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.

This magnificent Gypsy anthology was first published in London 1930. It contains over 300 items of prose and verse gleaned from classical literature, folklore, history and true Gypsy life. It has long been considered unique in its field and is very hard to find in its first edition. READ COUNTRY BOOKS has now re-published this scarce book incorporating the original text and illustrations. The book's 388 pages are divided into 12 sections designed to bring to light the chief facets of Gypsy life. They have been chosen for their historical and archaeological interest, as well as illustrations of the real Gypsy way of life, and yet the same wind blows over all on this Gypsy heath.: - The Dark Race. - The Roaming Life. - Field and Sky. - Gypsies and Gentiles. - The Romany Chye. - Gypsy Children. - Sturt and Strife. - Black Arts. - A Gypsy Bestiary. - Egipte Speche. - Scholar Gypsies. - Envoy. Also included is a glossary of Romani words. This important book can be thoroughly recommended for inclusion in the library of all with an interest in Gypsy ways.

Designed for both academic and lay audiences, this book identifies the characteristics of ritual and, via multiple examples, details how ritual works on the human body and brain to produce its often profound effects. These include enhancing courage, effecting healing, and generating group cohesion by enacting cultural-or individual-beliefs and values. It also shows what happens when ritual fails.

This concise encyclopedia examines headwear around the world, from ancient times to the modern era, comprising entries that address cultural significance, religion, historical events, geography, demographic and ethnic issues, fashion, and contemporary trends. Are feathers from endangered bird species still commonly used on hats? Why do many Muslim women cover their heads? How has advancing technology influenced modern headwear? This concise encyclopedia provides the answers to these questions and many more regarding headwear and human culture in its examination of headwear around the world. It examines topics from ancient times to the modern era, providing not only detailed physical descriptions and historical facts but also information that addresses cultural significance, religion, historical events, geography, demographic and ethnic issues, fashion, and contemporary trends. The entries reveal fascinating insights into headwear as historical, aesthetic, fashion, utilitarian, mystical, and symbolic apparel, and supplies comprehensive analyses of hats across the globe unavailable in the existing literature. Vividly documents the fundamental human experience and universal practice of adorning the head Highlights the global community and cultural linkages of headwear function, material, and style Directly relates hats to race, religion, ethnicity, gender, usage, and form Enables greater understanding of human diversity throughout time by tracing the development of headgear Provides dozens of sidebars to pique reader interest and offer short, witty, funny, or pertinent content

Fashion is bound up with promoting the "new," concerned with constantly changing aesthetics. The favored styles or looks of a season arise out of the work of a vast range of different actors who collectively produce, select, distribute and promote the new ideals, before moving on next season. If fashion is defined, in part, by the incessant requirement to be "new," this requirement means aesthetic qualities are always in motion and, therefore, unstable. How, then, are fashionable commodities stabilized long enough for them to be calculated--i.e., selected, distributed and sold--by those critically placed inside the fashion system? Since there are few studies that actually examine the work that goes on inside the world of fashion we know little about these processes. "Fashion and the Cultural Economy" addresses this gap in our knowledge by examining how aesthetic products are defined, distributed and valued. It focuses attention on the work of some of the market agents, in particular model agents or "bookers" and fashion buyers, shaping the aesthetics inside their markets. In analyzing their work, Entwistle develops a theoretical framework for understanding the distinctive features of aesthetic marketplaces and the aesthetic calculations within them.

Holidays help define our culture, but people forget that they are closely connected with economics.

Author Holley Hewitt Ulbrich combines her lifelong fascination with our nation's most special occasions and her love of economics in this fascinating account. You'll learn why Punxsutawney Phil might play a role in economic forecasting; how Valentine's Day could just be an example of heartless capitalism; how Earth Day provides insights about property rights; how Father's Day and Mother's Day helps us understand the history of the American family.

Holidays are about communities, cultures, history, and our relationship with the natural world, and they offer a way to highlight a context in which we make our choices. Since they are scattered throughout the year, they help us explore emerging ideas of behavioral and neo-institutional economics in small, seasonal doses.

Join Ulbrich as she explores what these occasions say about our economic system, our society, and ourselves with Economics Takes a Holiday.

Don't just see the sights-get to know the people. The people who inhabit the diverse landscapes of this beautiful land are proud, friendly, hospitable, and hardworking, but to understand the culture in any depth, you need to know the complex historical divisions between the highlands and the coast, and the rigid class and racial discrimination that has dominated the country's history. This updated edition of the award-winning Culture Smart! Ecuador takes you beyond the usual descriptions of what to see and digs into the heart of this multi-layered nation to give you an insider's view of the people and their traditions, history, food, and culture, and the practical tools to make the most of your time there. Have a richer and more meaningful experience abroad through a better understanding of the local culture. Chapters on history, values, attitudes, and traditions will help you to better understand your hosts, while tips on etiquette and communicating will help you to navigate unfamiliar situations and avoid faux pas.

