The Meta-Suit; De-Re-Constructing The Ultimate Masculine Attire
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Journal Title
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School of Arts, Design and Architecture |
Doctoral thesis (monograph)
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Author
Date
2021
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Language
en
Pages
139
Series
Aalto University publication series DOCTORAL DISSERTATIONS, 149/2021
Abstract
Fashion seems an ever-changing phenomenon, defining the particular social and sexual mores of various epochs. However, a closer look reveals the male suit as an enduring form, implicated in performances of power and masculinity since its inception. Nevertheless, how a suit is designed and worn can also challenge, resist and reconfigure male identity. Judith Butler asserts that we perform our gender through iteration, yet she refers to clothing in Bodies that Matter as follows: The misapprehension about gender performa tivity is this: that gender is a choice, or that gender is a role, or that gender is a construction that one puts on, as one puts on clothes in the morning, that there is a 'one' who is prior to this gender, a one who goes to the wardrobe of gender and decides with deliberation which gender it will be today. (Butler, 1993: 21–22) Gender performativity is therefore literally enacted through the wardrobe with the male suit as a persistent visual and embodied iteration of masculinity. This is not prior to the gendering but is a means of constructing gender, which is then performed in a variety of ways through additions and subtractions. Building on Butler’s logic, masculinity itself can be understood as a type of performance, with multiple masculinities existing along a continuum from the conventional to the progressive. Susan Pitt and Christopher Fox’s (2013) concept of ‘performative masculinity’ contends that men strategically shift between varying masculinities depending on their needs and context, thereby reshaping what it means to be ‘masculine’. Researching the male suit as an enduring symbol of male fashion, this practice-based study explores the potential for the suit to act as a meta-form, one that is capable of adapting to the needs of its wearer in day-to-day life. While the ubiquitous suit is already performing masculinity — some would say white male hetero superiority — how it is decorated, altered and worn allows the wearer to question, reinforce or resist gender performativity. This also relates to how the garment constructs not just identity but the daily expression of ‘situated spatial practices’. Adopting the iterative method of Design Action Research, this interdisciplinary doctoral study analyses the suit — specifically the late 19th-century lounge suit with matching jacket and trousers — as a persistent Euro-Western globalised archetype of masculine dress and further challenges the enduring form of the ubiquitous male suit through the design gestures of addition and subtraction. This involves extending interdisciplinary discourse on the suit as it evolved over three and a half centuries by situating it within a spectrum of historical, sociological, and design theo ries. These are then applied to concepts and practices of embodiment and performativity through my own practice-based research as a performance designer, played out in a series of workshops, collections, and installations. The creative investigations result in a proposition of the ‘meta-suit’ as a hybrid and mutable form of self-expression in the ever-changing performances of masculinity, carving a potential future for the archetypal suit into the 21st century.This meta-suit design represents both a concept and a physical artefact. Through the iterative stages of its physical development, combined with the interactive and co-productive nature of the collections and ‘performance’ installations, the meta-suit stands as both an embodiment and manifestation of the fluidity and multiplicity of masculinities. In this way, its development process and final design stand as this project’s main contribution to the evolution and sharing of knowledge about how masculinity is, and can be, expressed.Description
Defence is held on 3.12.2021 12:00 – 14:00
via remote technology: https://aalto.zoom.us/j/66888968409
Supervising professor
Ikonen, Liisa, Prof., Aalto University, Department of Film, Television and Scenography, FinlandThesis advisor
Hannah, Dorita, Prof., University of Auckland, New ZealandEdwards, Tim, Prof., University of Nottingham, UK
Keywords
suit, peacock, masculinity, performative masculinity, male dress decoration, meta-suit, deconstruction, reconstruction, de-re-construction, addition and subtraction, concealing and revealing, interdisciplinary, design action research, practice based
