OPEN CULTURAL STUDIES
Deadline: March 31, 2027
“Open Cultural Studies” (https://www.degruyterbrill.com/journal/key/culture/html) invites submissions for a special issue entitled “Sense of Humour, Sense of Style: Humour In And About Fashion”, edited by Kristina Stankevičiūtė (Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Lithuania) and Nuno Amaral Jeronimo (University of Beira Interior, Portugal).
DESCRIPTION
Fashion’s relationship with humour has never been a fluent one – it has been addressed as a notoriously serious industry, and perhaps rightly so. Nevertheless, sparks of its funny or ironic side have been notable at various times, from Elsa Schiaparelli and her iconic surrealist designs to Franco Moschino, Thierry Mugler, Jean-Paul Gaultier, John Galliano, as well as quite a number of others.
“Millennial” fashion designers, such as Virgil Abloh and Demna Gvasalia, have turned to irony as an expression of postmodernist fashion creation, while Viktor&Rolf have employed it for presenting their critique of the severely demanding fashion system.
Humour has been increasingly present in fashion for the last decade, both in luxury fashion and streetwear, in fashion shows and advertising, used by designers and customers for sheer entertainment and for expressions of criticism, discontent or disagreement. The current atmosphere of post-pandemic relief mixed with the tensions of ongoing military conflicts and controversial political leadership as well as the challenges of the global climate change questions the very relevance of fashion as we know it; humour, being a global pervasive discourse in all private and public spheres, as many authors have noted, seems to be an attractively sensible choice of commenting on this most wasteful and the second most polluting industry today.
The aim of the collection is to debate on this unpardonably overlooked theme in fashion research, discussing various forms of fashion’s humour, such as fashion irony, sarcasm and/ or satire.
The volume is aiming to address the questions whether fashion humour is relevant today and how it has been relevant in the past; what forms of it have been the most eloquent, noticeable and most effective, and what exactly that effect has been.
Suggested themes include but are not limited to:
- Humour in fashion design
- Streetwear humour
- Humorous/ witty fashion representation (on the catwalk, in photography, advertisement, etc.)
- Humour about fashion (in cinema, literature, stand-up comedy, other forms of high and pop culture)
- National examples of fashion humour (design, advertising, etc.)
- Humorous/ ironic/ satirical/ sarcastic fashion communication
- Fashion memes
- Humorous fashion commentary
- The effects of fashion’s humour (on fashion’s perception, on the customer, on the wearer; psychological,
- aesthetic, etc.)
- Fashion humour/ irony/ satire as a form of art
HOW TO SUBMIT
Submissions will be collected from February 1, 2027 to March 31, 2027 via the online submission system at https://www.editorialmanager.com/culture/
Please choose section/category: “special issue: Fashion and Humour”.
Before submission, authors should carefully read the Instructions for Authors, available at https://www.degruyter.com/publication/journal
All contributions will undergo critical peer review before being accepted for publication.
Further questions about content for this thematic issue can be addressed to the Guest Editors:
Kristina Stankevičiūtė (kristina.stankeviciute@vilniustech.lt)
and
Nuno Amaral Jerónimo (nunoaj@ubi.pt)
As a general rule, publication costs should be covered by Article Publishing Charges (APC); that is, be defrayed by the authors, their affiliated institutions, funders or sponsors. Any financial matters can be discussed with the journal’s OA Portfolio Manager, Magdalena Skoneczna at magdalena.skoneczna@degruyterbrill.com before submitting their manuscript.
In case of technical problems with submission, please write to Assistant.Managing.Editor@degruyterbrill.com
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