The world according to vogue: The role of culture(s) in international fashion magazines

Anthropologists are known to work in contexts wider than academic settings, actively engaging with people from other disciplines and professions. The lecturers in the Fashion Institute where we presently work are challenged to integrate the practical knowledge and skills originating from the fashion industry into lessons, lectures andprojects that prepare the students for their future careers. Our own task as (anthro)pology lecturers in Intercultural Communication and Culture and Globalization courses is to engrain a broader knowledge to compliment the practical competencies required in the professional settings. An example of the practical assignments is integrating the students' knowledge of minority groups or other cultures in developing certain fashion brands that would appeal to different ethnic groups or social classes within society or be marketable abroad. The deeper knowledge of segmentation, niche markets and specific target groups helps students to orient themselves in professional situations within the fashion industry. This requires an act of translation as well as transformation in order to translate the general (such as cultural theories) into the concrete (such as examples from the fashion industry) and to transform concrete examples and cases into broader theories. This article reflects on such acts of translation and transformation as evidenced in fashion magazines such as Vogue.