CHIC OUTRAGE AND BODY POLITICS

Fashion is frequently criticized in the mass media for being shocking, frivolous and politically incorrect. This level of analysis is superf icial insofar as it tacitly endorses the view that appearances are lit eralizations of beliefs and morality. Such a perspective has historica lly ill served women, whose social status has frequently been influenc ed by their appearance. This article examines the functions of fashion including how it interpellates women's subjectivity and naturalizes m uch that is ideologically conservative. At the same time, fashion can provide forms of resistance such as when it ruptures social mythology. Fashion can be both a manifesto of rebellion and a mirror to conventi on. It is always ambivalent and herein lies its capacity to be more th an its popular representations as shocking and frivolous. Fashion can resist, reify and naturalize all that is culturally arbitrary.