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Rachel Lifter

Rachel Lifter

Fashioning Indie: Popular Fashion, Music and Gender

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In 2005, British supermodel Kate Moss went to Glastonbury with her then-boyfriend, indie rocker Pete Doherty. Their unwashed appearance captured widespread attention, propelling the British indie music scene and its signature look — slender bodies clad in skinny jeans — to the center of popular fashion.

Using this watershed as a launching point, Fashioning Indie describes indie's evolution from a 1980s British music subculture into a 21st-century international fashion phenomenon. It explores the lucrative application of indie style, first in high-concept menswear and later in “festival fashion,” womenswear that remade the look of indie and inspired the public to reimagine its ideal subject.

Fashioning Indie is essential reading for both academic and popular audiences, offering an original account of what happens when a subculture is incorporated into the commercial fashion system. As festival music and fashion face increasing scrutiny in debates about diversity and inclusion and the transformations of indie style coincide with the global expansion of the secondhand retail sector, the book offers essential insights into popular fashion in the 21st century and the values that inform it. View this publication.

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