The focus of «Fusion Fashion» is on Orientalism as a sartorial practice, which has to be differentiated from the common knowledge of Orientalism by means of its organization, constitution and reception. The book offers historic as well as systematic perspectives. On the one hand, it compares orientalizing practices in fashion since the Tang Period in China and European Renaissance. On the other hand, it highlights current tendencies of so called «orientalism», «self-orientalism», «occidentalism» in a globalized world. The book covers two time periods: Orientalized fashion practices from the 16th to the beginning of the 20th century, with an emphasis on European «Oriental» practices, and the period beginning in the 1990s up to the present day, with an emphasis on non-Western sartorial practices. Gertrud Lehnert is Professor of Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies at the University of Potsdam. Her research focuses on the theory and history of fashion and on gender history. Gabriele Mentges is Professor of Cultural Anthropology of Material Culture at the department Art and Material Culture, Technical University of Dortmund, research and teaching focus on fashion history, museology, design history, body and gender history.
