Myles Ethan Lascity

Journalism

Assistant Professor, Director of Fashion Media

Email

elascity@smu.edu

Phone

214.768.4913

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As a child of the late 1990s, Myles Ethan Lascity was always a shopper at heart; years later he would find a way to channel that passion into an academic career.

Lascity’s research explores the intersection of fashion and consumer culture; he is especially interested in how brands create fictional worlds for customers to buy into, and how people use their clothing and personal items to communicate with others. Lascity employs qualitative methodologies, including interviews and semiotic analyses, to understand mass-market fashion brands such as Uniqlo and Abercrombie & Fitch.

He is the author of The Abercrombie Age: Millennial Aspiration and the Promise of Consumer Culture (UNC Press, 2024), Communicating Fashion: Clothing, Culture and Media (Bloomsbury, 2021) and co-editor of Consumer Identities: Agency, Media and Digital Culture (Intellect, 2019) with Candice D. Roberts. Additionally, his research has been published in various journals including Visual Communication Quarterly, Critical Studies in Media Communication, The Journal of Popular Culture, Fashion Theory and Social Semiotics.

Professionally, Lascity worked in a variety of journalism positions including as a web producer with Health.com, Runner’s World and NJ.com; a fellow for the International Business Times; and as a copy editor for Times-Shamrock Communications.

View CV

Education

Ph.D., Communication, Culture and Media, Drexel University
M.A., Costume Studies, New York University
B.A., Communication Studies, Wilkes University

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Books:

The Abercrombie Age: Millennial Aspiration and the Promise of Consumer Culture. UNC Press.
Communicating Fashion: Clothing, Culture and Media. 
Bloomsbury Academic.
Consumer Identities: Agency, Media and Digital Culture. With Candice D. Roberts. Intellect.

Recent Articles and Chapters:

“Displays of Expertise: Constructing Authority in Men’s Fashion Advice Videos.” Visual Communication Quarterly. “Contextualizing Clothing: Meaning, Social Media and AOC’s ‘Tax the Rich’ Dress.” Popular Communication. doi: 10.1080/15405702.2024.2401906

“Considering Fashion Journalism: News Values, Frames and Hybrid Genre in the Release of ‘Satan Shoes.’” Journalism Studies 24.10. doi: 10.1080/1461670X.2023.221492

“Contour of Masculinity: Reading Bros in Popular Culture and Fashion Branding.” In The Routledge Companion to Advertising and Promotional Culture (2nd Ed.). Routledge.

“The Fashion Editrix in the U.S. Cinematic Imagination: From Funny Face to The Devil Wears Prada.” The Journal of American Culture 46.1. doi: 10.1111/jacc.13424  

“Ghost Signs at the Mall: Structuring Semiotics and (Formerly) Branded Retail.” Social Semiotics. doi: 10.1080/10350330.2022.2140036

“Anti-Fashion Branding: Framing Technology in Uniqlo and Allbirds.” Fashion Theory. 26.6. doi: 10.1080/1362704X.2022.210158

“Considering Taste After Gamification: Collective Selection, Cultural Intermediation, and Casual Gaming.” Critical Studies in Media Communication 39.1. doi: 10.1080/15295036.2021.1987491

Course list

Fashion Communication FM 1300
Fashion & Diversity FM 1350
Myles Ethan Lascity