Dangerous designs : Asian women, fashion, and the diaspora economies

In late-1990s Britain, the salwaar-kameez or 'Punjabi suit' emerged as a high-fashion garment. Popular both on the catwalk and on the street, it made front-page news when worn by Diana, Princess of Wales and by Cherie Booth, the wife of UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. In her ethnography of the local and global design economies established by Asian women fashion entrepreneurs, Parminder Bhachu focuses on the transformation of the salwaar-kameez from negatively coded 'ethnic clothing' to a global garment fashionable both on the margins and in the mainstream. Exploring the design and sewing businesses, shops and street fashions in which this revolution has taken place, she shows how the salwaar-kameez is today at the heart of new economic micro-markets which themselves represent complex, powerfully coded means of cultural dialogue and racial politics. The innovative designs of second-generation British Asian women are drawn from characteristically improvisational migrant cultural codes. Through their hybrid designs and creation of new aesthetics, these women cross cultural boundaries, battling with racism and redefining both Asian and British identities. At the same time, their border-crossing commercial entrepreneurship produces new diaspora economies which give them control over many economic, aesthetic, cultural and technological resources. In this way, the processes of global capitalism are gendered, racialized and localized through the interventions of diasporic women from the margins. Pt. I. Travels Of The Suit -- 1. Cultural Narratives Of The Suit -- 2. Ethnicized Consumption -- Pt. Ii. Design Narratives -- 3. Pioneering Fashion Entrepreneur: Geeta Sarin -- 4. Second-generation Design Globalizer: Bubby Mahil -- 5. Selling The Nation: Revivalist Indian Designer Ritu Kumar -- 6. Selling Art Clothes In Classed Markets -- Conclusion: National Elites Versus Diaspora Design Entrepreneurs -- Pt. Iii. Suit Marketers -- 7. Daminis: A Commercial Community Mama’s Shops -- 8. Networking Marketers Of Ready-made Suits -- Pt. Iv. Sewing Cultures: Sketching And Designing -- 9. Diasporic Sina-prona: Sewing And Patterning Cultures -- 10. Designing Diasporas Through Sketches -- Conclusion: Disruptive Markets From The Margins. Parminder Bhachu. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 185-189) And Index. BOOK COVER......Page 1 HALF-TITLE......Page 2 TITLE......Page 4 COPYRIGHT......Page 5 DEDICATIONS......Page 6 CONTENTS......Page 7 ILLUSTRATIONS......Page 9 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS......Page 11 INTRODUCTION......Page 14 1. CULTURAL NARRATIVES OF THE SUIT......Page 22 2. ETHNICIZED CONSUMPTION......Page 35 3. PIONEERING FASHION ENTREPRENEUR......Page 50 4. SECOND-GENERATION DESIGN GLOBALIZER......Page 64 5. SELLING THE NATION......Page 76 6. SELLING ART CLOTHES IN CLASSED MARKETS......Page 90 7. DAMINIS......Page 108 8. NETWORKING MARKETERS OF READYMADE SUITS......Page 119 9. DIASPORIC SINA-PRONA......Page 137 10. DESIGNING DIASPORAS THROUGH SKETCHES......Page 144 GLOSSARY......Page 175 NOTES......Page 177 BIBLIOGRAPHY......Page 188 INDEX......Page 193 Dangerous Designs tells the story of Asian fashion in the West, and describes how Asian dress has become culturally charged and powerfully coded, defining contemporary cultural and economic borders. [from publisher's advertisement]