Fashion Writing and Criticism provides students with the tools to critique fashion with skill and style. Explaining the history and theory of criticism, this innovative text demonstrates how the tradition of criticism has developed and how this knowledge can be applied to fashion, enabling students to acquire the methods and proper vocabulary to be active critics themselves. Integrating history and theory, this innovative book explains the development of fashion writing, the theoretical basis on which it sits, and how it might be improved and applied. Through concise snapshot case studies, top international scholars McNeil and Miller analyse fashion excerpts in relation to philosophical ideas and situate them within historical contexts. Case studies include classic examples of fashion writing, such as Diana Vreeland at Harper's Bazaar and Richard Martin on Karl Lagerfeld, as well as contemporary examples such as Suzy Menkes and the blogger Tavi. Accessibly written, Fashion Writing and Criticism enables readers to understand, assess and make value judgments about the fascinating and changeable field of fashion. It is an invaluable text for students and researchers alike, studying fashion, journalism, history and media studies.

This Companion is a comprehensive examination of the varied ways in which gender issues manifest throughout culture in Japan, using a range of international perspectives to examine private and public constructions of identity, as well as gender- and sexuality-inflected cultural production. The Routledge Companion to Gender and Japanese Culture features both new work and updated accounts of classic scholarship, providing a go-to reference work for contemporary scholarship on gender in Japanese culture. The volume is interdisciplinary in scope, with chapters drawing from a range of perspectives, fields, and disciplines, including anthropology, art history, history, law, linguistics, literature, media and cultural studies, politics, and sociology. This reflects the fundamentally interdisciplinary nature of the dual focal points of this volume-gender and culture-and the ways in which these themes infuse a range of disciplines and subfields. In this volume, Jennifer Coates, Lucy Fraser, and Mark Pendleton have brought together an essential guide to experiences of gender in Japanese culture today-perfect for students, scholars, and anyone else interested in Japan, culture, gender studies, and beyond.

The tradition of the veil, which refers to various cloth coverings of the head, face, and body, has been little studied in Africa, where Islam has been present for more than a thousand years. These lively essays raise questions about what is distinctive about veiling in Africa, what religious histories or practices are reflected in particular uses of the veil, and how styles of veils have changed in response to contemporary events. Together, they explore the diversity of meanings and experiences with the veil, revealing it as both an object of Muslim piety and an expression of glamorous fashion.

Harriet Flower explores the nature and function of wax masks used in the commemoration of politically prominent family members by the elite society of Rome from the third century BC to the sixth century AD.It is by putting these masks, which were worn by actors at the funerals of the deceased, into their legal, social, and political context that Flower is able to elucidate their special meaning as symbols of power and prestige.

When it comes to fashion, few metropolitan areas are more synonymous with style than New York, London, Paris, and Milan. But the couture capitals of tomorrow may be located in less likely locales. Addressing the interplay between the development of fashion centers across the world and their relationship to consumption and street style in both local and global contexts, the books in the Street Style series aim to record emerging fashion capitals and their relationship to the physical landscapes of the street. By examining how particular ecologies of fashion are connected to the formation of gender, class, and generational identities, this series establishes a new methodology for recording and understanding identity and its connection to style.
"Havana Street Style" is the first book that explores and reveals the relationship between culture, city, and street fashion in Cuba's capital. Matching visual ethnography with critical analysis, the book documents a unique street style few in the United States have yet experienced.

Rethinking Fashion Globalization is a timely call to rewrite the fashion system and push back against Eurocentric dominance within fashion histories by presenting new models, approaches and understandings of fashion from critical thinkers at the forefront of decolonial fashion discourse. This edited collection draws together original, diverse, and richly reflective critiques of the fashion system from both established and emerging fashion scholars, researchers and creative practitioners. Chapters straddle current calls for decolonization and inclusion, as well as reflections on de-westernization, post-colonialism, sustainability, transnationalism, national identities, social activism, global fashion narratives, diversity, and more. The volume is divided into three key themes, 'Disruptions in Time and Space', 'Nationalism and Transnationalism' and 'Global Design Practices'. These themes re-map fashion's origins, practices and futures, to present alternatives for reclaiming and rethinking fashion globalization in the 21st century.

