Denise Cruz on Global Fashion and Filipino Nationalism in the Postwar Moment

From the 1940s to the 1960s, the modern runway show emerged in Manila alongside developments in postwar Filipino nationalism, as the Philippines, newly independent from the United States and Japan, sought to articulate its relationships to Asia and the United States. Given that the label "made in the Philippines" has long been synonymous with inexpensive, outsourced labor, what did—and does—it mean to view couture as centered not in the global North, but from the vantage of the global South? How can Filipino couture—as art form, product, and performance—reconfigure the gendered categories that have shaped our understanding of postcolonialism and global exchange? Denise Cruz addresses these topics and questions.

Denise Cruz is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at the University of Toronto.

March 9, 2016
Brown University
Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America (CSREA)