| dc.description.abstract | The stride backwards to move forward exhibited by contemporary Ugandan haute
couture artefacts amidst modern fashion aesthetic innovations, has repositioned past traditions
as constructive in the contemporary 21st century. The study argues that traditional cultural
heritage aesthetic is imbued with value that instigates contemporary society to persistently
reinvent and reconstruct itself. The aesthetic has shaped haute couture artefacts into socially
constructive objects representing the global and current notion of social sustainability.
However, Scholarly literature on African fashion and dress does not articulate Ugandan haute
couture in this global value reach. The interrogation of nine Ugandan contemporary haute
couture shaped by past traditions, aimed at generating insight into the contemporary and global
manifestation of a local and past traditional aesthetic. The process motivated the emergence of
a discourse that articulates the nexus between haute couture, past traditions and social
sustainability in the 21st century.
Data for this study was attained, mainly underpinned by the theoretical grounding of
the ‘Circuit of Culture’ supported by Shils’ Theory of tradition, Ferdinand Saussure’s
‘Constructionist theory of representation’, Baudrillard’s ‘Liberation of the Object’ and Pierre
Bourdieu’s ‘Theory of Practice’. The process was guided by the Focused Ethnography research
design supported by a narrative inquiry. Through a qualitative examination, the cultural
trajectory of nine haute couture artefacts revealed that: the haute couture are a contemporary
visual aesthetic shaped by an evolutionary traditional cultural heritage that is embodied with
ecological, socio-cultural and economic significance; secondly, that through creative and
innovative reinvention and disposition of selected traditional cultural heritage materials, the
haute couture artefacts were transformed into a visual language representing the notion of
social sustainability; lastly that the reinvention of past traditions has been influenced by the
constructive nature of the traditional aesthetic, the contemporary discourse of sustainable
development, and the dynamics of globalization. The study interpreted these findings to mean
that: Past traditions are an engender of sustainable development, meeting Sustainable
Development Goals 8, 12 and 16; that haute couture shaped by societies’ traditional cultural
heritage aesthetic is an inclusive knowledge dissemination platform; and that the traditional
aesthetic is an agential tool that facilitates creative practitioners to negotiate contemporary
global society dynamics.
The study has contributed original knowledge in various ways: First, it has articulated
how the past traditions work in the 21st century, and enriched scholarship on African fashion
with a Ugandan perspective. Secondly, it has established the social sustainability conceptual
framework through which creative practitioners contribute to the sustainable development
agenda. The framework also asserts social sustainability as the ideological structure for the
inclusion of community social aspects in the global discourse. Thirdly, the study has
demystified the Western world aura of the haute couture fashion genre, locating it as a socially
inclusive knowledge publication platform. Fourth, it has remodelled the ‘Circuit of Culture’
theory, by supporting its tenets with other theories when applied to explore the cultural
trajectory of a visual aesthetic in the contemporary 21st century. Lastly, it has been established
that a creative practical engagement can support a meaning making argument during data
interpretation within a study of visual art as a language. As such, the traditional aesthetic has
emerged as constructive and progressive facilitating sustainable existence in the 21st century.
It should thus be protected and archived for present and future use, and its value repeatedly
published and pronounced such that society can embrace it towards socio-cultural and
economic development. | en_US |