Anthropologists have examined how diverse human populations modify and dress their bodies since the earliest days of the discipline. The Anthropology of Dress and Fashion: A Reader is the first authoritative anthology of the seminal writings of anthropologists studying clothing and fashion. From classic ethnographies of dress to cutting-edge contemporary research tracing the global circulation of clothing today, this comprehensive volume maps out this vibrant field of study's shifting preoccupations, theoretical innovations, and traditional and experimental methodologies. Comprised of over 40 curated extracts from the work of leading international scholars from Jonathan Friedman to Katherine Frank, the reader is divided into themed sections, each with an introduction and guide to further reading. With each extract introduced and contextualised, the reader will be an essential resource for students and scholars of fashion studies, social and cultural anthropology, material culture, sociology and related fields.

Modest fashion has been gaining momentum in the mainstream global fashion industry over the past half-decade and is now a multi-billion-dollar retail sector. Its growing and now consistent appearance on high-profile fashion runways, on celebrities and in the headlines of fashion publications and news outlets, has shown that the modest fashion movement is hugely relevant to consumers. This is particularly true for millennials who are attracted to the feminist influences behind concealing your body, follow faith-based dress codes, or are attuned to social media, where more and more modest fashion bloggers are using imagery to inspire their followers. While the movement can credit European high fashion houses, like Gucci, for making conservative dresses and layering "in style" and "on trend," and subsequent Western labels like DKNY, H&M and Mango for dabbling in the realm of modest wear, it is the newly emerging group of faith-influenced fashion brands who are driving the revolution, along with a new crop of Muslim fashion bloggers. These have helped catapult demure dressing trends globally. This book speaks to the various personalities and companies who have helped shape the modest fashion industry into such a significant retail sector, while also exploring the controversies that lie at the heart of the movement, such as one pressing question: even if it covers the skin but is flamboyant, modeled with the purpose of attracting attention, and publicly promoted on social media, can fashion truly be modest?

The most colorful and complete book published on the most enduring souvenir ever invented: the Hawaiian shirt. Beautifully illustrated with hundreds of images, this book recounts the colorful stories behind these marvelous shirts: as cultural icons, evocative of the mystery and the allure of the islands, capturing the vibe of the watermen culture and lifestyle -- casual, relaxed, and fun. Valued by professional collectors and by millions of vacationers and fashionistos, these shirts are enjoying a fashion revival. Drawing from hundreds of interviews, newspaper and magazine archives, and personal memorabilia, the author evokes the world of the designers, seamstresses, manufacturers, and retailers who created the industry and nurtured it from its single-sewing-machine-shop beginnings to an enterprise of international scope and importance and its revival today. The Aloha Shirt is both a dazzling, fun-to-browse art book, and a fascinating chronicle of the world's love affair with Hawaii.

This beautifully illustrated, full-colour history of costume has been produced by bestselling author John Peacock especially for children.With over 320 hand-drawn illustrations, and clearly written descriptions on every page, the book offers a broad survey of Western costume from ancient times through to the present day, and is sure to delight any child with an interest in fashion or history, as well as being an invaluable educational resource.

Scholars have argued that postmodernism is dead and that we are entering into a new era that some have labelled altermodernism, digimodernism, performatism, and post-postmodernism. This book expands on the nascent scholarship of post-postmodernism to highlight how dress, fashion, and appearance are reflections of this new age. The volume starts with a discussion of fashion, subjectivity, and time and an analysis of temporality, technology, and fashion in post-postmodern times. Later chapters analyse the work of design houses and mass producers such as Vetements, Gucci, and Uniqlo whose products align with post-postmodern aesthetics, hyperconsumption, and hypermodern branding. The book looks at diverse geographic and identity markers by discussing post-postmodernism and the religio-politico-cultural questions in South Asian Muslim fashion, image and identity presentation in queer social networking apps, and by exploring fashion designer Tom Ford's output as a movie director. Two chapters discuss the post-postmodern fashion exhibition with analyses of recent exhibitions and an in-depth look at the work of exhibition maker Judith Clark. The final chapter is written by members of The Rational Dress Society, a counter-fashion collective that makes JUMPSUIT, an experimental garment to replace all clothes. Fashion, Dress, and Post-postmodernism is a companion to research on relationships between post-postmodernism, fashion, and dress, and the go-to resource for researchers and students interested in these areas.

