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Researcher
Nicola Brajato
- Research Expertise:My main expertise can be identified in the critical understanding of the socio-cultural and political relationship between fashion and masculinities. Thus, my academic work develops at the intersection of three specific fields of research: (men's) fashion studies, critical studies on men and masculinities, and queer studies. My PhD project, funded by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) and conducted in the Faculty of Social Sciences, represented the first attempt at analyzing Antwerp fashion through the lens of the queering of masculinities. The analysis developed through this research project, which focused on the critical fashion practices of internationally recognized Antwerp-trained designers like Walter Van Beirendonck, Dirk Bikkembergs, Raf Simons, Bernhard Willhelm and Glenn Martens, has allowed a multifaceted understanding of the relationship between fashion and masculinity through the perspectives of gender, sexuality, and the body, and most importantly, how in the Antwerp fashion scene we can identify an incubator for vanguardist fashion practices characterized by a particular attitude toward designing menswear and representing the male body. This study was based on a qualitative content analysis of (audio)visual and textual materials collected during archival research in Belgian and international (fashion) museums and interviews with relevant personalities from the field who have first-hand experience with the rise of Antwerp fashion. Specifically, after having undertaken a case study approach to achieve a sufficiently in-depth and specific understanding of the selected designers' critical fashion practices, I analyzed the materials collected during archival research through a visual social semiotic reading. The latter can be considered an instrument to reveal things that are not evident at first sight while also bringing to light contradictions between verbal and visual messages. Throughout the research, visual social semiotics helped to highlight how the structure of (audio)visual materials contributed to the representation of non-conforming masculinities. After having addressed the meaning of normative masculinities in relation to (representations of) the dressed body in the theoretical framework, the analysis sought to pinpoint more clearly how the selected designers subvert and transform oppressive and monolithic ideas of masculinity by using the adorned body as a social and political site of opposition that favors individuality and self-determination. The detailed analysis of (audio)visual materials was then supported by the analysis of text-based objects, which provided insights into the designers’ opinions on the critical impetus of their works and on their thinking about gender, masculinity, and sexuality. Fashion invitations, press releases, show reviews as well as newspaper and magazine articles further helped to decode and contextualize the meanings of the collections. Thus, the juxtaposition of (audio)visual and textual evidence provided a method to solidify the meanings emerging from the images or, at times, to highlight the discrepancies between visual and textual meanings. Starting in November 2023, a new postdoctoral project, always funded by the FWO, has allowed me to move my investigation on the critical understanding of the relationship between men and fashion to the realm of everyday life. Consequently, my analysis has moved to the realm of qualitative ethnography. To understand the impact of gendered norms and normative assumptions of masculinity on the dressed male body in everyday life, the project is mainly conducted through the wardrobe studies method, which, by bridging material culture and embodied research methods, is ideal to reconcile the materiality of clothing with the practice of wearing them within wider relational and social contexts.
- Keywords:GENDER AND SEXUALITY, MEN'S DRESS AND FASHION, QUEER EMBODIMENTS, QUALITATIVE RESEARCH, INTERVIEW, THEORETICAL STUDY, SOCIO-CULTURAL THEORY, Political and social sciences
- Disciplines:Social change, Social theory and sociological methods, Other sociology and anthropology, Political theory and methodology, Other political science, Human geography, Urban and regional geography, Other social and economic geography, Communication sciences, Media studies, Other media and communications, Other social sciences, Gender, sexuality and education, Cultural sociology, Material culture studies, Queer studies, Feminist philosophy, Social and political philosophy, Fashion design, Anthropology, Applied sociology
- Research techniques:Archival research Visual social semiotics Qualitative semi-structured interviews Wardrobe studies Embodied research methods Material culture
- Users of research expertise:The primary target group that can make good use of this expertise or services is academia, which includes professors, students, and researchers in subjects like fashion studies, cultural studies, queer studies, critical studies on men and masculinities, and other related fields. Any context that provides a course or module on men's fashion cultures and on gender and sexuality in fashion can benefit from this expertise for both graduate and undergraduate students. This could potentially be used in graduate-level research courses and other programs that aim to go beyond conventional notions of gender and sexuality in connection to clothing and the body. Because of its theoretical and methodological underpinnings, this expertise could be implemented in courses that aim to provide critical perspectives on masculinities and the male body. This expertise can also involve a secondary target, which includes media and the general audience interested in aspects related to masculinity and history, culture, and meaning in men’s fashion and dress.