SJO: Mapping Fashion and Masculinities in the Costa Rican Capital

• Published in: Fashion theory Vol. 18; no. 5; pp. 569 - 600
• Main Author: Blanco F, José
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 01.11.2014
• Subjects: 21st century; Cities; Clothes; Costa Rica; Fashion; Latin American men; mapping; Masculinity; Material culture; San José; Urban sociology; Urban space
• ISSN: 1362-704X; 1751-7419
• DOI: 10.2752/175174114X14042383562146

This article is a descriptive mapping of the Costa Rican capital, San José. I discuss the different ecologies of men's fashion as produced by the city, emphasizing how the physical landscape of the city informs, and perhaps defines, the sartorial choices of the men that inhabit it. The resulting range of performed masculinities reflects the relationships established between men and their near environment, primarily their clothes and the spaces they occupy in San José. I also look at spaces that provide interconnections between different masculinities and spaces that are points of crossover from one network to another. This mapping presents information about the connection between masculinities, fashion, and space for Costa Rican men as it highlights the layering that results from important differences in age, social class, power, privilege, taste, and other parameters. The article describes a variety of environments, including the casual and bohemian styles at the Universidad de Costa Rica, clothing at working-class hangouts such as the Mercado Central, and the urban decay in the red-light district. I discuss shopping options ranging from the old department stores in Avenida Central-catering to the middle classes-to the state-of-the-art shopping centers in upper-class areas. The range of fashion and masculinities goes from sports clothing and team paraphernalia to the well-off urban dandies who proudly display perfectly fitted and ironed clothes. The complicated kaleidoscope of masculinities includes groups such as surfers, skaters, out-of-place tourists, and native Costa Ricans who have abandoned the reservation in search for a better life in the capital. The landscape of fashioned masculinities in San José is one of an urban hybrid postmodern city where cultural and social memory is present in dress, but modernization and globalization open routes for continuous innovation and experimentation with fashion.