"Functional Clothing Design" is a book about how and why clothing works. This interdisciplinary text introduces new ways to look at the human body, the environment and clothing and to explore the relationships between them by looking at the ways clothing achieves goals such as protecting the body, increasing health and safety, improving a worker's efficiency on the job or increasing body function. Watkins and Dunne present technical material using clear, simple language that can be readily understood by beginning design students with no science or engineering background. Building on the groundbreaking text by Watkins, "Clothing: The Portable Environment," this text covers a full range of factors involved in designing functional clothing: protection from thermal, impact and other environmental hazards; enhancing movement and visibility and increasing body function with smart clothing; designing clothing for people with handicaps and designing protective clothing for groups such as the military, who face multiple hazards. "Functional Clothing Design" focuses on the full range of activities needed to develop functional clothing--from analysis of user needs to choosing appropriate materials to design and design evaluation. The text includes case studies throughout as well as new content on smart textiles and all the latest developments in wearable technology. Designers and others seeking clothing solutions to problems in many fields will find a common language linking a number of disciplines through which they can explore both problems and solutions.

Fashion | Sense is designed to explode "fashion," and with it, the stigma in philosophy against fashion's superficiality. Fashion appears to be altogether differently occupied, disingenuous and insubstantial, even sophistic in its pretense to peddle surfaces as if they were something deep. But is fashion's apparent beguilement more philosophical than it seems? And is philosophy's longing for exposed depth concealing fashion in its anti-fashion stance? Using primarily ancient Greek texts, peppered with allusions to their echoes across the history of philosophy and contemporary fashion and pop culture, Gwenda-lin Grewal not only examines the rift between fashion and philosophy, but also challenges the claim that fashion is modern. Indeed, fashion's quarrel with philosophy may be at least as ancient as that infamous quarrel between philosophy and poetry alluded to in Plato's Republic. And the quest for fashion's origins, as if a quest for a neutrally-outfitted self, stripped of the self-awareness that comes with thinking, prompts questions about human agency and our immersion in time. The touch of reality's fabric bristles in our relationship to our looks, not simply through the structure of clothes but in the plot of our wearing them. Meanwhile, the fashion of our words sharpens our meaning like a cutting silhouette. Grewal's own writing is playfully and daringly self-conscious, aware of its style and the entrapment it arouses from the very first line. The reactions provoked by fashion's flair, not only among the philosophical set but also among those who would never deck themselves out in the title, "philosopher," show it forth as perhaps philosophy's most important and underestimated doppelganger.

Fashion Design for Living explores the positive contribution that the contemporary fashion designer can make within society. The book seeks to reveal new ways of designing and making fashion garments, which can lead towards the creation of fashion products that enhance and enrich our lives. This book sets out to question and challenge the dominant, conventional process of fashion design, which as a practice has been under-researched. While the fashion designer in industry is primarily concerned with the creation of the new seasonal collection, which is designed, produced and measured by economically driven factors, society now expects the designer to make a positive contribution to our social, environmental and cultural life. Consequently an emergent set of designers and research-based practitioners are beginning to uncover new ways to think about fashion designing. The contributors within the book argue that fashion designing should move beyond developing garments that are chiefly aesthetically pleasing but instead should consider wearers, experiences, movement, problems, desires, contexts, situations, engagement, scenarios and use.The practitioners and researchers who have contributed to this book each share different perspectives on how fashion design can positively contribute to our social, environmental and cultural existence. These accounts reveal an approach to fashion design that can focus on users, lived experiences, actual and everyday problems or scenarios, which often remain unfamiliar or aside from the fashion design process applied in industry or in the educational fashion design studio. Therefore Fashion Design for Living proposes to champion new approaches to fashion practice, through a rich and diverse set of views and reflective experiences, which aim to inspire fresh, innovative and creative responses to the world around us.

Teaching Fashion Studies is the definitive resource for instructors of fashion studies at the undergraduate level and beyond. The first of its kind, it offers extensive, practical support for both seasoned instructors and those at the start of an academic career, in addition to interdisciplinary educators looking to integrate fashion into their classes. Informed by the latest research in the field and written by an international team of experts, Teaching Fashion Studies equips educators with a diverse collection of exercises, assignments, and pedagogical reflections on teaching fashion across disciplines. Each chapter offers an assignment, with guidance on how to effectively implement it in the classroom, as well as reflections on pedagogical strategies and student learning outcomes. Facilitating the integration of practice and theory in the classroom, topics include: the business of fashion; the media and popular culture; ethics and sustainability; globalization; history; identity; trend forecasting; and fashion design.

Global Perspectives on Sustainable Fashion showcases the global fashion industry's efforts to reduce the negative impacts associated with fashion production and consumption. Illustrated throughout with infographics, photographs and diagrams of creative works, eighteen essays focus on six regions, examining sustainable fashion in the context of local, cultural and environmental concerns. Also included are 18 regional 'Spotlight' sections highlighting the differences and similarities across regions by concentrating on examples of best practice, design innovation and impact on the community.

