“Well-dressed” in suits of Australian wool : The global fiber wars and masculine material literacy, 1950–1965
Journal article
Bellanta, Melissa and Cramer, Lorinda. (2023). “Well-dressed” in suits of Australian wool : The global fiber wars and masculine material literacy, 1950–1965. Fashion Theory. 27(6), pp. 861-888. https://doi.org/10.1080/1362704X.2023.2228009
Authors | Bellanta, Melissa and Cramer, Lorinda |
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Abstract | The global explosion of synthetic fibers in the mid-twentieth century challenged Australia’s wool industry, demanding new ways of marketing the natural fiber to compete with these so-called modern miracles. The menswear market changed profoundly with the convenience of synthetic fabrics and the excitement that surrounded the power of science embodied in these clothes. Some Australian men turned to the “Your Clothes” feature in Man: The Australian Magazine for Men to understand what being “well-dressed” meant across these years of rapid change. A suit was a key component. Though pure wool had long been the cloth of choice, those made from new synthetics or a blend of wool and artificial fibers proliferated at the time. This article explores the efforts of Man’s fashion columnists to help their readers navigate the changes taking place to textiles across 1950–1965 by developing their material literacy. It further captures how the mid-century fiber wars played out across the pages of the magazine, contributing a distinctly Australian perspective to the global competition for consumers that was shaped by the nation’s pride in its fine wool and its intensifying efforts to combine the fiber’s natural advantages with those of “modern science.” |
Keywords | men’s suits; Man magazine; Australian wool; synthetics; materiality |
Year | 2023 |
Journal | Fashion Theory |
Journal citation | 27 (6), pp. 861-888 |
Publisher | Routledge |
ISSN | 1751-7419 |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1080/1362704X.2023.2228009 |
Scopus EID | 2-s2.0-85164141051 |
Web address (URL) | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1362704X.2023.2228009 |
Open access | Published as ‘gold’ (paid) open access |
Research or scholarly | Research |
Page range | 861-888 |
Funder | Australian Research Council (ARC) |
Publisher's version | License File Access Level Open |
Output status | Published |
Publication dates | |
Online | 30 Jun 2023 |
Publication process dates | |
Deposited | 08 Aug 2023 |
ARC Funded Research | This output has been funded, wholly or partially, under the Australian Research Council Act 2001 |
Grant ID | DP190103341 |
Additional information | © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. |
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent. |
https://acuresearchbank.acu.edu.au/item/8z7q4/-well-dressed-in-suits-of-australian-wool-the-global-fiber-wars-and-masculine-material-literacy-1950-1965
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Publisher's version
Bellanta_2023_Well_dressed_in_suits_of_Australian.pdf | |
License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 | |
File access level: Open |
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