Each morning we establish an image and an identity for ourselves through the simple act of getting dressed. Why Women Wear What they Wear presents an intimate ethnography of clothing choice. The book uses real women's lives and clothing decisions-observed and discussed at the moment of getting dressed - to illustrate theories of clothing, the body, and identity. Woodward pieces together what women actually think about clothing, dress and the body in a world where popular media and culture presents an increasingly extreme and distorted view of femininity and the ideal body. Immediately accessible to all those who have stood in front of a mirror and wondered 'does my bum look big in this?', 'is this skirt really me?' or 'does this jacket match?', Why Women Wear What they Wear provides students of anthropology and fashion with a fresh perspective on the social issues and constraints we are all consciously or unconsciously negotiating when we get dressed.

Henry VIII used his wardrobe, and that of his family and household, as a way of expressing his wealth and magnificence. This book encompasses the first detailed study of male and female dress worn at the court of Henry VIII (1509-47) and covers the dress of the king and his immediate family, the royal household and the broader court circle. As none of Henry VIII's clothes survive, evidence is drawn primarily from the great wardrobe accounts, wardrobe warrants, and inventories, and is interpreted using evidence from narrative sources, paintings, drawings and a small selection of contemporary garments, mainly from European collections. Key areas for consideration include the king's personal wardrobe, how Henry VIII's queens used their clothes to define their status, the textiles provided for the pattern of royal coronations, marriages and funerals and the role of the great wardrobe. In addition there is information on the cut and construction of garments, materials and colors, dress given as gifts, the function of livery and the hierarchy of dress within the royal household.

Marks & Spencer is an institution synonymous with quality, reliability, and customer care. But do we associate it with "fashion"? Drawing on previously unpublished company archives, "Fashion for the People" considers the company's contribution to British--and, since the 1970s, international--fashion. The author discusses how, from the 1920s, Marks & Spencer brought fashion to the high street, offering well-designed clothing at affordable prices. She examines the unique ways in which the company has democratized fashion, arguing that its pioneering role in the development of new fabrics, the employment of designers as consultants and its marketing and promotional strategies have changed the ways in which we understand and consume fashion. Marks & Spencer is not just a stalwart of the British high street. As this book shows, it has also brought fashion to the masses.

'Shoes possess magic powers,' writes journalist and shoe obsessive Paola Jacobbi as she totters her way through the history of women's footwear and wonders why it is that women ( from Imelda Marcos to Carrie Bradshaw) love their shoes so, so much. Jacobbi pontificates (sandals are the bikini of footwear); psychoanalyses (the relationship between shoes and sex); and has fiery opinions (ankle boots are quite simply a no-no). She also has plenty of good advice: choosing the right heel for your physique, how to keep shoes lasting long and how to judge a man by his footwear. Witty, charming and stylish, I Want Those Shoes is an irresistible little book, almost as irresistible as buying that one last pair...

Writing more than a century before "Vogue, no less a figure than G.W.F. Hegel reviewed the fashion of his day and found it wanting because, in becoming outmoded so quickly, it drew attention away from the timeless beauty of the human form. And Hegel is not unique among philosophers in his interest in fashion's role; for more than 250 years, social thinkers have considered fashion--its transitive nature, the conformity it inspires, the vast range of its influence--as a defining feature of modern life. In "The Rise of Fashion, Daniel Leonhard Purdy brings together key writings from the Enlightenment to the twentieth century that explore fashion as the ultimate expression of modernity. Making available many previously untranslated or otherwise unfamiliar works from French, German, and English, Purdy establishes an extraordinary lineage of fashion commentary dating back to Mandeville and Voltaire, which laid the groundwork for the writings on commodity culture of Adorno, Benjamin, and the Frankfurt School. From critiques of aristocratic excess to accounts of fashion's influence on our ideals of masculinity or femininity, from the figure of the dandy and the eroticism of clothing to the class politics of fashion, this landmark reader includes works by philosophers (Carlyle, Rousseau, Georg Simmel) and social theorists (Herbert Spencer, Veblen), as well as writers (Goethe, Baudelaire, Mallarme, Wilde) and critics (Karl Kraus, Adolf Loos, Simone de Beauvoir). Collecting and contextualizing many of the earliest and most significant formulations of fashion theory, "The Rise of Fashion provocatively examines the proposition that to be modern is to be fashionable.

