Unique and exciting, this ethnographic study is the first to address a little-known subculture, which holds a fascination for many. The first decade of the twenty-first century has displayed an ever increasing fixation with vampires, from the recent spate of phenomenally successful books, films, and television programmes, to the return of vampire-like style on the catwalk. Amidst this hype, there exists a small, dedicated community that has been celebrating their interest in the vampire since the early 1990s. The London vampire subculture is an alternative lifestyle community of people from all walks of life and all ages, from train drivers to university lecturers, who organise events such as fang fittings, gothic belly dancing, late night graveyard walks, and 'carve your own tombstone'. Mellins presents an extraordinary account of this fascinating subculture, which is largely unknown to most people. Through case study analysis of the female participants, Vampire Culture investigates women's longstanding love affair with the undead, and asks how this fascination impacts on their lives, from fiction to fashion. Vampire Culture includes photography from community member and professional photographer SoulStealer, and is an essential read for students and scholars of gender, film, television, media, fashion, culture, sociology and research methods, as well as anyone with an interest in vampires, style subcultures, and the gothic.

Unique and exciting, this ethnographic study is the first to address a little-known subculture, which holds a fascination for many. The first decade of the twenty-first century has displayed an ever increasing fixation with vampires, from the recent spate of phenomenally successful books, films, and television programmes, to the return of vampire-like style on the catwalk. Amidst this hype, there exists a small, dedicated community that has been celebrating their interest in the vampire since the early 1990s. The London vampire subculture is an alternative lifestyle community of people from all walks of life and all ages, from train drivers to university lecturers, who organise events such as fang fittings, gothic belly dancing, late night graveyard walks, and 'carve your own tombstone'.Mellins presents an extraordinary account of this fascinating subculture, which is largely unknown to most people. Through case study analysis of the female participants, "Vampire Culture" investigates women's longstanding love affair with the undead, and asks how this fascination impacts on their lives, from fiction to fashion. "Vampire Culture" includes photography from community member and professional photographer SoulStealer, and is an essential read for students and scholars of gender, film, television, media, fashion, culture, sociology and research methods, as well as anyone with an interest in vampires, style subcultures, and the gothic.

Introducing innovative new research from international scholars working on Islamic fashion and its critics, Islamic Fashion and Anti-Fashion provides a global perspective on muslim dress practices. The book takes a broad geographic sweep, bringing together the sartorial experiences of Muslims in locations as diverse as Paris, the Canadian Prairie, Swedish and Italian bath houses and former socialist countries of Eastern Europe. What new Islamic dress practices and anxieties are emerging in these different locations? How far are they shaped by local circumstances, migration histories, particular religious traditions, multicultural interfaces and transnational links? To what extent do developments in and debates about Islamic dress cut across such local specificities, encouraging new channels of communication and exchange? With original contributions from the fields of anthropology, fashion studies, media studies, religious studies, history, geography and cultural studies, Islamic Fashion and Anti-Fashion will be of interest to students and scholars working in these fields as well as to general readers interested in the public presence of Islam in Europe and America.

In Victorian England, women's accessories were always much more than incidental finishing touches to their elaborate dress. Accessories helped women to fashion their identities.Victorian Fashion Accessories explores how women's use of gloves, parasols, fans and vanity sets revealed their class, gender and colonial aspirations. The colour and fit of a pair of gloves could help a middle-class woman indicate her class aspirations.The sun filtering through a rose-colored parasol would provide a woman of a certain age with the glow of youth. The use of a fan was a socially acceptable means of attracting interest and flirting.Even the choice of vanity set on a woman's bedroom dresser reflected her complicity with colonial expansion. By paying attention to the particular details of women's accessories we discover the beliefs embedded in these artefacts and enhance our understanding of the culture at large. Beaujot's engaging prose illuminates the complex identities of the women who used accessories in the Victorian culture that created and consumed them. Victorian Fashion Accessories is essential reading for students and scholars of, history, gender studies, cultural studies, material culture and fashion studies, as well as anyone interested in the history of dress.

Fetish Style traces the history, forms and tendencies of sub-cultural fashions that are popular in both mainstream and alternative fashion cultures. Presenting the world of subcultural fetish clothing design in all of its richness and beauty, this book explores the idea of fetish as subversive and repressive as reflected in clothing choices in people of all ages and cultures. Linking the fetishistic aspects of contemporary culture with everyday clothing as dictated by fashion and merchandising, Fetish Style presents a fascinating study of historical as well as 21st century subcultures. Case studies include the Japanese-influenced 'tribes' of the various Lolita formations, the Shotaru (male Lolita), the club scene, the Goths, the hip-hop fashions and other locally-formed fetishized practices. Fetish Style will be key reading for anyone interested in fetish fashion both past and present.