Storytelling plays an important part in the vibrant cultural life of Zambia and in many other communities across Africa. This innovative book provides a collection and analysis of oral narrative traditions as practiced by five Bemba-speaking ethnic groups in Zambia. The integration of newly digitalised audio and video recordings into the text enables the reader to encounter the storytellers themselves and hear their narratives. Robert Cancel's thorough critical interpretation, combined with these newly digitalised audio and video materials, makes Storytelling in Northern Zambia a much needed addition to the slender corpus of African folklore studies that deal with storytelling performance. Cancel threads his way between the complex demands of African fieldwork studies, folklore theory, narrative modes, reflexive description and simple documentation and succeeds in bringing to the reader a set of performers and their performances that are vivid, varied and instructive. He illustrates this living narrative tradition with a wide range of examples, and highlights the social status of narrators and the complex local identities that are at play. Cancel's study tells us not only about storytelling but sheds light on the study of oral literatures throughout Africa and beyond. Its innovative format, meanwhile, explores new directions in the integration of primary source material into scholarly texts. This book is the third volume in the World Oral Literature Series, developed in conjunction with the World Oral Literature Project.

Many cultures, including Greeks, Romans, French, and British, have taken great pride in legends that recount the foundation of their society. This book demonstrates the contexts in which a medieval British matriarchal legend, the Albina narrative, was paired over time with a patriarchal narrative, which was already widely disseminated, leading to the attribution of British origins to the warrior Brutus. By the close of the Middle Ages, the Albina tale had appeared in multiple versions in French, Latin, English, Welsh, and Dutch. This study investigates the classical roots of the narrative and the ways it was manipulated in the Middle Ages to function as a national foundation legend. Of especial interest are the dynamic qualities of the text: how it was adapted over the span of two centuries to meet the changing needs of medieval writers and audiences. The currency in the Middle Ages of the Albina narrative is attested to by its inclusion in nearly all the extant manuscripts of the Middle English Prose Brut, many of the French and Latin Bruts, and in a variety of other chronicles and romances. In total, there are over 230 manuscripts surviving today that contain versions of the Albina tale. Despite this, however, relatively little modern scholarship has focused on this widely disseminated and adapted legend. This book provides the first-ever overview of the entire Albina tradition, from its roots to its eventual demise as a popularly accepted narrative. The Classical basis of the narrative in the Hypermnestra story and the ways it was manipulated in the medieval era to function as a national foundation legend are considered. Folkloric, biblical, and legal influences on the development of the tradition are addressed. The tale is viewed through a variety of lenses to suggest ways it may have functioned or was put to use in the Middle Ages. The study concludes with an overview of the narrative's demise in the Renaissance. This is a useful reference source for medievalists and other scholars interested in chronicle studies, literature, folklore, foundation narratives, manuscript studies, and historiography. It will also be useful to art historians who wish to study the various depictions of the Albina narrative in illuminated texts. The tale's emphasis on matriarchy and its subversion of the accepted societal norm will attract the interest of scholars in feminist studies. As the first analysis of the Albina tradition as a whole, it will be a valuable cornerstone for later studies.

The stories of Kaua'i's ruling chiefs were passed from generation to generation in songs and narratives recited by trained storytellers either formally at the high chief's court or informally at family gatherings. Their chronology was ordered by a ruler's genealogy, which, in the case of the pua ali'i (flower of royalty), was illustrious and far reaching and could be traced to one of the four great gods of Polynesia - Kane, Ku, Lono, and Kanaloa. In these legends, Hawaiians of old sought answers to the questions "Who are we?" "Who are our ancestors and where do they come from?" "What lessons can be learned from their conduct?" Na Pua Ali'i o Kaua'i presents the stories of the men and women who ruled the island of Kaua'i from its first settlement to the final rebellion against Kamehameha I's forces in 1824. Only fragments remain of the nearly two-thousand-year history of the people who inhabited Kaua'i before the coming of James Cook in 1778. Now scattered in public and private archives and libraries, these pieces of Hawai'i's precontact past were recorded in the nineteenth century by such determined individuals as David Malo, Samuel Kamakau, and Abraham Fornander. All known genealogical references to the Kaua'i ali'i nui (paramount chiefs) have been gathered here and placed in chronological order and are interspersed with legends of great voyages, bitter wars, courageous heroes, and passionate romances that together form a rich and invaluable resource.

Fashioning Socialism is the first history of communist fashion in East Germany. Using clothing as a lens to read society, the author unveils wider tensions between the regime and the population and within the regime itself. In telling the surprising - and often bizarre - story of communist haute couture, fashion shows, seasonal clearance sales, the textile and garment industries, and everyday consumer practices, this book explores the paradoxical causes, forms, and consequences of East Germany's attempt to create a communist consumer culture during the Cold War. In attempting to compete with capitalism on the West's terms, East Germany unwittingly bred disgruntled consumers - consumers who ultimately tore down the Wall. Topics covered include gender and consumption, Americanization and Sovietization, women as consumer-citizens, and much more. A rare glimpse into consumerism under state socialism, this book offers unique insights into the Cold War, the dynamics and collapse of communism, and modern consumption.