Besides being used as a measure of one’s clout, fashion is a powerful means of communication, oppression, and resistance. Between Kanye West’s ‘refugee camp’ collection and miniskirts being used as a sign of Afghanistan’s modernization, the way we choose to present our bodies for public consumption is more powerful than might meet the eye. Starting with images of illegal fashion she documented in her book Tehran Streetstyle, Hoda Katebi will guide participants through an engaging conversation exploring the politics of fashion and what it reveals about contemporary structures of violence — and modes of resistance.
Hoda Katebi is a Chicago-based Muslim-Iranian abolitionist, author, community organizer and radical fashion blogger. She graduated from the University of Chicago in 2016 where her research focused on the politics of the underground fashion movement in Iran and the intersections of feminism, resistance, fashion and nation-hood. In 2013 she started JooJoo Azad, a radical, anti-capitalist fashion blog which was followed by the 2016 publication of Tehran Streetstyle, the first-ever in-print collection of streetstyle photography from Iran aimed to challenge both Orientalism and Iranian mandatory dress codes.
Doors open at 7 p.m. The lecture is open and FREE to both students and the public, and will have an integrated Q&A section.