Illustrated with specific subcultural examples and interviews with subculture members, "Body Style" explores the subcultural body and its style within global culture. Analyzed, theorized, politicized, and sensationalized, the subcultural body functions as a framework where individuals build a sense of self and subcultural identity. Drawing on eleven years of research examining the intersections within specific urban subcultures including Urban Tribalists, Modern Primitives, Punks, Cybers, Industrials, Skates, among others, the book reveals the subculture body as a site for understanding subcultural identity, resistance, agency and fashion. Divided into three main sections on subcultural body history, subcultural body identity and subcultural body styles, this book will be of particular interest to students of dress and fashion as well as those studying subculture from sociology and cultural studies perspectives.

This collection of papers on 'Dress and Identity' arose from a seminar series held by the Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity, University of Birmingham in 2005. The present volume covers a wide chronological and geographical span: from archaic Greece to medieval Scotland by way of the Roman Empire and Anglo-Saxon England. The contributors come from a number of different academic disciplines: history, archaeology and classics. Contents: 1) Dress and Identity: an Introduction (Mary Harlow); 2) Costume as Text (Zvezdana Dode); 3) Veiling the Spartan Woman (Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones); 4) Dressing to Please Themselves: Clothing Choices for Roman Women (Mary Harlow); 5) The Archaeology of Adornment and the Toilet in Roman Britain and Gaul (Ellen Swift); 6) Dress and Cultural Identity in the Roman Empire (Ursula Rothe); 7) Investigating the Emperor's Toga: Privileging Images on Roman Coins (Ray Laurence); 8) Anglo-Saxon Woman: Fame, Anonymity, Identity and Clothing (Gale R. Owen-Crocker); 9) Representing Hierarchy and Homosociality: Vestments and Gender in Medieval Scotland (Penelope Dransart); 10) Cosmetics and Perfumes in the Roman World: A Glossary (Susan Stewart); 11) The Social Life of Museum Textiles: Some Comments on the Late Antique and Early Medieval Collection in the Ure Museum at the University of Reading (Anthea Harris).University of Birmingham IAA Interdisciplinary Series: Studies in Archaeology, History, Literature and Art Volume II.

The Fashion Business Reader is the first comprehensive anthology of classic and cutting-edge writings on the global fashion business, from production to consumption. Bringing together a rich interdisciplinary and international range of writings in one volume, this essential text encompasses creative, theoretical, and practical approaches from scholarship spanning business, the social sciences, arts, and humanities. As well as extracts from ground-breaking journal articles, book chapters, and other key writings, the reader includes several newly commissioned articles on contemporary themes and methodological approaches. Each section of the volume contains an introduction by an expert scholar plus a guide to further reading, and each individual extract is introduced so that readers can place important writings in context. This is an essential course text for students on a wide range of fashion and business courses and a one-stop authoritative reference for scholars and professionals.

A comprehensive analysis of Second World War dress practice and appearance, this study places dress at the forefront of a complex series of cultural chain reactions. As lives were changed by the conditions of war, dress continued to reflect important visual narratives regarding class, gender and taste that would impact significantly on public consciousness of equality, fairness and morale. Using new archival and primary source evidence, Wartime Fashion clarifies how and why clothing was rationed, and repositions style and design during the war in relation to past expectations and ideas about clothes and fabrics. The book explores the impact of war on the dress and appearance of civilian women of all classes in the context of changing social and economic infrastructures created by the national emergency. The varied research elements combined in this book form a rounded and definitive account of the dress history of British women during the Second World War. This is essential reading for anyone with an active interest in the field, whether personal or professional.

"Burns makes it abundantly clear . . . they just don't make heiresses like Millicent Rogers anymore." --Hampton Sides

Nobody knew how to live the high life like Standard Oil heiress Millicent Rogers. Born to luxury, she lived in a whirl of European vacations, exquisite clothing, and dashing men.

In "Searching for Beauty," Cherie Burns chronicles Rogers's rebellious life from her days as a young girl afflicted with rheumatic fever to her final days as one of the legendary chatelaines of New Mexico. She eloped with a penniless baron; danced tangos in European nightclubs; romanced Roald Dahl, Secretary of Defense James Forrestal, and Hollywood icon Clark Gable; and triumphed in the world of fashion. She was muse to legendary American designer Charles James, appeared in "Vogue" and "Harper's Bazaar" and popularized Southwestern style by adopting turquoise jewelry, squaw skirts and short-waist jackets as her signature look.

