Gudrun Sjödén-kadern

Abstract

This article analyses how an identity of white womanhood is constructed in fashion catalogues produced by Gudrun Sjödén Design 1992-2004. The aim of the article is to deconstruct both the discourses, and the subject positions which have been articulated and performed in texts and images. Travel writings, stories of catalogue photo shoots, as well as the communication between the customers and the designer is studied. Based on Ghassan Hage's theory of White governmentality, and post colonial feminist studies, the article explores the expressed desire of the Other and the idea of enrichment of "ethnic cultures". Colonial conceptions of the Other as authentic textile crafts(wo)man are also being discussed. These fashion catalogues can be seen as an arena where discourses of white multiculturalism and white heteronormativity are materialized. Dressing in the uniform style of Gudrun Sjödén is a way of performing White womanhood. How can White womanhood be problematised and renegotiated? Is it possible to see any shifts in the signs of the discourses?