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
