examining the visual culture through the fashion used by the pop-cultural geek community at comic...

Examining visual culture through the fashion used by the pop-cultural geek community at Comic Conventions

Submitted By:Tanya Mathew

Master of Design

Subject:Language of Fashion

Faculty:Sharmilla Dua

17.11.2015NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FASHION TECHNOLOGY

Fashion is a language of signs, symbols and iconography that non-verbally communicate meanings about individuals and groups.

Pauline Thomas, 2004

Defining the pop culture geek

comic conventions

cosplay & fashion innovation

crossplay and blurring gender identity

casual fashion of the pop culture geek

geek couture

geek chic

India and popular culture

CoNTENTS

Defining the pop culture geek

This study attempts to analyse the shifting meaning of the ‘subculture of the pop culture geek’ traditionally socially marginalised through the fashion that is seen adorning the community today with a focus on Comic Conventions globally, and in India.

A geek is traditionally defined using terms such as ‘unfashionable’, ‘ intellectual’, ‘socially inept’, ‘enthusiast’, ‘unpopular’. With a particular focus on the pop culture geek in view of the pop cultural phenomenon today, the geek is no longer stigmatised as the originally conceived as a cruel label and has moved beyond the

identity of ‘socially awkward’ and ‘unfashionable’ to focus on the ‘ intellectual enthusiast’. And their presence at Comic Conventions displays a whole new side to them, one that is flamboyant and relies on visual signage that is fuelled by their virtue of being a fan.

Henry Jenkins identifies a fan is born ‘not by being a regular viewer of a particular program but by translating that viewing into some cultural activity, by sharing feelings and thoughts about the program content with friends, by joining a community of other fans who share common interests.’ i The term ‘participatory’ emphasises the way fans take elements from

their favourite tv show, or– a character, and make something new with it. They pay a particular kind of attention with commitment to design replica artwork, and this is highly translated into their everyday clothing.

Ben Bolling points out that pop culture fans, regardless of the area of fandom, “constitute a unique and fully realised culture, with its own values, standards beliefs, rituals and has helped to increase the level of mainstream cultural acceptance for comics, video games, etc.” ii

comic conventions

Comic-con is the ultimate merging of culture and commerce and that makes it the perfect place to study how popular culture works in the twenty-first century. It is where you leave reality at the door, and

embrace the fantastical.

Comic conventions are held all across the globe, the most popular being the San Diego Comic Con. India has been hosting comic

cons since 2011 in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, and Hyderabad and is attended widely by fans and others alike.

Indians cosplaying at Comic Con Delhi 2013Crowd at San Diego Comic Con 2014

Cosplay is the combination of the terms ‘Costume’ and ‘Play’ and embraces costume innovation and theatricality. The idea is not only dress up as your favourite character, but to embody them and interact with other con-goers creating a whole new dynamic to it.

The Berg Fashion library defines cosplay as a global practice of building costumes and performing as characters from manga (Japanese comic books), anime (Japanese animation), and other popular sources. Cosplay is also a Japanese subculture, whose performance venue is more public than fan conventions.

It promotes creativity through make up, accessories, making props out of

cosplay

Indians cosplaying as various characters

Russian cosplayers: Team Rocket from Pokemon

junk and household materials.

Cospaying promotes innovativeness in material,. “Apparel is a part of an economy of signs. It embodies cultural capital, as the result of design and marketing activities. It is also the fruit of technology and labor. Goods are linked to material culture changing over time and space and to mobilisation of technology changing over time and space.” iii

As cosplay has evolved, a blurring of the distinction between costumes based on characters from manga and anime, and original costumes based on street fashions, has begun to manifest new fashion hybrids and identity groups. Cosplay has become a distinctive street style whose repercussions in fashion are evident.

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‘War’ from the game:Darksiders Dungeon

‘Groot’ from the movie:Guardians of the Galaxy

Indian Cosplayer at Delhi Comic Con 2014.Subject Delta from the game:

Indian Cosplayer at Mumbai Comic Con 2015.

Soldier from the Warhammer Boardgame SeriesIN

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YScosplay & fashion innovation

Barnard, M. (2007). Fashion theory: A reader. London:.Routledge


















‘Crossplay’ is a portmanteau of crossdressing and cosplay is another phenomenon which allows individuals dressing up as characters of the opposite gender, or reshaping characters in the opposite gender. This shows the fluidity of gender identities and the embracing of all forms of masculinity and feminity by the pop culture geek.

If fashion is a political statement as Tim Edwards says in his essay ‘Express Yourself: The Politics of Dressing Up’ then crossplaying joins in on identity politics and is blurring gender identities. iv

Wonder Woman at Comic Con Hyderabad 2014

Ryuko Matoi from the anime Kill-la-Kill at Comic Con Mumbai 2014

crossplay

Aorin Shariyari from India cosplaying as a female Sub-Zero from the popular game series Mortal Kombat at Mumbai Comic Con 2014 Female Batman

Japanese man cosplaying as the female character Haruhi Suzumiya from the manga of the same name

casual fashion of the pop culture geek

The popularity of fandom T-shirts and slogan T-shirts is a popular identifier of the pop culture geek and is sold like hot cakes at Comic Cons. The perfect example of this would be Sheldon Cooper and his ‘nerd’ shirts from ‘The Big Bang Theory’ series. Geeks ‘wear their heart on their sleeve’ wherein ‘heart’ is their geek cult following and ‘sleeve’ is literally their shirt. “They are looking to connect with fellow geeks, establish their own subcultural capital, and even promote their favourite material to the unconverted.”

blatant visual signageThe entire community thrives on references and inside jokes

and enjoys the sense of reversed superiority they attain with these hidden messages that remain a mystery to the non-geek, or their oppressors. These designs enforce a certain reversed dichotomy in which the geek is now considered superior.

