Fashion and Ethics

Efrat Tseëlon was appointed Professor of Fashion Theory at the University of Leeds, in 2007 and is the founder and Principal Editor of Critical Studies in Fashion & Beauty since 2010. As a cultural theorist with marketing and organizational industry experience she has published widely. Since receiving her Ph.D. from Oxford in social psychology entitled ‘Communicating via Clothing’ (1989) she has been developing an innovative approach to fashion research which she calls Critical Fashion Studies that she applied to many topics from gender, fashion ethics and popular culture, to the school uniform and the traditional carpet. She pioneered the study of ‘inside view’ (the wearers) over the ‘outside view’ (designers, museums) which was prevalent in research on fashion before, and she developed the perspective of wardrobe research (focused on wearing everyday clothes) over the stereotype approach (which privileges occasion garments). Tseëlon has also pioneered a research approach which is rooted in historical and theoretical frameworks but draws on several fields to ground its claims with empirical work from a number of fields: a synthesis of qualitative and quantitative research, discursive approaches, the uncanny method, and techniques derived from problem-based learning.

'The volume is instrumental in beginning to figure out what it means to cultivate an ethical response writ large when confronted with choices as consumers'

• Introduction Introduction: A critique of the ethical fashion paradigm – EFRAT TSEËLONArticles Fashionable dilemmas – AUSTIN WILLIAMSComme il faut–where ethics is not just a brand image but a brand essence: Reflections of the CEO – SYBIL GOLDFINERConsumers’ perceptions of ‘green’: Why and how consumers use eco-fashion and green beauty products – MARIE-CÉCILE CERVELLON AND LINDSEY CAREYEthical fashion and the exploitation of nonhuman – JOHN SORENSONGlobal ethical culinary fashion and a local dish: Organic hummus in Israel – RAFI GROSGLIKAesthetic (dis)orders: Styling principles in fashion modelling – PATRÍCIA SOLEY-BELTRANFashion World – models and backstages – MIRIAM TAWILFROM THE NOTICEBOARD Conference Report Endangered Species summit review, London, March 2011Exhibition Review The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From Sidewalk to Catwalk, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, June 17–October 2, 2011Book Reviews The Myth of the Ethical Consumer, Timothy M. Devinney, Pat Auger and Giana M. Eckhardt (2010)Globalizing Responsibility: The Political Rationalities of Ethical Consumption, Clive Barnett, Paul Cloke, Nick Clarke and Alice Malpass (2011)Shoes: A History from Sandals to Sneakers, Giorgio Riello and Peter McNeil (eds) (2011)Book Reports Honey Money: The Power of Erotic Capital, Catherine Hakim (2011)Israel Fashion Art – 1948–2008, Nurit Bat-Yaar (2010)Fashion, Interior Design and the Contours of Modern Identity, Alla Myzelev and John Potvin (eds) (2010)