The Culture of FashionThis illustrated survey of 600 years of fashion investigates its cultural and social meanings from medieval Europe to 20th-century America. It provides a guide to the changes in style and taste, and challenges existing fashion histories, showing that clothes have always played a pivotal role in defining a sense of identity and society, especially when concerned with sexual and body politics. With a chronological structure, each chapter focuses on both male and female fashion of a specific period, covering its fascinating developments. It discusses: androgynous dressing; body piercing; fabrics, clothing and the rise of city life; dress, and the changing shape of the human body; controversies surrounding trousers and leg wear for both men and women; exposure of flesh; fashion and social status; and the dissemination of fashion through travel, film, magazines and catwalk shows. |
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adoption advertising appearance aristocratic blackwork embroidery bodice breeches British CLOTHING AND COMMERCE CLOTHING AND CRISIS CLOTHING THE MASSES colour construction consumer contemporary context costume cotton court couture crinoline decade decoration display EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY economic effeminacy elite Elizabeth Elizabethan emphasis England English evidence FASHION AND MODERNITY fashion change fashion history fashion journal FASHIONING THE BODY female dress femininity garments gender gown hair historians houppelande ical identified industrial J. B. Priestley journals lace Lady late lifestyle London luxury male dress Manchester Manchester Metropolitan University masculine material Medieval MEDIEVAL PERIOD ment metropolitan middle National Portrait Gallery Norbert Elias organisation patterns petticoat political popular culture prioritised production Rei Kawakubo Renaissance RHETORIC OF POWER role sartorial sense seventeenth century sexual shift silk skirt sleeves social society status sumer symbolic textiles tion trends visual Vivienne Westwood waist wear whilst wider woman women women's magazines