This Special Issue of the Journal of Global Slavery, guest edited by Royce Mahawatte and in collaboration between the University of the Arts London and the Bonn Centre for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS), places enslavement and other examples of ‘asymmetric dependencies’ at the centre of how fashion industries, fashion cultures, and fashioned embodiment are understood. The term ‘asymmetric dependency’ is ‘the ability of one actor to control the actions and the access to resources of another’ and it acknowledges the full range of unequal labour relations across history that have supported fashion systems.[1] The role of enslavement (and the subsequent denial of it); indentured labour arrangements; unpaid work; zero-hour contracts; punitive contracts (albeit relatively high-earning ones), and sweatshop labour deserve a place in our analysis. Unequal arrangements are essential, both historically, and in the present day, to the existence of fashion systems, and perhaps even essential to the idea of ‘being fashionable’ itself. Whether on the body, or on the page or screen, one of the main features of fashion discourse is to obscure the legacy of the enslaved, and often racialised, labour that bring fashioned products into being.
Please send a 250 word abstract and a 100 word bio to Dr Royce Mahawatte, r.mahawatte@csm.arts.ac.uk by 10 May 2023 (deadline for final article submission 30 December 2023). This address can also be used for any enquires.