With "Searching for Beauty," Millicent Rogers enters the pantheon of great American women who, like Diana Vreeland and Babe Paley, put their distinctive stamp on American style.

The Swimsuit: Fashion from Poolside to Catwalk documents the modern swimsuit's trajectory from men's underwear and circus/performance wear to its unique niche in world fashion. It emphasizes the relationship between fashion, media, celebrity, sport and the cultivation of the modern body. This fascinating book provides an historical, sociological and cultural context in which to view how the swimsuit - and Australia, the country that significantly influenced its modern form - migrated from the cultural and colonial periphery to the centre of international attention. In addition, the book offers new perspectives on national histories of the swimsuit and investigates how traditional European fashion centers have opened up to new markets and modes of living, bringing together influences from around the globe. The Swimsuit is essential reading for students, scholars, and the general reader interested in fashion, popular culture, history, media, sport, and gender studies.

The fashion model's hold on popular consciousness is undeniable. How did models emerge as such powerful icons in modern consumer culture? This volume brings together cutting-edge articles on fashion models, examining modelling through race, class and gender, as well as its structure as an aesthetic marketplace within the global fashion economy. Essays include treatments of the history of fashion modelling, exploring how concerns about racial purity and the idealization of light skinned black women shaped the practice of modelling in its early years. Other essays examine how models have come to define femininity through consumer culture. While modelling's global nature is addressed throughout, chapters deal specifically with model markets in Australia and Tokyo, where nationalist concerns colour what is considered a pretty face. It also considers how models glamorize consumption through everyday activities, and neoliberal labour forms via reality TV. With commentaries from industry professionals who experienced the cultural juggernaut of the supermodels, the final essay situates their impact within the rise of brand culture and the globalization of fashion markets since 1990. Accessible and highly engaging, Fashioning Models is essential reading for students and scholars of fashion and related disciplines.

Bias-cut Dressmaking is the best easy-to-follow guide to bias-cut clothes. It provides step-by-step instructions and diagrams for making over 40 items of clothing that are cut on the bias. The bias-cut technique is used by designers for cutting clothing to utilize the greater stretch in the bias or diagonal direction of the fabric. This allows the fabric to accentuate body lines and curves and drape softly. Bias-cut garments were an important feature of the designs of Madeleine Vionnet in the 1920s and 1930s but are now timeless.This classic text on the subject includes making skirts, dresses, trousers, eveningwear and even lingerie. You can make a halterneck evening dress, a cowl-necked shift dress, palazzo pants, bias-cut culottes, a cowl camisole, a strapless evening dress or a slightly flared bias skirt.The text is clearly written and laid out, making the beauty and the comfort of bias-cut clothing accessible to those not overly familiar with this type of dressmaking, including fashion students and amateur dressmakers.

"The Swimsuit: Fashion from Poolside to Catwalk "documents the modern swimsuit's trajectory from men's underwear and circus/performance wear to its unique niche in world fashion. It emphasizes the relationship between fashion, media, celebrity, sport and the cultivation of the modern body. This fascinating book provides an historical, sociological and cultural context in which to view how the swimsuit - and Australia, the country that significantly influenced its modern form - migrated from the cultural and colonial periphery to the centre of international attention. In addition, the book offers new perspectives on national histories of the swimsuit and investigates how traditional European fashion centers have opened up to new markets and modes of living, bringing together influences from around the globe. "The Swimsuit "is essential reading for students, scholars, and the general reader interested in fashion, popular culture, history, media, sport, and gender studies.

