"Did you know that cotton—the most popular material for clothing—won’t grow in Europe? Did anyone ever tell you that the clothes that modern men’s suits developed from were originally Persian?  And that the pattern we call Paisley is too? And that some of the elements of the iconic American cowboy outfit came from Mexico? In fact, all these and many more styles that are commonly worn in the West originally came from somewhere else, and some styles that originated in the West are now global. Fashion can tell you a huge amount about culture, nationalism, human communication, international trade, economics, conquest, assimilation, exploitation, and more, and we will be examining those themes in this class. There are positive things about the global aspects of fashion: international trade brought wealth, purpose, and recognition to many and our lives and clothes have been enriched by the ideas about appearance different cultures have long exchanged.  Yet, there are lots of negatives. Local dress and textile traditions and practices have been eroded by industrialization, by the exploitation of subject and minority peoples, and by the spread of garments such as blue jeans and the entire fast fashion industry. The demands of cotton production were a big part of the impetus behind slavery in the U.S. and the subsequent sharecropper system. The fashion industry is one of the largest polluters on Earth. Minority culture has been a significant driver of style in the West, but the fashion system often makes money from such cultures while excluding those whose cultural touchstones are being used. Over the course of the semester, the class will examine the history and process, and positives and negatives of this longstanding exchange and some of the results that we are struggling with today."

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