Neorealism, the bra and the new Indian woman in Satyajit Ray’s The Big City

Through the filmic lens of West Bengali director Satyajit Ray’s masterpiece The Big City (Mahanagar 1963), this article focuses on the symbolic meaning of the bra in postcolonial India. It reveals the ways in which the semi-hidden bra in the film functions as a contested site of patriarchal Indian modernity versus Euro-Western modernity and, in the style of neorealist cinema, a utopia of postcolonial and postnational feminine agency. Through textual analysis, the article delves into the influences of Italian neorealist cinema on Ray’s aesthetic choices and compares power, dress and femininity across western and non-western contexts. It articulates cultural similarities and differences and how dream-like cinematic narratives of everyday practices of power dressing provide a window into neoliberal performativity and utopian ambitions for feminine agency during periods of modernization and change. This article contributes to fashion and film studies outside of the mainstream cinemas of Hollywood and Bollywood. By analyzing the bra, the article extends Indian dress culture scholarship beyond the traditional sari to reveal a deeper set of postcolonial identity constructions. It also extends influential western scholarship on power dressing and intimate wear (corset, bra, lingerie and hosiery), and their links to modernity, sexuality and femininity, to a non-western context

Business of Fashion, Textiles & Technology: Mapping the UK Fashion, Textiles and Technology Ecosystem

This is the first report originating from the Business of Fashion, Textiles & Technology Creative R&D Partnership (BFTT, CRDP), led by University of the Arts London, as part of the Creative Industries Cluster Programme, delivered by the AHRC. Mapping the UK Fashion, Textiles and Technology Ecosystem, aims to identify opportunities for investment, research and development, business growth, job creation and tackle skills gaps in the UK fashion, textiles and technology (FTT) ecosystem. Based on a survey consultation that engaged over 2,400 small, medium and micro businesses (SMEs) and over 100 stakeholders and intermediaries, including industry specialists, trade bodies and workspace providers, the report is one of the most extensive baseline studies to date on FTT SMEs and the first comprehensive insight into the UK FTT ecosystem leading up to March 2020, pre-Covid-19. This survey has been instrumental in gaining an in-depth understanding of the polycentric nature of the sector and its geographical spread. This should strongly influence both how the sector is viewed as an economic resource of national importance and the future allocation of the R&D it needs to access in order to thrive — this research also provides initial insights for progress post-Covid. Fashion and apparel is estimated to contribute £35 billion to the British economy every year, while £74 billion+ is spent by UK consumers on wider apparel, clothing accessories, household textiles and carpets, accounting for 890,000 people employed across the UK, and £9 billion of export

Crossing boundaries:bras, lingerie and rape myths in postcolonial urban middle-class India

With the processes of modernization, urbanization and the entry of women in the formal labour market in Indian metropolitan spaces, this paper examines how the modern middle-class woman’s sartorial choices become enmeshed in popular rape myths (false beliefs) that serve to blame her for the wearing of western clothing. The paper articulates the ways in which middle-class women’s social realities are shaped by historical, colonial and nationalist ideologies of modernization, constructed and mediated through moral codes of dressing. By drawing upon original and contemporary empirical narratives from the urban spaces of Delhi and Mumbai, we emphasise how everyday sartorial choices, in relation to particularly the bra and lingerie, can reveal the nuanced ways in which Urban Indian Professional Women (UIPW) seek to understand, negotiate, and resist patriarchal power. Our findings shed light on conflicting and contradictory spatial experiences, where some women internalize and negotiate moral codes of dressing, out of fear, and others who transgress are subject to sanctions. Given the paucity of scholarly literature in this area, the paper makes an important theoretical and empirical contribution with its focus on postcoloniality and everyday discursive material spaces of gendered and sexualized dress practices. It argues for the consciousness raising of everyday urban geographies of dress that reveal complicated structures of power that are often deemed hidden

