Fashioning subjects, unveiling modernity: The co-motion of aesthetics between Paris and Tehran (France, Iran)

This dissertation is based on one year of anthropological field research in Paris and Tehran. It proposes an account of fashion production, commercialization, and consumption in the two cities. Starting from theories of subjectivation, this research analyzes the place of fashion in subject formation. Taking fashion practices as empirical support, this thesis approaches questions pertinent to the concepts of governmentality, Islam, gender, and Orientalism linking them with transnational modern phenomena. It proposes a reorientation of the conversation on these questions towards the abandonment of binaries such as public and private, exterior and interior, masculine and feminine, and modern and non-modern. Instead, this thesis proposes an understanding of the articulations of these concepts in the formation of subjectivities, as they are reflected in fashion practices.; The research concentrates on the flow of fashion images or clothing from the production sites (in Paris or Tehran) to the consumers in Tehran. While the large volume of sales in Middle Eastern locations supports the industry of fashion in Paris, in Tehran the social practice of fashion re-emerges and gains visibility in public spaces. The last four to five years have witnessed the formation of specific tastes, and of brand name knowledge among the clients of the industry. These phenomena are aided by the flow of images via satellite television, and by the movement of people and dress between the two locations. While economic restrictions make difficult the importation of assembled dress in Iran, Tehran abounds in stores offering and commercializing ready-to-wear brand names. At the same time, fashion houses in Paris adapt their creations to their Middle Eastern clients, and marketing policies follow an aesthetic regional geography.; Forms, colors, and names constitute new presence in the urban landscape of Tehran. Accessible to a small part of the population, imported clothing is nevertheless creating a social imaginary of modernity through a material link with the remote places of their production. This dissertation follows the processes of subject creation, emphasizing the new aesthetic sources of authority that organize bodies, movements, time, and spaces through fashion practices in these two cities.