3 Review(s)

When indie rocker Pete Doherty began a relationship with supermodel Kate Moss in 2005, the British indie music scene, which first appeared in the 1980s, became mainstream. Its signature look-slender bodies clad in skinny jeans-had reached the height of popular fashion. With in-depth research into the lucrative transformation of indie style first into high concept menswear and later into the womenswear phenomenon known as "festival fashion," Fashioning Indie provides a unique account of what happens when a subculture is incorporated into the commercial fashion system. Rachel Lifter argues that, amidst these changes, the ideal figure of indie also transformed: from a slender, white, guitar-playing man into the festival fashionista. Celebrated for her "individual style," the festival fashionista also proved to be an ideal subject of 21st-century popular fashion, wherein the lines between alternative style and mainstream fashion cultures blurred. As the music and fashions of festivals face increasing scrutiny in debates about diversity and inclusion, and the transformations of indie style coincide with the global expansion of the second-hand retail sector, Fashioning Indie provides essential insights into the broader culture of popular fashion in the 21st century and the values that inform it.