Clothing may not make the man (or woman), but it helps. How clothing as a vestige and artifact and as transmitter of identity moves from one use to another, from one fantasy to another fad, from one literary source to another visual one: these are the concerns of the essays in this volume. The second in a four-part series charting the social, cultural, and political expression of clothing, dress, and accessories, Exchanging Clothes focuses on the concept of transnational "circulation and exchange"-not only the global exchange of material commodities across time and space but also of the ideas, images, colors, and textures related to fashion. Essays examine the parade of heroes past, from Homer and Virgil to Dante and Ariosto, wearing armor or nothing; the social power of a tie or of a safety pin sprung from punk fashion to the red carpet; a Midwestern thrift store, from cheap labor to cheap purchase, as a microcosm of global circulation; and lesbian pulp fiction as how-to-dress manuals. Whether looking at Kate Chopin's silk stockings, Nellie Bly's capacious bag, Audrey Hepburn's cross-Atlantic travels, rings in James Merrill's poetry, or feminine ornaments in Algeria, these essays offer an ever-expanding vision of how fashion moves through culture and the economy, reflecting and determining identity at every stage and turn of the transaction. Contributors: Nello Barile, IULM U, Milan; Vittoria C. Caratozzolo, Sapienza, U of Rome; Alisia Grace Chase, SUNY, Brockport; Chafika Dib-Marouf, Jules Verne U, Picardie; Anne Hollander; Mariuccia Mandelli (Krizia); Andrea Mariani, Gabriele d'Annunzio U, Chieti-Pescara; Katalin Medvedev, U of Georgia; Laura Montani; Karen Reimer; Cristina Scatamacchia, U of Perugia.

Universities are unlikely venues for grading, branding, and marketing beauty, bodies, poise, and style. Nonetheless, thousands of college women have sought not only college diplomas but campus beauty titles and tiaras throughout the twentieth century. The cultural power of beauty pageants continues today as campus beauty pageants, especially racial and ethnic pageants and pageants for men, have soared in popularity. In Queens of Academe, Karen W. Tice asks how, and why, does higher education remain in the beauty and body business and with what effects on student bodies and identities. She explores why students compete in and attend pageants such as "Miss Pride" and "Best Bodies on Campus" as well as why websites such as "Campus Chic" and campus-based etiquette and charm schools are flourishing. Based on archival research and interviews with contemporary campus queens and university sponsors as well as hundreds of hours observing college pageants on predominantly black and white campuses, Tice examines how campus pageant contestants express personal ambitions, desires, and, sometimes, racial and political agendas to resolve the incongruities of performing in evening gowns and bathing suits on stage while seeking their degrees. Tice argues the pageants help to illuminate the shifting terrain of class, race, religion, sexuality, and gender braided in campus rituals and student life. Moving beyond a binary of objectification versus empowerment, Tice offers a nuanced analysis of the contradictory politics of education, feminism, empowerment, consumerism, race and ethnicity, class, and popular culture have on students, idealized masculinities and femininities, and the stylization of higher education itself.

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.

'The most entertaining book of the year' Sunday Times 'The autobiography of magazine kingpin Nicholas Coleridge is a Waugh-like whirlwind of eccentric characters, lavish parties and even a spell in a Sri Lankan jail. It was funny enough to excuse all the name-dropping' Evening Standard, Books of the Year 'A ludicrously well-connected magazine impresario. Whimsical tales of Bob Geldof, William Hague, Princess Diana and George Osborne jostle with recollections of glitzy parties at castles and producing the Eton magazine with Craig Brown. It's gossipy good fun' Sunday Times 'A deliciously moreish memoir of the author's glittering career in magazine publishing. Like having a really good gossip over a glass of fizz with Evelyn Waugh' Sunday Telegraph 'Sparkling. Witty, nimble and engaging, it is wonderfully entertaining and a marvellous slice of social history' Jane Ridley, Spectator 'Brilliant. I laughed almost continuously' Charles Moore, Spectator 'An irresistible read, hilarious, honest and insightful. I adored it' Tina Brown 'Forthright, witty and gossipy. A passion for glossy magazines shines through this effervescent memoir' Sunday Express

The Great Han is an ethnographic study of the Han Clothing movement (Hanfu yundong), a neo-traditionalist and majority racial nationalist movement that has emerged in China since 2001. Participants come together both online and in person in cities across China to revitalize their utopian vision of the authentic "Great Han" and corresponding "real China" through pseudo-traditional ethnic dress, reinvented Confucian ritual, and anti-foreign sentiment. Employing close analysis of movement ideas and practices, this book finds that the movement's "real China," envisioning a pure, perfectly ordered, ethnically homogeneous, and secure society, is in fact an imaginary vision constructed in response to the challenging realities of the present. Yet this national imaginary is reproduced precisely through its own perpetual elusiveness. The Great Han is a pioneering analysis of Han identity, nationalism, and social movements in a rapidly changing China.

This work is a comparative study of the three "great" American wars of the twentieth century: World War I, World War II and Vietnam. The book explores several aspects of American popular culture, like fashion, film and the societal mores of each era. While a number of books have covered fashion during individual wars, this is the first study to compare several major conflicts, drawing some conclusions regarding the lasting influences of wardrobe over an entire century. This book provides short background information for each war, briefly covering earlier conflicts that shaped the hostilities of the twentieth century. Although the emphasis is on women's clothing, participation and service, men are not ignored. Their fashions not only speak to the times, but the enormity of their sacrifices.

