Volume 1
Summer 2007

Special Issue: Menswear

Letter from the Editors
Articles

 

From the Editors

This issue of The Journal of Culture and Retail Image, our first, focuses on menswear. The topic lent itself well to the research assignment of the sophomore class of DSMR 465 as it gave students many different angles to pursue. While there were many papers written in this class, the five selected were chosen not only for their research quality, but also for a range of subject matter. Monet Grant’s overview of Asian designers begins in the 1970s with Kenzo and concludes with the upcoming generation of designers including David Chu, Peter Som and Derek Lam. Naimah Ali introduces us to the idea of skurban, looking at the widening and narrowing of hip hop fashion. Tiffany Gravinese examines the difference between Italian and American menswear (with a definite preference for the former!). As far as accessories go, Amanda Lambert provides an overview of the history of men’s hats while Caroline Cunningham explains the passionate world of the sneaker subculture. This issue was definitely an experiment for us as we developed content, layout, structure and overall mission of the project. We’ve just received our second round of student submissions from summer term 2008 and are looking forward to Issue 2.  

-- Joe Hancock and Ann Keith Kennedy