Over the past three centuries, London has established itself as one of the worlds most inventive fashion capitals. City life and fashion have always been intertwined, but nowhere has this relationship been more excitingly expressed than on the streets of London. Fashioning London looks at the manner in which particular styles of dress became associated with this leading international city, ultimately challenging the dominance of Paris, Milan and New York.From the ballrooms and boxing rings of the eighteenth century, through Victorian extremes of poverty and conspicuous consumption, to the flamboyant explosions of subcultural taste that define the capital today, Londoners have constantly offered an idiosyncratic reading of fashionability that has profoundly influenced the nature of style elsewhere. Breward constructs an original history of clothing in London its manufacture, promotion and cultural meaning while showing how issues of space, architecture and performance impinge on notions of fashionability. It highlights the importance of such outfits as the dandy's suit, the dolly bird's mini-skirt and the second-hand ensemble of the punk in forming our understanding of the capital's distinctive character. Drawing on a range of sources, including paintings, street photography, maps, tourist guides, literature, stage and press representations, Fashioning London paints a vivid and definitive portrait of Londons iconoclastic style.

Clothing occupies a complex and important position in relation to human experience. Not just utilitarian, dress gives form to a society's ideas about the sacred and secular, about exclusion and inclusion, about age, beauty, sexuality and status. In Dressing the Elite, the author explores the multiple meanings that garments held in early modern England. Clothing was used to promote health and physical well-being, and to manage and structure, life transitions. It helped individuals create social identities and also to disguise them. Indeed, so culturally powerful was the manipulation of appearances that authorities sought its control. Laws regulated access to the dress styles of the elite, and through less formal strategies, techniques of disguise were kept as the perquisites of the powerful. Focusing on the elite, the author argues that clothing was not just a form of cultural expression but in turn contributed to societal formation. Clothes shaped the configurations of the body, affected spaces and interactions between people and altered the perceptions of the wearers and viewers. People put on and manipulated their garments, but in turn dress also exercised a reverse influence. Clothes made not just the man and the woman, but also the categories of gender itself. Topics covered include cross-dressing, sumptuary laws, mourning apparel and individual styles.

Through an examination of the experience of transsexuals, this book enhances understanding of how gender can and does function in powerful, complex and subtle ways. The author, who has herself been surgically reassigned, has conducted extensive interviews with transsexuals from many walks of life. Her personal experiences, which inform this book, have given her an access to her subjects that others would likely be denied. While highlighting how the gender identity of transsexuals relates to hormonal and surgical changes in the body as well as to changes in dress, the book investigates the pressures and motivations to conform to expected gender roles, and the ways in which these are affected by social, educational, and professional status. Differences in the experiences of those who change from male to female and those who change from female to male are also examined.
Sex reassignment has been the focus of considerable media attention recently, as increasing numbers of people feel able to talk frankly about their personal experiences with gender dysphoria. Strides with medical technology have given transsexuals new opportunities in their lives. This book provides unique insights into how these changes are seen by those people most affected them.

Moralists have raged throughout history against various fashions for being too short, too long, too tight, too loose or too costly. Highlighting the times when choice of dress was a moral minefield, this enlightening and entertaining book looks at fashion extremes over the centuries, from the sexual display of the codpiece through to corsets, crinolines and decolletage. Providing a sharp and humorous look at the outright risque as well as the grotesquely exaggerated and even the repulsive, Ribeiro shows how dress has functioned variously as a vehicle of righteousness or turpitude and as an expression of sexuality, class or social status. In 747 St Boniface deemed wide stripes and scarlet borders to incite lust and ruination of the soul. Well over a millennium later immodest dress ranked high in Jesuit Father Bernard Vaughan's book on the sins of society. Medical practitioners once labelled the v-necked top, now a standard style, 'the pneumonia neckline'. Was it the force of society or sheer vanity of fashion that drove women to wear sleeves the size of balloons? Are sexual boundaries between dress worn by men and women diminishing? What morals still bind us to our Judeo-Christian heritage and lead us to express ourselves through appearances?Lavishly illustrated and packed with countless thought-provoking quotes, Dress and Morality is an in-depth exploration of the comical vanities and social etiquettes associated with dress in the past. At last here is the much-anticipated updated edition of this classic book.

Transnational movements of people, cultural objects, images and identities have played a vital role in creating an informal global network for African fashion - from clothing designers and tailors to dyers and jewellery makers. This book traces the changing meanings, aesthetics and histories of the thriving informal African fashion network through its multicultural cross-roads of Los Angeles, Kenya and Senegal.
In African communities, designers compete with each other to survive and often travel long distances in search of new markets. Such competition and bridging of cultures fuels creativity and innovation. From adapting western fashion magazines to combining 'ethnic' designs with dramatic new colours and techniques, artisans weave a variety of borrowed influences into their traditional practices. Rabine explores the interrelationship and tensions that exist between these popular and mass cultures, including the ways that global circulation threatens to destroy artisanal skills. With its unique insights into the operation and ethics of these global networks, this book offers a timely contribution to contemporary studies of fashion, transnationalism and globalization.