There's a popular misconception that breaking into the modeling business requires expensive head shots and other costly investments. Judy Goss, a former Ford model and professional with twenty years in the business, has set out to dispel that myth once and for all, and tell you how you can actually launch your career for $20 or less. Judy breaks the process down into four simple steps: Preparation, Pictures, Promotion, and Presentation. She gives countless suggestions and tells all sorts of industry secrets, such as how to:
* Determine what type of model you are
* Take your own pictures at home in the right poses and clothes
* Prepare what to say and do at casting calls
* Avoid costly scams
* And much more.
Judy's expert advice will guide aspiring models of any age through the process of finding representation with a reputable agency or manager, and it provides a valuable resource to fall back on even after models start working. This comprehensive, step-by-step guide is the only book you'll need to launch the career of your dreams.

Following Argentina's revolution in 1810, the dress of young patriots inspired a nation and distanced its politics from the relics of Spanish colonialism. Fashion writing often escaped the notice of authorities, allowing authors to masquerade political ideas under the guise of frivolity and entertainment. In Couture and Consensus, Regina A. Root maps this pivotal and overlooked facet of Argentine cultural history, showing how politics emerged from dress to disrupt authoritarian practices and stimulate creativity in a newly independent nation. Drawing from genres as diverse as fiction, poetry, songs, and fashion magazines, Root offers a sartorial history that produces an original understanding of how Argentina forged its identity during the regime of Juan Manuel de Rosas (1829-1852), a critical historical time. Couture and Consensus closely analyzes military uniforms, women's dress, and the novels of the era to reveal fashion's role in advancing an agenda and disseminating political goals, notions Root connects to the contemporary moment. An insightful presentation of the discourse of fashion, Couture and Consensus also paints a riveting portrait of Argentine society in the nineteenth century-its politics, people, and creative forces.

From the Baltic to the Balkans, and from Siberia to the Caucasus, the lands covered in this volume contain a multitude of cultures with rich and distinctive dress and textile traditions. However, tradition has not been the only factor shaping dress in the region. The contrast between ethnic and urban dress provides a revealing lens through which to consider individual and cultural identities throughout. Attitudes toward dress have also been shaped by socialism and its demise, as the former "Eastern bloc" states have undergone massive upheaval. This landmark volume is the first major reference work to provide a comprehensive overview of dress within this vast and complex region. Broad surveys of individual countries are supplemented with case studies focusing more narrowly on people, practices, and objects to provide both range and depth. The long tradition of exquisite embroidery is highlighted. The volume also has articles on the influence of the Ottoman Empire on this part of Europe, a discussion of Roma dress, and a snapshot on Balkan bandits. A pioneering, major reference work, East Europe, Russia, and the Caucasus also places dress within the political and sociocultural contexts that have shaped people and nations in this region.

This book documents the rise (and rise) of fashion design in China. Told through the stories of three generations of designers: those born in the 1950s and early 1960s during the Cultural Revolution when fashion in China was isolated from the rest of the world; those born in the 1970s, who are now attempting to integrate China into the global fashion industry; and those born in the 1980s, who are becoming an emerging force in China.Chinese fashion in the past half-century is a fascinating case study. The country began the period in isolation and went through a phase of militant anti-fashion ideology. However, sixty years on, China is seeking to challenge the world in all fields of endeavour, including fashion design and manufacture. Written by an 'insider', this book provides a fascinating survey based on the personal, professional and creative experiences of the most influential Chinese fashion designers. As such, it will be welcomed by all students of contemporary fashion and design.

The name Phyllis Posnick is synonymous with Vogue and the extraordinary fashion editorials the magazine's audience loves. Posnick is best known for creating photo editorials to illustrate the magazine's Beauty and Health articles, but cast off any ideas you have about close-ups of lips and eyelashes. Instead, picture models bathed in paint or posing next to cuts of fresh meat. This collection invites readers to glimpse the complex production process-and the collaboration and creativity-behind each extraordinary editorial. The book features images by a who's who of legendary photographers: Irving Penn, Steven Klein, Annie Leibovitz, Mario Testino, Patrick Demarchelier, Tim Walker, Anton Corbijn and Helmut Newton. The book includes a foreword by Anna Wintour and is punctuated by Posnick's personal memories and irreverence.