Fashion for pets: Petfluencers, posthumanism, and emotional capitalism
A lecture by Dr. Diana Weis, organized by Fashion and Styles, Institute for Education in the Arts.
The trend towards animal clothing is booming. But is luxury fashion for pets really necessary? Based on her essay Mode für den Hund in Missy Magazine, Diana Weis examines the shifts in our relationship with pets and explores the increasing humanization of pets in the context of social media, emotional capitalism, and posthumanism. She takes a critical look at the role of “petfluencers,” the staging of closeness and care, and the question of why it is dogs in particular that are associated with fashion.
Dr. Diana Weis (1974) teaches fashion theory, aesthetics, and body sociology at various universities and writes style reviews for numerous magazines as a freelance author. In 2012, she published the book “Cool Aussehen. Mode & Jugendkulturen”. In addition to textile fashion phenomena, she is particularly interested in body fashions and beauty standards. She received her doctorate from the University of Hamburg in 2017 with a cultural studies thesis on the neurotoxin Botox. Since October 2019, Diana Weis has been a professor of fashion journalism at the BSP Business School Berlin. In March 2020, her book “Modebilder” was published in the "Digitale Bildkulturen" series by Wagenbach.