With topics ranging from African-American women's headwraps to beauty pageants in Swaziland and the recent royal wedding in Japan, this book contributes a new slant to the literature on ethnicity by focusing on the frequently noticed but less often analyzed phenomenon of dress. Dress, along with language, culinary and religious traditions, serves both to unite and separate people from each other. The authors - ethnographers, folklorists and textile scholars - present case studies from around the world to illustrate their different theoretical frameworks and assumptions. In considering how the body is modified and supplemented, they discuss not only garments and accessories, but also hairstyles and cosmetics. This book should interest anyone wishing to understand and explore ethnicity through this fascinating and effective means of communication.

Beads have been used since antiquity, not only to dress the body, but as measures of value in economic and ritual exchanges. Their popularity has never waned, and in recent years their trade has enjoyed a world-wide revival. Beads have deep and multiple meanings: in many cultures, together with garments, they reflect age, gender and social status, and are a vehicle through which people store, exchange and transmit wealth.
This absorbing book analyzes techniques and gendered aspects of the making of beads, as well as their role in trade and body adornment, in a wide range of societies, from the ancient Mediterranean to Renaissance Venice and present-day Southern Africa and West Africa, where they have become a symbol of cultural survival and identity. Anyone interested in material culture, anthropology, art history, and gender studies will find that this book provides fascinating insights into attitudes toward the body and its dress as well as systems of social classification.

For centuries, the fashion industry has struggled to reconcile style with sustainability. In Historical Perspectives on Sustainable Fashion, you will be transported back in time to discover the historical dimensions of today's sustainable fashion movement. An array of success stories and cautionary tales provide both inspiration and warnings for the eco-conscious designer, encouraging an innovative approach that builds on predecessors' discoveries to move the practice of fashion forward. The 1st edition, Sustainable Fashion: Past, Present and Future, emerged from the Museum at FIT's groundbreaking exhibition 'Eco-Fashion: Going Green'. This revised edition broadens perspectives even further, incorporating eye-opening examples of designers, brands and activists working for change across the world today. Likewise, a new chapter examines the globalized mainstream fashion system and historical alternatives that provide compelling inspiration for reimagining the status quo. Fascinating and timely, Historical Perspectives on Sustainable Fashion examines progressive fashion through a historical lens, encouraging readers to question the state of the industry and demonstrating the value of historical insights in enabling and inspiring change.

Celebrate your uniqueness. Inspiring and captivating, Tattoo Street Style is a tribute to creativity and self-expression, a celebration of body, beauty and style, a manifesto for redefining the rules. Over four hundred original portraits capture extraordinary tattooed people from around the world, in New York, LA, Melbourne, Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris, London and Brighton. A curated and eclectic snapshot of today's modern tattoo culture. Features profiles and interviews with some of the world's most creative and exciting artists and studios. Also includes comprehensive infographic-style directories; perfect if you're looking for inspiration.

'Fascinating and eye-opening' OWEN JONES DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR SHOES COME FROM? DO YOU KNOW WHERE THEY GO WHEN YOU'RE DONE WITH THEM? In 2019, 66.6 million pairs of shoes were manufactured across the world every single day. They have never been cheaper to buy, and we have never been more convinced that we need to buy them. Yet their cost to the planet has never been greater. In this urgent, passionately argued book, Tansy E. Hoskins opens our eyes to the dark origins of the shoes on our feet. Taking us deep into the heart of an industry that is exploiting workers and deceiving consumers, we begin to understand that if we don't act fast, this humble household object will take us to the point of no return.

How has Christianity engaged with democracy? In this authoritative new treatment of a sometimes troubled relationship, Donald Norwood reflects on the way that democracy has become, especially under the auspices of the United Nations and the World Council of Churches, not just an ideal but a universally applicable moral principle. Yet, as the author demonstrates, faith and democracy have not always sat comfortably together. For example, the Vatican has dealt harshly with radical theologians such as Leonardo Boff and Hans Kung; while churches with a dictatorial style have all too often shown a willingness to accommodate authoritarian regimes and even dictators. Norwood argues that if democracy is a universal norm, a basic right, it is not possible for the Church to be indifferent to its claims. Offering a sustained exposition - from Marsilius of Padua to Christian Democracy and Christian Socialism - of the often uneasy interaction between Christianity and democratic politics as both idea and ideal, this is a major contribution to church history and to wider topical debates in politics and religious studies.

