Domestic kashmir : forming and performing feminine identities through repurposed Kashmir shawls in late nineteenth-century French and Belgian homes
- Author
- Dries Debackere (UGent)
- Organization
- Project
- Abstract
- During the late nineteenth century, Kashmir shawls were reused in interior design and to make clothing. Unlike outerwear, the transformation into decorative objects or interior gowns involved not only a formal but also a contextual shift, from a public to a semi-private sphere, where fashion and furnishings were an important medium to form and perform feminine identities. This self-fashioning was facilitated by the ease with which the shawl was deconstructed and reconstructed while retaining its connotations of wealth, respectability, exoticism, and eroticism. This article analyzes interior gowns embellished with shawl fragments as represented in French and Belgian fashion periodicals and artworks. It argues that these fragments metonymically referred to the Kashmir shawl and its socioeconomic values, transferring them to the new garment. As interior gowns could carry similar connotations to the shawl, garment and textile reinforced these values in one another, allowing women to form and perform their identities from within the home.
- Keywords
- reuse, Kashmir shawl, interior gown, interior design, identity, Orientalism, gender
Citation
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication: http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-01JSGQ2CY8FTF3JAP0P313HSGK
- MLA
- Debackere, Dries. “Domestic Kashmir : Forming and Performing Feminine Identities through Repurposed Kashmir Shawls in Late Nineteenth-Century French and Belgian Homes.” DRESS-THE JOURNAL OF THE COSTUME SOCIETY OF AMERICA, vol. 51, no. 1, 2025, pp. 47–64, doi:10.1080/03612112.2025.2468085.
- APA
- Debackere, D. (2025). Domestic kashmir : forming and performing feminine identities through repurposed Kashmir shawls in late nineteenth-century French and Belgian homes. DRESS-THE JOURNAL OF THE COSTUME SOCIETY OF AMERICA, 51(1), 47–64. https://doi.org/10.1080/03612112.2025.2468085
- Chicago author-date
- Debackere, Dries. 2025. “Domestic Kashmir : Forming and Performing Feminine Identities through Repurposed Kashmir Shawls in Late Nineteenth-Century French and Belgian Homes.” DRESS-THE JOURNAL OF THE COSTUME SOCIETY OF AMERICA 51 (1): 47–64. https://doi.org/10.1080/03612112.2025.2468085.
- Chicago author-date (all authors)
- Debackere, Dries. 2025. “Domestic Kashmir : Forming and Performing Feminine Identities through Repurposed Kashmir Shawls in Late Nineteenth-Century French and Belgian Homes.” DRESS-THE JOURNAL OF THE COSTUME SOCIETY OF AMERICA 51 (1): 47–64. doi:10.1080/03612112.2025.2468085.
- Vancouver
- 1.Debackere D. Domestic kashmir : forming and performing feminine identities through repurposed Kashmir shawls in late nineteenth-century French and Belgian homes. DRESS-THE JOURNAL OF THE COSTUME SOCIETY OF AMERICA. 2025;51(1):47–64.
- IEEE
- [1]D. Debackere, “Domestic kashmir : forming and performing feminine identities through repurposed Kashmir shawls in late nineteenth-century French and Belgian homes,” DRESS-THE JOURNAL OF THE COSTUME SOCIETY OF AMERICA, vol. 51, no. 1, pp. 47–64, 2025.
@article{01JSGQ2CY8FTF3JAP0P313HSGK,
abstract = {{During the late nineteenth century, Kashmir shawls were reused in interior design and to make clothing. Unlike outerwear, the transformation into decorative objects or interior gowns involved not only a formal but also a contextual shift, from a public to a semi-private sphere, where fashion and furnishings were an important medium to form and perform feminine identities. This self-fashioning was facilitated by the ease with which the shawl was deconstructed and reconstructed while retaining its connotations of wealth, respectability, exoticism, and eroticism. This article analyzes interior gowns embellished with shawl fragments as represented in French and Belgian fashion periodicals and artworks. It argues that these fragments metonymically referred to the Kashmir shawl and its socioeconomic values, transferring them to the new garment. As interior gowns could carry similar connotations to the shawl, garment and textile reinforced these values in one another, allowing women to form and perform their identities from within the home.}},
author = {{Debackere, Dries}},
issn = {{0361-2112}},
journal = {{DRESS-THE JOURNAL OF THE COSTUME SOCIETY OF AMERICA}},
keywords = {{reuse,Kashmir shawl,interior gown,interior design,identity,Orientalism,gender}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{1}},
pages = {{47--64}},
title = {{Domestic kashmir : forming and performing feminine identities through repurposed Kashmir shawls in late nineteenth-century French and Belgian homes}},
url = {{http://doi.org/10.1080/03612112.2025.2468085}},
volume = {{51}},
year = {{2025}},
}
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