Frequency of transmission, asymptomatic shedding, and airborne spread of Streptococcus pyogenes in schoolchildren exposed to scarlet fever: a prospective, longitudinal, multicohort, molecular epidemiological, contact-tracing study in England, UK

Background: Despite recommendations regarding prompt treatment of cases and enhanced hygiene measures, scarlet fever outbreaks increased in England between 2014 and 2018. We aimed to assess the effects of standard interventions on transmission of Streptococcus pyogenes to classroom contacts, households, and classroom environments to inform future guidance. Methods: We did a prospective, longitudinal, multicohort, molecular epidemiological, contact-tracing study in six settings across five schools in Greater London, UK. Schools and nurseries were eligible to participate if they had reported two cases of scarlet fever within 10 days of each other among children aged 2–8 years from the same class, with the most recent case arising in the preceding 48 h. We cultured throat swabs from children with scarlet fever, classroom contacts, and household contacts at four timepoints. We also cultured hand swabs and cough plates from all cases in years 1 and 2 of the study, and from classroom contacts in year 2. Surface swabs from toys and other fomites in classrooms were cultured in year 1, and settle plates from classrooms were collected in year 2. Any sample with S pyogenes detected was recorded as positive and underwent emm genotyping and genome sequencing to compare with the outbreak strain. Findings: Six classes, comprising 12 cases of scarlet fever, 17 household contacts, and 278 classroom contacts were recruited between March 1 and May 31, 2018 (year 1), and between March 1 and May 31, 2019 (year 2). Asymptomatic throat carriage of the outbreak strains increased from 11 (10%) of 115 swabbed children in week 1, to 34 (27%) of 126 in week 2, to 26 (24%) of 108 in week 3, and then five (14%) of 35 in week 4. Compared with carriage of outbreak S pyogenes strains, colonisation with non-outbreak and non-genotyped S pyogenes strains occurred in two (2%) of 115 swabbed children in week 1, five (4%) of 126 in week 2, six (6%) of 108 in week 3, and in none of the 35 children in week 4 (median carriage for entire study 2·8% [IQR 0·0–6·6]). Genome sequencing showed clonality of outbreak isolates within each of six classes, confirming that recent transmission accounted for high carriage. When transmissibility was tested, one (9%) of 11 asymptomatic carriers of emm4 and five (36%) of 14 asymptomatic carriers of emm3.93 had a positive cough plate. The outbreak strain was identified in only one (2%) of 60 surface swabs taken from three classrooms; however, in the two classrooms with settle plates placed in elevated locations, two (17%) of 12 and six (50%) of 12 settle plates yielded the outbreak strain. Interpretation: Transmission of S pyogenes in schools is intense and might occur before or despite reported treatment of cases, underlining a need for rapid case management. Despite guideline adherence, heavy shedding of S pyogenes by few classroom contacts might perpetuate outbreaks, and airborne transmission has a plausible role in its spread. These findings highlight the need for research to improve understanding and to assess effectiveness of interventions to reduce airborne transmission of S pyogenes. Funding: Action Medical Research, UK Research Innovation, and National Institute for Health Research

The Power and Postcolonial Meanings of Lingerie for Urban Professional Indian Women Living In India

