Fashion on air: Translating fashion studies research for podcasts

In recent years, there has been a growing number of podcasts that discuss fashion. While many of these podcasts function as marketing or loyalty-building mechanisms, there is also a category of podcasts that approach fashion critically, offering new perspectives on the global fashion system. This article explores podcasting as a form of popular media communication and a powerful tool through which to translate fashion studies research for general audiences. The article argues that there are three key reasons for the popularity and demand for podcast content: they are a form of media that is generally inexpensive, democratic and intimate. It maps the current state of academic and academic-adjacent fashion podcasting and uses the Critical Fashion Studies Podcast as an example of how the medium can share complex fashion studies research with the public in new and engaging ways.