Materializing Identity with Footwear

CSFB 5 (1) pp. 25–51 Intellect Limited 2014 Critical Studies in Fashion & Beauty Volume 5 Number 1 © 2014 Intellect Ltd Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/csfb.5.1.25_1 AlexAndrA Sherlock University of Sheffield ‘It’s kind of where the shoe gets you to I suppose’: Materializing identity with footwear keywords Abstract materiality Through their narrative incorporation in fairytales, song lyrics, in movies and on television shoes have become semiotics a ‘loaded device’ (Pine, 2006: 353) recycled as metonymy for the wearer or as metaphor for experience. Due to eco-semiotics such extensive representation this article argues that they have become, in a sense, invisible. In existing representation academic literature we have tended to see the message rather than the shoe and we become blind to what embodiment Miller describes as the ‘humility’ of the shoe as a ‘thing’ (Miller 2005: 5). This neglect of the materiality of the affordances shoe itself obscures the highly nuanced and subjective experiences of the wearer. As consumers/wearers, we parasite might fully understand – even aspire to – the cultural connotations of a particular pair of shoes, yet this does quasi-object not mean we will feel socially comfortable wearing them. Using empirical data gathered from wearers of the authenticity culturally significant Clarks Originals brand, this article reveals the co-constitutive relationship between the emotional durability social identity of the wearer and that of the shoe. By focusing on the materiality of objects, bodies and environ- ments we can overcome subject-object dualisms and really ‘see’ shoes in terms of the role they and their meanings play in a process of identification, transformation and cultural embodiment. 25 CSFB_5.1_Sherlock_25-51.indd 25 11/5/14 2:15:55 PM Alexandra Sherlock *** 1. In 2012 I recorded and analysed 48 hours of a commercial UK televi- [O]bjects are important not because they are evident and physically constrain or enable, but sion channel. In total often precisely because we do not ‘see’ them. The less we are aware of them, the more 170 visual or linguistic references to shoes powerfully they can determine our expectation by setting the scene and ensuring normative were made, mostly in behaviour, without being open to challenge. They determine what takes place to the extent reference to gender. that we are unconscious of their capacity to do so. I edited a selection of these into a short (Miller 2005: 5) video, which I showed to research participants at Clarks Interna- Shoes, perhaps more than any other item of clothing, appear consistently throughout popular tional. Even those most culture on anything from greetings cards and calendars to art and advertising. Through their narra- conditioned to notice tive incorporation in fairy tales, song lyrics, in movies and on television they have become a ‘loaded shoes in their everyday lives were surprised at device’ (Pine 2006: 353) recycled as metonymy for the wearer or as metaphor for experience. But their invisibility when despite, or precisely because of this consistent presence shoes have become invisible. In existing used as metaphor academic literature we have tended to see the message rather than the shoe and we become blind to or metonymy. Many admitted they would 1 what Miller describes as the ‘humility’ of the shoe as a ‘thing’ (Miller 2005: 5). As a result shoes not have noticed had become powerful and this is perhaps most clearly expressed in their tendency to be used to overex- their attention not pose notions of patriarchal oppression or excessive consumption. They are discussed in terms of been drawn to them. what they stand for (usually femininity and sex) rather than what they are and how they are subjec- 2. ‘If the Shoe Fits: Footwear Identity and tively perceived and consumed – a critique rooted in fashion theory’s post-structural tendency to Transition’ (2010–2013) focus on the sensational, historic and semiotic aspects of clothing (Tseëlon 2001; Wilson 1985). This – an ESRC-funded focus obscures what Hockey et al., in our recent study of footwear and identity, describe as a ‘wealth qualitative sociological study at the University of important sociological questions about footwear’s contribution to broader experiences of gender, of Sheffield. Principal social class, ageing, health and the everyday’ (2013: 2.3).2 Investigator: Professor As an item of material culture shoes provide a resource for gaining a much deeper insight into Jenny Hockey, Co- Investigator: Dr Victoria who we are and how we engage with the world. By empirically studying the shoes people put on or Robinson, Research take off we are able to understand the way men and women live out their identities in a fluid and Associate: Dr Rachel Dilley, Postgraduate embodied way (Hockey et al. 2013). Shoes also help us to recognize that this process happens Researcher: Alexandra through ‘things’. Drawing on Hegel ([1807] 1977) and Bourdieu (1977) Miller explains that ‘there Sherlock. For more can be no fundamental separation between humanity and materiality’ (2005: 8). We do not exist in information on research outputs visit opposition to, or separate from material objects: we exist through them and an understanding of the www.sheffield.ac.uk/ reciprocal dialogue between shoe and wearer provides an opportunity to depart from object-orientated iftheshoefits. or subject-centred approaches, or indeed the Cartesian structure-agency dualism. In his book Our Own Devices Tenner (2004) uses shoes to help us understand the way technolo- gies and humans create one another. While we design and create shoes as commodities, ascribe them with meaning and continue to shape and mould them as artefacts through everyday use, shoes 26 CSFB_5.1_Sherlock_25-51.indd 26 11/14/14 10:01:39 AM ‘It’s kind of where the shoe gets you to I suppose’ 3. Many of the reasons also create us: they change and mediate our physical encounters with the landscape, and, through for these unsuccessful transformations were their meanings, our social encounters with those around us (2004: 51). Therefore, as both cultural attributed to the ma- signifier and material artefact, shoes provide the ‘existential ground of culture and self’ that Csordas teriality of the shoes, describes in Embodiment and Experience (2003). the bodies attempting to wear them and the While Tenner importantly acknowledges the materiality of the shoes, the bodies and the envi- lifestyles or landscapes ronments in which they are used, what is particularly interesting about his observation is that he in which they were also acknowledges their social and cultural meanings. While it is important to counter an already worn. Aging bodies, for example, could no existing wealth of sensational, historic or semiotic approaches by focusing on the shoe as thing longer wear the shoes rather than sign, we should be careful not to chuck the baby out with the bathwater and fail to of their youth; an active mother may no consider representation and meaning at all, as others have done (see e.g. Ingold 2004). The aim of longer be able to wear this article, then, is to use a brand of shoes that is particularly meaningful culturally to analyse the impractical shoes; and relationship between object and subject in the construction or maintenance of particular identities, the hilly or cobbled Sheffield terrain while paying careful attention to the role of representations and cultural meaning in this process. I (where the research will show how a focus on the materiality and ‘humility’ of Clarks Originals (for example the Desert was conducted) and Boot, Desert Trek and Wallabee) allows us to really ‘see’ shoes in terms of the role they and their northern climate may compromise the de- meanings play in a process of identity and identification. Furthermore, the theoretical orientations sired style. But this still developed within this article have practical implications. I will conclude by outlining how studies of does not fully account for comments like ‘they the relationships between images, people and things can inform the development of sustainable and just don’t feel right’ or ‘emotionally durable’ designs (Chapman 2005). ‘they’re not me’. A material approach to semiotics What is the problem with semiotic studies of representation and how can a consideration of materiality help? While semiotic studies are useful in helping us understand signifying practices and visual communication – one may even identify a ‘language of footwear’ (Brydon 1998: 5) – they do not tell us the whole story of footwear choice (why people choose particular shoes and reject others). How, for example, do the cultural meanings of shoes or items of clothing impact the consumer? While a consumer might be visually literate, fully understanding the cultural connotations of a pair of shoes, and may indeed desire the identity the shoes promise, this certainly does not mean that they them- selves would feel ‘right’ or convincing wearing them. Indeed many of the participants for the recent ‘If the Shoe Fits’ research project spoke of an inability or unrequited longing to wear a particular brand or style of shoe.3 What has to happen and where do people need to be (in terms of time and place) to make the decision to buy and feel comfortable wearing a particular pair of shoes – especially when those shoes are so culturally meaningful? In his work on semiotics and materiality Keane explains that due to the legacy of Saussurian linguistics the sign has become separated from the material world. The shoes and their cultural 27 CSFB_5.1_Sherlock_25-51.indd 27 11/5/14 2:15:55 PM Alexandra Sherlock representations become more about social meaning than materiality (e.g. Barthes [1957] 2009; Eco 1973, 1979; Baudrillard 1981). One might argue that this separation encourages us to think of representations as more tyrannical and consuming than they are (e.g.

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