Visible and material politics in fashion and beauty

This editorial examines the ambivalent politics of visibility in contemporary fashion and beauty cultures. The contributions to this issue of Critical Studies in Fashion & Beauty demonstrate that visibility is never simply emancipatory. Rather, beauty operates as a deeply political terrain in which racialized and gendered identities are simultaneously expressed, commodified and regulated. Across five case studies – Asian American ‘Asian Baby Girl’ aesthetics on YouTube, Chinese male beauty influencers on Douyin, skin bleaching practices in urban Nigeria, Afro-Italian fashion designers and sorority ‘outfit of the day’ performances on TikTok’s RushTok – the authors explore how digital platforms and fashion markets transform embodied identities into measurable value. They show how algorithms, consumer cultures and social norms reward particular forms of femininity and masculinity, often reproducing racial hierarchies, colourism and classed ideals under the guise of empowerment and choice. At the same time, the issue foregrounds material practices – cosmetics, garments, craft and community labour – as crucial to understanding how identities are enacted and contested. Collectively, the articles argue that gender and race are continuously produced through aesthetic practices shaped by capitalism, technology and social judgement, rendering visibility a condition of both possibility and constraint.