Attitudes to fashion have changed radically in the twenty-first century. Dress is increasingly approached as a means of self-expression, rather than as a signifier of status or profession, and designers are increasingly treated as 'artists', as fashion moves towards art and enters the gallery, museum, and retail space. This book is the first to fully explore the causes and implications of this shift, examining the impact of technological innovation, globalization, and the growth of the internet. The End of Fashion focuses on the ways in which our understanding of fashion and the fashion system have transformed as mass mediation and digitization continue to broaden the way that contemporary fashion is perceived and consumed. Exploring everything from the rise of online shopping to the emergence of bloggers as power elites who have revolutionized the terrain of traditional fashion reportage, this volume anatomizes a world in which runway shows now compete with live-streaming, digital fashion films, Instagram, and Pinterest. Bringing together original, cutting-edge contributions from leading international scholars, this book is essential reading for students and scholars of fashion and cultural studies, as well as anyone interested in exploring the dramatic shifts that have shaken the fashion world this century - and what they might say about larger changes within an increasingly global and digital society.

Our old shoes embark on a new life in Africa. While many people believe that their used clothes donations are distributed free of charge to the needy in the Third World, the trade in second-hand clothes is actually an international business. In addition to commercial clothes collectors, sorters, and interim dealers, thousands of street dealers in Africa live off the sale of second-hand clothes and shoes. They have to know which shoes are in fashion on the streets at the time, the various types of customers and the styles that are in demand, when and where these customers are most likely to be found, how to best approach them, and what they are willing to pay. This specialized expert knowledge is the basis of a successful livelihood. The book provides ethnographic insights into the life of a group of street dealers of the Tanzanian multi-million metropolis Dar es Salaam.

Autora del bestseller De como las muchachas Garcia perdieron el acento y una finalista del Circulo Nacional de Criticos Literarios "Una exploracion de un ritual exuberante y decisivo en la vida moderna de los latinos... Como autora de esta travesia, Julia Alvarez es una guia extraordinaria."-The Seattle Times La fiesta de quince anos de las muchachas latinas o "la quinceanera" como se le conoce en los Estados Unidos, se ha convertido en una tendencia singularmente americana. Esta esplendida fiesta de vestidos largos y elegantes, pasteles de varias capas, limusinas y banquetes extravagantes, a menudo es tan costosa como un baile de graduacion o una boda. Sin embargo, muchas jovenes latinas sienten que tienen derecho a esto rito de iniciacion, que senala el momento en que se vuelven mujeres, y esperan que no se escatime ningun gasto, ni siquiera entre las familias de escasos recursos. La aclamada escritora Julia Alvarez explora la historia y la relevancia cultural de cumplir los "quince" anos en los Estados Unidos, y usa este acontecimiento como un lente a traves del cual examinar el proceso de cambio por el que esta pasando la mujer latina en los EE.UU. Sus observaciones sobre una fiesta de quince anos en Queens, asi como entrevistas con otras quinceaneras y los recuerdos de su propia experiencia como inmigrante joven, componen un cuidadoso y entretenido retrato de un fenomeno multicultural en rapido crecimiento, asi como una perspectiva unica de un Estados Unidos multicultural. "[Alvarez] posa una mirada critica sobre mitos que estan muy arraigados...cada pagina es un canto de amor a los lazos culturales que vinculan a generaciones de mujeres provenientes de un grupo diversos de paises."-Chicago Sun-Times "Fascinante, ampliamente documentado."-The Washington Post "La sinceridad con la que Alvarez hace frente a la experiencia de haber vivido entre dos culturas resulta cautivadora."-Entertainment Weekly

Over the last forty years or so academic interest in fashion has burgeoned, and, since the 1970s at least, attempts to define, analyse, and critically explain fashion phenomena have become vital areas of research and study in almost all disciplines within the humanities and social sciences.

As serious academic work on and around the theory and practice of fashion continues to flourish as never before, this new title in the Routledge Major Works series, Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies, meets the need for an authoritative reference work to make sense of a rapidly growing and ever more complex corpus of literature, and to provide a map of the area as it has emerged and developed. It is a landmark collection of foundational and the best cutting-edge scholarship in the field and is organized in four volumes.

What is meant by fashion? Volume I provides a conspectus of some of the most important definitions and philosophies of fashion. The philosophical sources of the various senses of the word fashion in the work of Kant and Adam Smith, for example, are represented here.

Volume II examines the many ways in which analysts have tried to make sense of the incredible variety of things that people wear. One of the simplest ways of doing this is to describe and classify those things. A slightly more sophisticated approach has been to attempt an analysis of them. Volume II presents the best of both the descriptive and analytical approaches to the understanding of fashion.

