Fashion and Its Social Agendas: Class, Gender, and Identity in Clothing

Author:   Diana Crane (University of Pennsylvania, USA and University of Paris, France)
Publisher:   The University of Chicago Press
Edition:   New edition
ISBN:  

9780226117997


Pages:   304
Publication Date:   01 September 2001
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
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Fashion and Its Social Agendas: Class, Gender, and Identity in Clothing


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Overview

"It has long been said that clothes make the man (or woman), but is it still true today? If so, how has the information clothes convey changed over the years? Using a wide range of historical and contemporary materials, Diana Crane demonstrates how the social significance of clothing has been transformed. Crane compares nineteenth-century societies—France and the United States—where social class was the most salient aspect of social identity signified in clothing with late twentieth-century America, where lifestyle, gender, sexual orientation, age, and ethnicity are more meaningful to individuals in constructing their wardrobes. Today, clothes worn at work signify social class, but leisure clothes convey meanings ranging from trite to political. In today's multicode societies, clothes inhibit as well as facilitate communication between highly fragmented social groups. Crane extends her comparison by showing how nineteenth-century French designers created fashions that suited lifestyles of Paris elites but that were also widely adopted outside France. By contrast, today's designers operate in a global marketplace, shaped by television, film, and popular music. No longer confined to elites, trendsetters are drawn from many social groups, and most trends have short trajectories. To assess the impact of fashion on women, Crane uses voices of college-aged and middle-aged women who took part in focus groups. These discussions yield fascinating information about women's perceptions of female identity and sexuality in the fashion industry. An absorbing work, Fashion and Its Social Agendas stands out as a critical study of gender, fashion, and consumer culture. ""Why do people dress the way they do? How does clothing contribute to a person's identity as a man or woman, as a white-collar professional or blue-collar worker, as a preppie, yuppie, or nerd? How is it that dress no longer denotes social class so much as lifestyle? . . . Intelligent and informative, [this] book proposes thoughtful answers to some of these questions.""-Library Journal"

Full Product Details

Author:   Diana Crane (University of Pennsylvania, USA and University of Paris, France)
Publisher:   The University of Chicago Press
Imprint:   University of Chicago Press
Edition:   New edition
Dimensions:   Width: 1.50cm , Height: 0.20cm , Length: 2.40cm
Weight:   0.539kg
ISBN:  

9780226117997


ISBN 10:   0226117995
Pages:   304
Publication Date:   01 September 2001
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

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Diana Crane is a professor of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania.

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