashion, including internationally recognisable brand names from Chanel to Vogue. It will also appeal to readers with an interest in any of the mentioned locations from a current, historical, geographical, cultural or artistic perspective. The book will address fashion scholars and historians as it is built upon the global reach of Paris fashion, a leitmotif in fashion studies and histories. The collection brings together themes and locations that have been generally treated separately or marginally, integrating them into the larger, growing discussion of transnational fashion practices. It will be of interest to both students and established scholars as a reference text and a possible avenue for further research on any of the topics approached.
- Recommended topics include, but are not limited to, the following: Main keywords for the book: Paris, fashion, city, identity.
- Suggested fields: cultural studies (fashion, urban, media), history (art, social, cultural, critical), postcolonialism, symbolic geographies.
- Urban ‘Little Paris’ spaces:
- Little Paris of the Balkans
- Paris of the Orient (Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City or its former name Saigon in Vietnam, Shanghai China)
- Little Paris and any translation, in any language or national/cultural context
- Cities nicknamed ‘Little Paris’, including Atça Turkey, Bucharest Romania, Da Lat Vietnam, Sinj Croatia.
- Cities built after Paris, including Tianducheng China.
- Cities named Paris in USA, Canada, Denmark, Kiribati, Panama, Puerto Rico, etc.
- Any ‘Little Paris’ connection in Europe, North and South America, Asia, Australia, the Pacific or the Southern Hemisphere.
- ‘Little Paris’ themes:esprit parisien, la Parisienne across the world
- worldwide spread of Parisian and French fashion and influence
- fashion capitals, cities of fashion (besides Paris)
- fashion industry, haute couture, prêt-à-porter from Paris worldwide
- transnational and global fashion
- Westernisation and/or modernisation through Parisian fashion ideas
- Historical ‘Little Parises’ presented and analysed for a contemporary audience
- Current ‘Little Parises’ presented and analysed considering their historical, social, cultural and geographic context
Contents (Working Chapter Structure):
1. Introduction
2. European ‘Little Parises’
- Re-Fashioning Old Mythologies: The Recovery of Cultural and National Identities through ‘Little Paris’ References in Post-1989 Romania (Sonia D. Andra?) analyses the complex discourse on interwar Romania since the 1989 Revolution, ranging from romanticised nostalgia for a now-lost golden age, of the ‘old Bucharest’, to virulent abhorrence reminiscent of ideologized Communist Romanian representations. The aim is to identify the common threads and the possible ramifications of creating, propagating and reframing ‘Little Paris’ for Romania and beyond. This chapter juxtaposes visual and textual references to ‘Little Paris’ in interwar literature with their reiterations relevant to Bucharest’s ‘Little Paris’ spaces, since 1989 as continuations or ruptures from the Communist Romanian discourse. These spaces include public urban locations where Western modernity could be easily witnessed through fashionable women amid professional and leisure activities. This chapter uses fashion studies as a methodological frame and visual and textual discourse analysis for the relevant interwar and contemporary primary sources. It offers a comprehensive analysis of how ‘Little Paris’ and, more generally, interwar Bucharest functions as a tool in crafting national, ideological, identity and cultural directions for a renewed spirit bucure?tean (Bucharest spirit).
3. African ‘Little Parises’
4. Middle Eastern ‘Little Parises’
5. East-Asian ‘Little Parises’
6. American ‘Little Parises’
7. Little Parises’ in the Pacific and the Southern Hemisphere
Submission Procedure:
Interested researchers and authors are invited to submit by 1 December 2022 an abstract for their proposed chapter (up to 250 words) and a short description of the author(s), including current affiliation and position (if any). Accepted authors will be notified by 8 December 2022. The deadline for the full chapter submission is 31 March 2023 for the completed draft manuscript to be submitted for review by 1 June 2023. All submissions and inquiries should be emailed to sonia.d.andras@outlook.com.
Full Chapter Submission:
The chapter will be written in UK English and will not exceed 6000 words, including notes and bibliography. The text will use New Hart’s Rules (Oxford) for referencing and style, with citations in brackets and a Bibliography at the end. Footnotes are preferred, but sparingly. Please follow the Bloomsbury style guidelines applied to UK English.
There are no submission or acceptance fees for chapters that will be included in The ‘Little Parises’ of the World. All chapters will go through a double-blind peer review editorial process when the final draft manuscript will be submitted to the publisher.
Publisher:
Bloomsbury UK have expressed interest in considering the work for possible publication.
Important Dates:
- Abstract submission deadline: 1 December 2022
- Notifications of accepted abstracts: 8 December 2022
- Full chapter submission deadline: 17 March 2023
- Review results returned: 24 March 2023
- Final acceptance notification: 31 March 2023
- Final chapter submission: 21 April 2023
- Complete draft manuscript submitted to publisher: 1 June 2023
Editor:
Dr. Sonia D. Andraş, Cultural and Fashion Studies researcher, The “Gheorghe Şincai” Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities, Târgu-Mureş, Romania. Author of The Women of ‘Little Paris’: Women’s Fashion in Bucharest (forthcoming with Bloomsbury UK).
Inquiries can be forwarded to:
Sonia D. Andraş: sonia.d.andras@outlook.com
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