Just as the clothes we wear can communicate our personality and how we want to be perceived, so fashion can reflect the politics and preoccupations of the society that produced it. A Cultural History of Western Fashion guides you through the relationships between haute couture and ready-to-wear designer fashions, popular culture, big business, high-tech production, as well as traditional and social media. Exploring fashion's interdisciplinary nature, English and Munroe also highlight the parallel evolution of clothing design and the other visual arts over the last 150 years. This new edition includes expanded coverage of the build up to the First World War and brings this classic text up to date. There is also a new chapter on smart textiles and technology, exploring the work of Hussein Chalayan and Iris Van Herpen among others, and expanded coverage of the role of sustainability in the contemporary fashion industry, including biosynthetic textile production and Stella McCartney's use of vegan leather.

In Exquisite Slaves, Tamara J. Walker examines how slaves used elegant clothing as a language for expressing attitudes about gender and status in the wealthy urban center of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Lima, Peru. Drawing on traditional historical research methods, visual studies, feminist theory, and material culture scholarship, Walker argues that clothing was an emblem of not only the reach but also the limits of slaveholders' power and racial domination. Even as it acknowledges the significant limits imposed on slaves' access to elegant clothing, Exquisite Slaves also showcases the insistence and ingenuity with which slaves dressed to convey their own sense of humanity and dignity. Building on other scholars' work on slaves' agency and subjectivity in examining how they made use of myriad legal discourses and forums, Exquisite Slaves argues for the importance of understanding the body itself as a site of claims-making.

'An inspirational and motivational must-read, packed with practical tips to push for positive change' Zanna van Dijk The climate is changing, so why aren't we? After all, we are the generation of change. The severity of climate change leaves no one indifferent. The Climate is Changing, Why Aren't We? will not try to convince you that climate change exists - we know that. It offers easy to understand insights into the structures that suffocate our future, while upholding a sense of optimism and humanising the climate story. From the clothes you buy, plastics you use and food you eat, to knowing how to harness the power of social media and technology to get our voices heard and demand climate action, Daisy Kendrick, founder of Ocean Generation, weaves together inspirational stories, shocking statistics and easy green switches to make in your everyday life to tackle climate change on an individual level. The Climate is Changing, Why Aren't We? will help to grant future generations the rights they deserve.

This is the first global history of dress regulation and its place in broader debates around how human life and societies should be visualised and materialised. Sumptuary laws were a tool on the part of states to regulate not only manufacturing systems and moral economies via the medium of expenditure and consumption of clothing but also banquets, festivities and funerals. Leading scholars on Asian, Latin American, Ottoman and European history shed new light on how and why items of dress became key aspirational goods across society, how they were lobbied for and marketed, and whether or not sumptuary laws were implemented by cities, states and empires to restrict or channel trade and consumption. Their findings reveal the significance of sumptuary laws in medieval and early modern societies as a site of contestation between individuals and states and how dress as an expression of identity developed as a modern 'human right'.

Rich with illustrations, this revised and updated second edition of " Dress Codes" systematically analyzes the meaning and relevance of clothing in American culture. Presented here is an up-to-date analysis of images of power and authority, gender, seduction (the sexy look, the alluring look, the glamorous look, the vulnerable look), wealth and beauty, youth and health, and leisure and political hierarchy. Taken together, the chapters offer to the student and the general reader a complete "semiotics of clothing" in a form that is highly readable, very entertaining, and thoroughly informative. The illustrations provide fascinating glimpses into the history of American fashion and clothing-along with their antecedents in Europe-as well as a fine collection of images from the more familiar world of contemporary America.Rubinstein has identified six distinct categories of dress in American society, upon which "Dress Codes" is based. "Clothing signs" were instituted by those in authority, have one meaning, indicate behavior, and are required attire (police uniforms, or the clothing of ministers and priests); "clothing symbols," on the other hand, reflect the achievement of cultural values--wealth, beauty, you and health. The wearing of clothing symbols--designer clothing or jewelry--may have several meanings; 'clothing tie-signs," which are specific types of clothing that indicate membership in a community outside mainstream culture (Hasidic, Amish, or Hare Krishna attire). They were instituted by those in authority, have one meaning, they indicate expected behavior, and are required attire; "clothing tie symbols" emanate from hopes, fears, and dreams of particular groups. They include trendy styles such as hip-hop, hippie, and gothic. Another category, "contemporary fashion," reflects consumer sentiments and the political and economic forces of the period. "Personal dress," refers to the "I" component we bring in when dressing the public self (bowtie, dramatic, or artistic attire). Many of these images have their roots in the "collective memory" of western society. Written in a lively and entertaining style, "Dress Codes "will fascinate both general readers and students interested in the history of fashion and costume, fashion design, human development, and gender studies.

