Anyone familiar with the state of my wardrobe knows I’m the last person who should be talking about fashion.
And yet – ‘as it should be’, says the Dress and Body Association – they’ve read that I’m Italian and decided style must be in my bloodstream, and that my denials are simply modesty in a better jacket.
So, today, I’m here to pay homage to Chinese beauty – at least as filtered through pastel pixels and a game that knows exactly what it’s doing.
Back home, or
into the footnotes?
The Event
- Conference
- Comfort and Joy: Locating Hope in Dress and the Body
- Hosted by
- * Dress and Body Association;
- Where & when
- online — 1-2 November 2025
- Official Links
- * Dress and Body Association
Research summary - Dollhouse Rules: Fashion’s Affective Economy in Infinity Nikki
In Infinity Nikki, changing an outfit can change what becomes possible. Set in the fantasy world of Miraland, the game makes dressing central to Nikki’s abilities, adventures and unfolding story. Fashion becomes a source of agency: clothing helps determine what she can do and where she can go. Collecting and styling virtual garments also offers the pleasure of experimenting with identity beyond the physical limits of a wardrobe. These pleasures reveal fashion’s ‘affective economy’ – the ways desire, enjoyment and emotional attachment give clothes value, even when those clothes exist only on screen.
Yet this promise of creative freedom comes with rules. East Asian and mainstream Western styles dominate the game’s fashion world, while other cultural traditions appear largely as exotic touches rather than equally meaningful forms of expression. Its tagging and scoring systems impose another hierarchy: they turn judgments about style into categories and calculations that reward particular combinations. Players are encouraged to choose outfits that satisfy the system, tying self-expression to algorithmic approval. The game therefore does more than offer a wardrobe; it teaches players which kinds of taste count.
Nikki’s body is governed by similar restrictions. Undergarments mark the boundary of what can be shown, while adult sexuality is excluded, presenting her as a cute, collectible doll rather than a fully embodied character with desires of her own. I read this controlled innocence as a form of censorship shaped by platform policies and broader cultural discomfort with female bodies and sexuality. Infinity Nikki offers real enjoyment and new ways to experience identity through digital dress, but those possibilities remain constrained by dominant cultural tastes, scoring rules and bodily boundaries. Its central paradox is that a world promising limitless self-expression also disciplines how players dress and who they can imagine becoming. Even in a virtual wardrobe, fashion remains a struggle over power, identity and belonging.