The Sound of Fashion Thinking by Jonathan Faiers establishes 'Fashion Thinking' as a new field of critical inquiry, utilising the many ways fashion is produced as a methodology with which to explore a range of contemporary cultural, political, economic and social concerns. Taking the form of a guide to an imaginary fashion exhibition that ironically displays no clothing, the book inhabits the space of the museum solely through sound.
Each 'chapter' or 'room' is constructed from a series of reflections and discussions on different aspects of fashion, including its production, reception, dissemination, and development, all inspired by the sonic experiences encountered therein.
It takes its cue from earlier etymological definitions of fashion, understood as making, or bringing into existence, inspired by the very act of fashioning. In the same way fabric can be fashioned into a coat – something produced from next to nothing – that same material can easily be unpicked and refashioned, even reworked into a completely new garment or object. Fashion Thinking is characterised by this potential, fluid state, approaching each new topic according to specific demands and desires, cutting its cloth and finding its voice accordingly, whether poetic, analytical, autobiographical, technical or discursive.
Like fashion itself, Fashion Thinking is social, ludic, anticipatory, transformative, reciprocal and aims beyond interdisciplinarity to a state of indisciplinarity. Such a term implies the state of being among disciplines but also being outside of or oblivious to them, indeed, unwilling to be 'disciplined' per se, preferring instead the often turbulent, unruly, and invariably seductive margins where fields of activity overlap.
Sternberg Press, 1208pp, 3cm x 18cm, illustrated paperback, 2025
