Sartorial Fandom

Abstract

Baby" music video (2:04) 9.1. Ape Head hoodie and sneakers as shown off by r/bapeheads member 9.2. BAPE x Marvel Hulk BAPE STA sneaker, 2005 10.1. Threezero's Hannibal Lecter figure with accessories 10.2. The authors wearing their handmade flower crowns 11.1. Harry Potter bachelorette party T-shirts sold on Etsy 12.1. Cosplayer survey responses on selecting characters 14.1. Wakanda Moon cosplayers 15.1. Lisa Ring's "before" measurements 16.1. Promotional images from the rebooted Underoos brand in 2014 16.2. Two examples of "costume lingerie" from online retailer Yandy 16.3. High-end fan lingerie from the Japanese fashion brand SuperGroupiesBringing together an edited collection is always a challenging exercise, and attempting to do so during a global pandemic even more so. First and foremost, we would like to express our deepest gratitude to each and every one of our incredible contributors, who have weathered this long process with equal parts intellectual rigor and understanding. We are so excited to finally be able to share their wonderful work with all of you. Our home institutions, Pitzer College and the University of Texas at Austin, have been essential support systems for us throughout this process. In particular, we would like to express thanks to our colleagues, who are always available to talk through ideas and offer advice.We feel incredibly fortunate to have partnered with the University of Michigan Press for this project, and in particular we could not have asked for a better editor or advocate than Sara Jo Cohen. Sara has championed this project from its inception, and has been a guiding light throughout the process. Wrangling images is often thankless work, yet essential for a project such as this one, and accordingly we also offer our sincerest appreciation to Anna Pohlod for her attentiveness to this component of the manuscript's production. We would also like to thank Jessica Hinds-Bond for being a truly exemplary copyeditor, as well as Melissa Scholke and Marcia LaBrenz for facilitating such a smooth copyediting process. We would also like to acknowledge our cover artist, Jett Allen, who was both a font of creativity and an excellent collaborator throughout the design process.This collection would not have been possible without our dear friends Kate Fortmueller, Kristen Fuhs, and Dave Lerner, who kept us sane and entertained for the duration of this process. You are the only people we still get excited to zoom with. Finally, we offer our deepest appreciation to our partners, Geoff Harris and Luke Pebler, who were forced to eavesdrop on hundreds of hours of calls and strategy sessions. Your love and support, particularly over the past few years, means everything to us.Our tastes as consumers and fans are reflected back to us whenever we open our closets. We immediately see our go-to clothing labels, often representing years of fannish brand loyalty. We rifle through leaning towers of folded T-shirts featuring an eclectic mix of fan-designed and licensed imagery referencing beloved media objects....