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True Brits? Authoring National Identity in Anglo-Japanese Fashion Exports

The article uses a case study approach to examine the ways in which the exporting of British luxury fashion to the contemporary Japanese consumer market also involves the exporting of imagined representations and visions of ‘Britishness’. The article argues for a more nuanced understanding of the processes surrounding fashion exports asserting that they should be understood as cultural as well as economic exchanges. Previous studies have tended to focus on cultural constructions of Britishness at the point of sale and in the fashion retail environment. However, this article examines the entire length of the fashion commodity chain and shows how Britishness is inscribed onto, and constructed around, particular items of fashion throughout, and across, the circuit of production.

As evidence of the esteem in which this research is held, the online CSAA paper was selected for reproduction as an exemplar text in an Indian-based anthology: Sen, S. (2008) The Fashion Industry: Emerging Trends and Issues, Icfai University Press: Pune, India (ISBN:9788131415825).