READ: Asians Wear Clothes on the Internet: Race, Gender, and the Work of Personal Style Blogging by Minh-Hà T. Phạm
No, this is not a book about fashion bloggers. It is about the cultural phenomenon of fashion bloggers. Have you ever considered the origins of social media ‘influencers’? This book is particularly interesting in such a digital-heavy time, as we all are consuming even more content online from being stuck inside. Asians Wear Clothes on the Internet is a critical investigation of the undervalued work Asian fashion bloggers do, what “Asian taste” means in the early twenty-first century, and the fashion public and industry’s interest in certain kinds of racialized eliteness.
About the Author:
Minh-Ha T. Pham is an Associate Professor in the Graduate Program in Media Studies at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. Her research examines fashion labor and power in the contexts of global and digital capitalism. Her writings on the subject have appeared in a wide range of scholarly and mainstream publications including The Nation, New York Times, Social Text, American Quarterly, Jacobin, and The Atlantic.
From the Publisher: In the first ever book devoted to a critical investigation of the personal style blogosphere, Minh-Ha T. Pham examines the phenomenal rise of elite Asian bloggers who have made a career of posting photographs of themselves wearing clothes on the Internet. Pham understands their online activities as “taste work” practices that generate myriad forms of capital for superbloggers and the brands they feature. A multifaceted and detailed analysis, Asians Wear Clothes on the Internet addresses questions concerning the status and meaning of “Asian taste” in the early twenty-first century, the kinds of cultural and economic work Asian tastes do, and the fashion public and industry’s appetite for certain kinds of racialized eliteness. Situating blogging within the historical context of gendered and racialized fashion work while being attentive to the broader cultural, technological, and economic shifts in global consumer capitalism, Asians Wear Clothes on the Internet has profound implications for understanding the changing and enduring dynamics of race, gender, and class in shaping some of the most popular work practices and spaces of the digital fashion media economy.
Get it Here
(Note-especially if you are a student!- this book is on JSTOR)
WATCH: All of the Above
The new talk show series is centered around climate change and social justice– with a sense of humor from hosts Sophia Li and Céline Semaan–and tackles some of the most difficult topics and pressing questions of our time. As there are millions of solutions that already exist for fighting climate change, the hosts want to address all of the above when addressing climate justice and the environment.
About the Hosts:
Sophia Li (@sophfei) is a Chinese-American journalist, advocate and director. She has reported and built a body of work centered around environmental justice and racial justice in America and around the world. Her work has been widely shared by world leaders and celebrities.
Céline Semaan (@celinecelines) is a refugee, first generation war survivor, and founder of Slow Factory Foundation. Her career continues to be shaped by the intersection of social and environmental justice where she continues to invest her time in building Slow Factory, the institute and research lab investing in education & climate positive solutions that are ready to be implemented today.
All of the Above has partnered with Ecosia, the search engine that plants trees with your searches by using their ad-revenue profits for reforestation projects. They will be planting 1,000 trees for the first episode and 500 for each following episode of Season 1!
LISTEN TO: Brooke Combe
Combe’s soulful voice will stop you in your tracks. She only has one original song out right now called ‘Are You With Me?’ and it has definitely caught our attention.
Her covers of Miley Cyrus, Whitney Houston, and Amy Winehouse are impressive to say the least, but the one that may be thanked for the kick off of her career is a cover of ‘Yes Sir, I can Boogie’, the 70s hit by Baccara–the TikTok video she posted to her Twitter has racked up over a million views since. This isn’t the first time she’s gotten attention for her voice, now she is just rightfully gaining more. After Joel Corry replied to a cover she did of his song ‘Sorry’, Brooke Combe was thrown head first into the music scene: signing contracts, working on her original songs–fingers crossed for more soon–and being invited down to Liverpool’s Parr Street Studios (the famous Liverpool studio) to work with James Skelly of The Coral and Blossoms’ Charlie Salt.
Check out her cover of Arctic Monkeys’ Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High she did at Parr Street. It is her first professionally recorded cover and just more proof that she is a star who is definitely going to break out soon.
Listen Here:
Follow Her:
Instagram @brookecombe
Tiktok @brooklyncombe
Twitter @brookecombe
–Leah Flannery
