The late Vivienne Westwood sketched a role for fashion that elevates it from the prosaic to the status of art, as something important, life-enhancing, and worthy of pursuit. Here, a philosophical treatment of Westwood’s vision of fashion that does justice to the artistic and life-enhancing value that fashion can realise is offered, using an emergent theory in contemporary analytic aesthetics. The virtue theory of art delineates the intrinsic worth of art in terms of the opportunities it provides for us to (...) exercise and cultivate virtues such as courage, self-expression, imagination, wit, or authenticity. Our engagement with art can subsequently be genuinely life-enhancing in lieu of the constitutive role the virtues play in living well. The present study takes Westwood’s claims as a jumping-off point, considering how they speak not just to her own designs but to our relationship with our clothes more broadly. Fashion is defended as a practice that performs this function in analogous ways to other genres of art and thus has clear artistic value as well as enables us to live well. Given this potential, just as Westwood claimed, there are reasons to perform the practice well because it has importance for the ways in which it can realise artistic value and aid us in living well. (shrink)

The body is relevant for aesthetics from two perspectives. We experience and assess bodies aesthetically from the outside; and we have aesthetic experiences of and through our bodies from the inside. In experiences of one’s own body, these perspectives often intersect in interesting ways. From both perspectives, the body is a site where aesthetic and ethical considerations are deeply intertwined. This article includes discussion of Beauty and the Body, Aesthetic Body Practices, Body Aesthetics and Gender Construction, Somatic Dimensions of Aesthetic (...) Experience, and The Body in Contemporary Art. (shrink)

Resumo: O setor de vestuário trouxe novas chances de desenvolvimento ao mercado, como resultado do avanço da sociedade e da expansão da cultura e da arte. Além de ter alto valor decorativo, como sua extensão e ampliação, o desempenho do vestuário também pode existir, independentemente, como uma arte. No entanto, ao moldar a imagem artística do desempenho do vestuário, o foco principal concentra-se na apresentação de imagens externas, sem a expressão das características rítmicas e conotativas dos movimentos corporais, o que (...) não apenas enfraquece o efeito visual do desempenho, mas também afeta sua integridade e continuidade. Portanto, compreender a relação entre o desempenho do vestuário e o corpo e promover sua integração e penetração mútuas são de grande valor e importância, para o desenvolvimento atual da arte visual. A filosofia do corpo é uma disciplina filosófica que explora o corpo e as experiências corporais. Ela preocupa-se com a maneira como o corpo percebe e existe. Isso pode encorajar atores e figurinistas a considerarem como as roupas moldam e comunicam a identidade social e pessoal, além de observarem como a performance do figurino pode explorar a diversidade e a mudança de identidade. O presente artigo explica a relação entre o corpo e a estética, com base na história do desenvolvimento, na função e no valor do desempenho das roupas, combinados com a teoria da filosofia do corpo, a fim de estudar mais profundamente a relação entre o desempenho do vestuário e o corpo, de sorte a aumentar a eficácia do desempenho do vestuário. Do ponto de vista da filosofia do corpo, trata-se de um fator indispensável no desempenho do figurino. Este, por sua vez, pode alcançar a expressão artística do corpo, sendo que ambos interagem e se promovem. A íntima relação entre os dois tem importância significativa para o alcance de níveis mais elevados de representação visual, no desenvolvimento das atividades estéticas. (shrink)

Self-presentation is a complex phenomenon through which individuals present themselves in performance of social roles. The success of such performances rests not just on how well a performer fulfills expectations regarding the role she would play, but on whether observers find her convincing. I focus on how self-presentation entails making use of material environment and objects: One may “dress for the part” and employ props that suit a desired role. However, regardless of dress or props, one can nonetheless fail to (...) “look the part” owing to expectations informed by biases patterned along commonplace social stereotypes. Using the social role of philosopher as my example, I analyze how the stereotype attached to this role carries implications for how demographically under-represented philosophers may self-present, specifically with regard to dress and decoration. I look, in particular, to the alienation from one's material environment that may follow on the frustration of self-presentation through bias. One pernicious effect of bias, I argue, is the power it has to deform and distort its target's relation to her physical setting and objects. Where comfort and ease in one's material environment can be a significant ethico-aesthetic good, bias can inhibit access to, and enjoyment of, this good. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Individual differences in bodily beauty result in significant differences in life outcomes. Some such differences seem unwarranted. On this basis, various authors have argued that there is a kind of discrimination—lookism—that affects those who are aesthetically disadvantaged. Several strategies have been proposed to address lookism. One aim of this paper is to draw a distinction between two sorts of anti-lookist strategies. Redistributive approaches propose to alter the current distribution of beauty, either by broadening beauty standards, or by giving individuals (...) more options to improve their appearance. Revisionary approaches argue that we should drop our current conception of human beauty in favour of one that is more compatible with social justice goals. Another aim of the paper is to argue that two problems posed by revisionary strategies represent a prima facie reason to prefer redistributive ones. Both problems are rooted in a trade-off between value and justice that is characteristic of revisionary approaches. (shrink)

Individual differences in bodily beauty result in significant differences in life outcomes. Some such differences seem unwarranted. On this basis, various authors have argued that there is a kind of discrimination—lookism—that affects those who are aesthetically disadvantaged. Several strategies have been proposed to address lookism. One aim of this paper is to draw a distinction between two sorts of anti-lookist strategies. Redistributive approaches propose to alter the current distribution of beauty, either by broadening beauty standards, or by giving individuals more (...) options to improve their appearance. Revisionary approaches argue that we should drop our current conception of human beauty in favour of one that is more compatible with social justice goals. Another aim of the paper is to argue that two problems posed by revisionary strategies represent a prima facie reason to prefer redistributive ones. Both problems are rooted in a trade-off between value and justice that is characteristic of revisionary approaches. (shrink)