The purpose of this research is to investigate the power and postcolonial meanings of lingerie for urban Indian professional women (UIPW) living in India to better understand the consumer behaviour of lingerie consumption. This critical marketing studies thesis adds to the existing studies of lingerie to argue that little is understood about the social meanings behind the growth in lingerie in India. It analyses the ways in which lingerie is instrumental to how urban Indian women sartorially negotiate colonial and national tensions of sexual identity. An interdisciplinary conceptual framework utilising Foucauldian power and an original application of Saidian orientalism are used to critique lingerie advertising practices in India and its implications for developing the discourse of cross-cultural consumer behaviour for postcolonial contexts. An interdisciplinary, interpretive, qualitative, mixed methods case study approach was undertaken in the urban Indian cities of Delhi and Bombay between the periods 2010 – 2014. The research design consisted of: a content analysis of lingerie advertising in the magazines Vogue India and Femina between the post-media-liberalisation years 2003 to 2014; visual and textual analysis of lingerie in three selective Indian films; 106 semistructured surveys conducted amongst UIPW in the urban cities of Delhi and Bombay; two focus groups in Bombay and Delhi and fifteen in-depth interviews. Data analysis included SPSS analysis and discourse analysis. Findings reveal the contradictory ways in which female sartorial identity in India is caught up in competing postcolonial forces of control and resistance demarcated along the lines of cultural, social and economic capital, therefore differing from existing western studies of lingerie. Findings show current global marketing practices still operate within western marketing frameworks, perpetuating social inequalities and are failing to be congruent with multiple and alternative feminine identities. Findings empirically reinforce the importance of postcolonial theory for original socio-cultural consumer behaviour insight and the development of global marketing strategy

Bras are not for burning: the bra and young urban women in Delhi and Bombay

Scholars have analysed the meanings of western outer-clothes worn by women in India, however these studies seldom discuss the semi-hidden bra. Whereas the panty through the ‘Pink Chaddis’ campaign has been used as a symbolic tool of female power and resistance in India, the power meanings of the bra remain ambiguous. Bras have not been discussed as symbolic markers of female empowerment like chaddis, nor can be assumed objects of male oppression as in the history of western feminism.This chapter explores the bra and its proximity to young (18–24 year old) urban Indian women’s bodies; the ambiguity of its hidden yet publicly viewed nature which discloses tensions of the sexualised female body and changing ideals of Indian femininities that outer western garments cannot always reveal. I discuss how the bra lends insight into Indian women’s bodies as paradoxical spaces of public and private power as India begins to rapidly urbanise. A power-play between that of an increase in the moral policing of urban Indian women’s sartorial identities and the emerging bi-cultural youth identities resisting these moral codes of dressing.Taken from a qualitative study between 2010–2014, the author discusses how the bra in India centres on the discourse of shame and the anxieties of western modernity recycled from the Indian independence movement. Author reveals how patriarchal codes of shame are questioned by the symbolic meanings of power that young urban Indian women attach to their bras

Neorealism, the bra and the new Indian woman in Satyajit Ray’s <i>The Big City</i>

This article fulfils several gaps within fashion studies scholarship, it contributes to fashion and film studies outside of the mainstream cinemas of Hollywood and Bollywood. By analysing the bra, the article extends Indian dress cultures scholarship beyond the traditional sari to reveal a deeper set of postcolonial identity constructions. It also extends influential western scholarship on power dressing and intimate wear (corset, bra, lingerie and hosiery) and its links to modernity, sexuality and femininity to a non-western context. Furthermore, the transnational links to Italian neorealist cinema on Ray’s cinematic aesthetics reveal the ways in which global film cultures influence fashion in local film cultures and can tell multi-layered and subliminal stories of our real and imaginary relationship to our identities, past, present and future.<br/

Friendship as a mode of sustainable change in the ready-made-garment sector in Bangladesh

Forthcoming Chapter in Friendship as Social Justice Activism, Critical Solidarities in a Global Perspective. University of Chicago Press/Seagull India. This anthology is the first of its kind in bringing together academics and activists in conversations about friendship, love and desire as kinetics for social justice movements. The contributors come from across the globe and are involved in diverse movements such as LGBTQ rights; intimate-partner violence; recovery from addiction; and housing, migrant, labour and environmental justice activism. Each narrates how living and organizing within circles of friendship offer new ways of dreaming and struggling for social justice. Recent scholarship in different disciplinary fields as well as activist literature have brought attention to the political possibilities within friendship. The essays, memoirs, poems and artwork in this volume address these political possibilities within the context of gender, sexuality and economic justice movement