Fashion as a global system: An interview with Dr Yuniya Kawamura

This interview with Dr Yuniya Kawamura, professor of sociology at the Fashion Institute of Technology, explores her foundational contributions to the development of fashion sociology and her conceptualization of fashion as a global institutional system. Conducted in July 2025, the exchange traces Kawamura’s intellectual formation, from her transnational upbringing and professional background in design to her doctoral research on Japanese designers in the French fashion system and its influences on her theoretical framework. Her major works, including The Japanese Revolution in Paris Fashion (2004), Fashion-ology (2005; 3rd ed., 2023), Doing Research in Fashion and Dress (2011; 2nd ed., 2020), Fashioning Japanese Subcultures (2012; 2nd ed., 2025), Sneakers (2016) and Cultural Appropriation in Fashion and Entertainment (2022), have refined the field’s methodological and epistemological scope. Throughout the interview, Kawamura reflects on the sociological legitimacy of fashion, the global circulation of style and the challenges of decentering Eurocentric paradigms. Her reflections underscore the importance of interdisciplinarity and empirical rigour, particularly within East Asian fashion studies. By situating Kawamura’s career within broader debates on cultural exchange and institutional power, this article highlights how her work has transformed fashion studies into a dynamic, globally engaged discipline. It also calls attention to the ongoing need for inclusive, contextually grounded scholarship that recognizes fashion as both a system of representation and a site of transnational connection.