In addition to describing and analysing fashion, many scholars and other thinkers have tried to account for the very possibility of fashion. The critical task of explaining what makes fashion possible may be described as answering the question Why does this item of clothing look the way it does? and it demands social, cultural, economic, and political answers. Volume III, therefore, collects the pre-eminent and most influential work to explore and explain what people wear.

From whence does our individual and personal identity spring? Is it even appropriate, in an age of mass fashion, to think of ourselves as having individual identities? Volume IV gathers the essential scholarship which addresses these and other hotly contested questions about identity, image, and performance that are raised by postmodern critical analyses of fashion.

Fashion is fully indexed and has a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context. It is an essential work of reference and is destined to be valued by scholars and students as a vital one-stop research and pedagogic resource.

The dynamics of fashion depends on visuals: when we see something we like, we respond to its color, line, form, and eye-appeal. In that sense, fashion communicates itself-without words, without added graphics. But the world of fashion demands much more than the mere presence of garments and accessories and footwear. It involves a wide range of communications, including words-printed, spoken, and electronically transmitted. Those words may serve alone, or they may be paired with images and designs that enhance and illustrate their meaning. This text takes a systematic approach to uncovering fashion to reveal the industry's underlying network of communications. The term "fashion communications" refers not only to monthly fashion magazines, but also to every facet of information relating to fashion-from the names of colors at the dye factory, to the latest runway reviews posted on fashion Web sites. Focusing on four key areas-manufacturing; business; sales and advertising; and representation in the media-Wolbers uses a who-what-wherewhen- why approach. As Professor Horacek so eloquently states in her Foreword, "this book is truly a must for fashion programs anywhere or for anyone who seeks to develop and hone their communication skills." Features -- Specific assignments and exercises designed for both inside and outside the classroom to help students master the unique language of fashion -- Profiles of various forms of fashion communications related to the content of each chapter -- Tips and guidelines for efficient research and information presentations -- Personal Profiles in each chapter support material in text -- Additional assignments and projects, along with samples of grading rubrics to assist instructors -- Instructor's Guide contains tips on how to use the text in a variety of different courses, including fashion journalism, business communication, or other fashion courses -- PowerPoint presentation available

Shoes are an integral part of Jewish material culture. Although they appear in some of the most foundational biblical stories, they are generally regarded as no more than lowly, albeit essential, accessories.

"Jews and Shoes" takes a fresh look at the makings and meanings of shoes, cobblers, and barefootedness in Jewish experience. The book shows how shoes convey theological, social, and economic concepts, and as such are intriguing subjects for inquiry within a wide range of cultural, artistic, and historic contexts.The book's multidisciplinary approach encompasses a wide range of contributions from disciplines as diverse as fashion, visual culture, history, anthropology, Bible and Talmud, and performance studies. "Jews and Shoes" will appeal to students, scholars and general readers alike who are interested to find out more about the practical and symbolic significance of shoes in Jewish culture since antiquity.

We dress to communicate who we are, or who we would like others to think we are, telling seductive fashion narratives through our adornment. Yet, today, fashion has been democratized through high-low collaborations, social media and real-time fashion mediation, complicating the basic dynamic of identity displays, and creating tension between personal statements and social performances. Fashioning Identity explores how this tension is performed through fashion production and consumption,by examining a diverse series of case studies - from ninety-year old fashion icons to the paradoxical rebellion in 'normcore', and from soccer jerseys in Kenya to heavy metal band T-shirts in Europe. Through these cases, the role of time, gender, age memory, novelty, copying, the body and resistance are considered within the context of the contemporary fashion scene. Offering a fresh approach to the subject by readdressing Fred Davis' seminal concept of 'identity ambivalence' in Fashion, Culture and Identity (1992), Mackinney-Valentin argues that we are in an epoch of 'status ambivalence', in which fashioning one's own identity has become increasingly complicated.

The world of fashion models is attractive for everybody. For the average audience, a fashion model's life is glamourous, elegant and enviable, and many young women aspire to follow such ideals. Today, in the age of modern information technologies, there are endless tools for communicating with the world related to fashion. The daily lives of fashion models can be followed by the masses on social media platforms; they have become influencers, and millions follow the image they represent. However, in the background, there is stress and tension. The fashion industry creates fierce competition, and the models are under intense pressure concerning their body shape. Slimness is a fundamental requirement. This, in turn, leads to an increased risk of eating disorders: fashion models are more prone to develop anorexia or bulimia like symptoms. The book investigates the role of the representatives of the fashion industry in the excessive ideal of slimness and in the enhanced risk of developing eating disorders. Ensuring the health of the models must be a fundamental aspect of the industry.