In Exquisite Slaves, Tamara J. Walker examines how slaves used elegant clothing as a language for expressing attitudes about gender and status in the wealthy urban center of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Lima, Peru. Drawing on traditional historical research methods, visual studies, feminist theory, and material culture scholarship, Walker argues that clothing was an emblem of not only the reach but also the limits of slaveholders' power and racial domination. Even as it acknowledges the significant limits imposed on slaves' access to elegant clothing, Exquisite Slaves also showcases the insistence and ingenuity with which slaves dressed to convey their own sense of humanity and dignity. Building on other scholars' work on slaves' agency and subjectivity in examining how they made use of myriad legal discourses and forums, Exquisite Slaves argues for the importance of understanding the body itself as a site of claims-making.

Fashion generates over a trillion dollars in sales annually and has the priceless ability to beguile its customers around the world. Fashion Entrepreneurship: The Creation of the Global Fashion Business provides the first authoritative history of the global fashion industry, from its emergence to the present day, with a focus on the entrepreneurs at the nucleus of many of the world’s influential brands. It shows how successive generations of entrepreneurs built and developed their brands, democratizing access to fashion brands throughout the world.

This book analyzes the careers of the greatest fashion entrepreneurs from the nineteenth century onward, including such legendary names as Charles Worth, Coco Chanel, Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, and Giorgio Armani. It shows how this distinct form of entrepreneurship has arisen and what lessons new entrepreneurs can learn from the past to create thriving fashion businesses in today’s rapidly changing modern world.

Filled with fascinating stories from the world of fashion, as well as detailed business analysis and practical advice for people looking to create successful brands, Fashion Entrepreneurship is an essential read for students of fashion and entrepreneurship, and anyone looking to understand, and succeed in, this most glamorous of industries.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Business of Fashion

Part I Fashion Rising

The Birth of Fashion Entrepreneurship (1845-1895)

Fashion, Art, and Beauty (1895-1914)

Part II Fashion Diffusion

Fashion Amid War and Depression (1914-1945)

The Golden Age of Haute Couture (1945-1959)

The Changing Face of the Fashion Business (1960s onward)

Part III Fashion Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice

Building the Fashion Firm: Entrepreneurial Capabilities for Fashion Business Success

The Fashion Entrepreneurship Model: Dynamics Creating Sustainable Competitive Advantage

Fashion Business Models: Entrepreneurial Drivers, Opportunities, and Challenges

Conclusion: The Dream Makers

The mainstreaming of pornographic imagery into fashion and popular culture at the turn of the millennium in Britain and the US signalled a dramatic cultural shift in construction of both femininity and masculinity. For men and women, raunch became the new cool. This engaging book draws from a diverse range of examples including film, popular tabloids, campus culture, mass media marketing campaigns, facebook profiles, and art exhibits to explore expressions and meanings of porn chic. Bringing a cultural and feminist lens to the material, this book challenges the reader to question the sexual agency of the 12-year-old girl dressed to seduce in fashions inspired by Katie Price, the college co-ed flashing her breasts for a film maker during Spring break, and the waitress making her customer happy with chicken wings and a nice set of Hooters. Further it explores the raunchy bad boys being paid handsomely to tell the world about their sexual exploits, online, on film, and in popular press bestsellers. The book also contains thought-provoking artwork by Nicola Bockelmann which focuses on the permeable border between pornography and mainstream culture and urges viewers to question everyday explicitness. Balancing a popular culture approach and a strong analytic lens, Porn Chic will engage a wide audience of readers interested in popular culture, fashion, and gender studies.

What American men, women and children wore in the 1940s, shown in 122 fully illustrated and captioned pages selected from rare copies of Sears catalogs, reproduced in large format on high-quality glossy stock. Hundreds of detailed drawings depict hats, overcoats and shoes, suits and dresses, sportswear, undergarments, corsetry, neckties, rainwear and personal accessories. JoAnne Olian is a curator of the costume collection at the Museum of the City of New York.