Recreating Social Conscience: Recycling/Reappropriating Fashion in Pedro Lemebel’s Loco afán

Abstract

In the midst of the Chile’s Transition to democracy, writer and visual artist Peter Lemebel forged a dialectical space that encouraged reflection on the hardships caused by AIDS, an illness often considered taboo during the dictatorship. In Loco afán: crónicas de sidario (1996) the author pays special attention to physical appearances, a corporal barometer indicating not only the physical health of the characters but also
highlighting the current and future states of the nation. In Loco afán, the undeniable importance of fashion, treated with meticulous detail, exonerates the growing market power of neoliberal globalization in terms of national identity. This article, through the implementation of fashion studies, will analyze how the representations of fashion – specifically in terms of reappropriations or recycling– cultivate a social conscience, for both the often ignored reality of AIDS, as well as the current state of Chilean society.