These t-shirts act as a blatant visual sign used as a source of pride for the fandom and to attract other fans. These shirts provide geeks at cons and in general life to sort of nip the social awkwardness in meeting new people and skip straight to sharing their interests in very pronounced ways.

A popular t-shirt design from the 1979 sci-fi novel ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ by Douglas Adams, which refers to the famous and hilarious ‘Whale’ scene. This would be oblivious to an individual unaware of the book.

and computers, nerdcore hip-hop acts, and books and magazines such as Geek Chic, She’s Such a Geek, and Geek Monthly. Such products represent a shift in how fans identify themselves and how traditionally denigrated media use practices have diffused into mainstream culture more broadly.

sexual identityT-shirts with “I *heart* Geeks” slogans challenge the lack of sexual appeal of geeks and allow women to outwardly challenge the stereotype of geeks as romantically or sexually undesirable.

masculinity & FEMINITYAccording to Lori Kendall, the male is typically the ‘default gender coding for geek’, and the woman is often defined only in relation to men. v Popular clothing stores offer limited choices for women, mostly propogating the visual image of feminity through the pink colour through pink t-shirts. Some stores do not even offer t-shirt cuts for female body types for the male t-shirts they normally offer.

Shirts related to multiplayer gaming aggressively assert traditional masculine identities.

ThinkGeek represents one of many product lines overtly targeting self-identified geeks and nerds, alongside comics about science

Counter Strike Gaming T-shirt sold on Amazon

Feminine geek t-shirt sold on zazzle.

For a community so strongly linked with the ‘unfashionable’ has in the present times, not only been able to influence the global fashion world through geek chic, but has also embraced fashion through the first geek couture fashion show organised by Her Universe, which was held in the stalwart San Diego Comic-Con. Fandom fashion retailer Her Universe called upon the galaxy’s most stylish designers, both professional and amateur, to present their original, handmade creations on the runway all of which are influenced by various interests in the pop culture phenomenon. These clothes symbolise Henry Jenkins’s idea of the ‘fan’ and its influences are divergent ranging from ‘Pokemon’ to ‘Doctor Who’.

geek couture

Dalek inspired wedding dress Iron Man Dress Bioware Line

“Geek chic” refers to a minor fashion trend that emerged mid 2000s in which people adopted stereotypically “geeky” fashions, such as oversized black horn-rimmed glasses, suspenders/braces, and highwater trousers. Thick frames generally symbolise intelligence, and is worn without lens. Fashionastas embrace the ‘ intellectual’ look of geeks to create something fashionable and quirky.

These are generally used by non-geeks and do not acknowledge this ‘geekiness’ central to their identity; rather, they mean it as a lighthearted acknowledgement of their own esoteric interests. They are identifying themselves as fans with a wide variety of interests and knowledge pool in said interest.

geek chicPhotographed by Angelo Pennetta, Vogue, September 2015

Photographed by Kevin Tachman

India and popular culture

Comic Con in India since its inception in 2011 was limited to a niche crowd. The country’s overbearing population finds even the uninterested, non-fan at the comic cons.

India does not lag behind in terms of embracing the pop cultural phenomenon. The comic cons held in India are largely dominated by foreign movies, comics, games etc, as their respective Indian industry has not been able to achieve such a strong globalised standing as the Western World has. Partly, also because the pop culture geek relies on the use of the internet for converging of ideas and is hard to avoid this effect of globalisation.

Indian-based stores such as Osomwear , Captain KYSO and Poster Gully also offer T-shirts, accessories, electronic accessories, home furnishing that embrace popular culture within India and abroad offering Indian fans a similar way to express their love through their fashion choices.

Comic Cons at India even celebrate cosplay competitions with great prizes such as tickets to the New York Comic Con and Hong Kong DisneyLand.

A cosplayer at Hyderabad Comic Con 2015

Products sold at various Indian Comic Cons

i Rose, G. (2001). Visual methodologies An introduction to Researching with visual materials. London: Sage.ii Bolling, B. (2014). It happens at Comic-Con ethnographic essays on a pop culture phenomenon. McFarland.iii Paulicelli, E. (2009). The fabric of cultures: Fashion, identity, and globalization. London: Routledge.iv Barnard, M. (2007). Fashion theory: A reader. London: Routledge.vKendall, L. (1999). Nerd nation: Images of nerds in US popular culture. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 2(2):260-283.

Lev-Ram, M. (2015). Star Wars fan girls, meet your (fashion) savior. Fortune.Com, N.PAG.

Tocci, J. (2009). Geek cultures: Media and identity in the digital age. Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. Paper 953.

Barthes, R. (1985). The fashion system. London: Cape.

Welters, L. (2011). The fashion reader (2nd ed.). Oxford: Berg.

Davis, F. (1994). Fashion, culture, and identity (Pbk. ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

References & Bibliography Images

Photos are collected from personal photography taken at Comic Con in India, the official Comic Con photo gallery and the omnipotent Google.

WEBSITES:

http://www.popsugar.com/tech/Geek-Couture-Fashion-Show-35327005

http://www.vogue.com/