Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Fashion is everywhere. It is one of the main ways in which we present ourselves to others, signaling what we want to communicate about our sexuality, wealth, professionalism, subcultural and political allegiances, social status, even our mood. It is also a global industry with huge economic, political and cultural impact on the lives of all of us who make, sell, wear or even just watch fashion.Fashion: the key concepts presents a clear introduction to the complex world of fashion. The aim throughout is to present a comprehensive but also accessible and provocative analysis. Readers will discover how the fashion industry is structured and how it thinks, the links between catwalk, celebrity branding, media promotion and mainstream retail, how clothes mean different things in different parts of the world, and how popular culture influences fashion and how fashion shapes global culture.Illustrated with a wealth of photographs, the text is further enlivened with over 30 detailed and rich case studies - ranging across topics as diverse as the meaning of black in fashion, the rise of celebrity branding, the cult of thinness, the politics of veiling, the eroticism of shoes and the power of cosmetics.Features:§ Boxed chapter overviews open each chapter§ Bullet points summarizing key ideas conclude each chapter§ Chapter discussions are illustrated with integrated case material§ Each chapter is supported by extended Case Studies§ Key words are highlighted in chapters and defined in an extensive Glossary§ Further Reading guides the reader to other literature§ A timeline of Fashion Milestones provides a chronology of major events in the history of fashion

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• acknowledgements (p. ix)
• illustrations (p. xi)
• introduction: why study fashion? (p. 1)
• i the purpose of this book (p. 1)
• ii defining key terms (p. 2)
• iii key approaches to studying fashion (p. 5)
• iv how is this book organized? (p. 14)
• 1 the fashion impulse (p. 19)
• i investigating the fashion impulse (p. 19)
• ii color and fashion through time (p. 34)
• iii the color black in fashion (p. 42)
• iv conclusion (p. 47)
• case study 1 the regulation of fashion (p. 49)
• case study 2 black mourning dress (p. 51)
• case study 3 fashions in new guinea headdresses (p. 54)
• case study 4 the sailor suit: from function to fashion (p. 59)
• 2 the eurocentric fashion system (p. 63)
• i consumer culture and fashion (p. 63)
• ii paris fashion (p. 68)
• iii the paris legacy (p. 75)
• iv new fashion capitals (p. 82)
• v conclusion (p. 91)
• case study 5 beau brummell (p. 93)
• case study 6 the influence of coco chanel (p. 96)
• case study 7 yves saint laurent as style muse (p. 99)
• case study 8 daslu luxury retailing (p. 102)
• 3 fashion cycles, symbols, and flows (p. 105)
• i fashion cycles and structures (p. 105)
• ii fashion symbols and codes (p. 109)
• iii interdisciplinary fashion theory (p. 115)
• iv fashion flows (p. 117)
• v conclusion (p. 120)
• case study 9 the meaning of men's ties (p. 122)
• case study 10 jeans as uber fashion (p. 124)
• case study 11 sexuality and stilettos (p. 127)
• case study 12 the magic of cosmetics (p. 130)
• 4 fashion, body techniques, and identity (p. 135)
• i fashion as a body technique (p. 136)
• ii fashioning gender: femininity and masculinity (p. 139)
• iii fashioning consumers (p. 147)
• iv uniforms of identity (p. 148)
• v conclusion (p. 156)
• case study 13 fashion and identity in harajuku (p. 159)
• case study 14 acquiring the techniques of royalty (p. 162)
• case study 15 the metrosexual man (p. 166)
• case study 16 the cult of thinness (p. 168)
• 5 fashion, aesthetics, and art (p. 171)
• i aesthetics and fashion (p. 171)
• ii spatial aesthetics and fashion (p. 174)
• iii fashion as aesthetic regime (p. 177)
• iv artistic fashion and cultural shifts (p. 180)
• v from aesthetic innovation to museum curation (p. 183)
• vi conclusion (p. 189)
• case study 17 fashion photography and heroin chic (p. 191)
• case study 18 exhibiting vivienne westwood (p. 194)
• case study 19 wearable art (p. 196)
• case study 20 fashion and the wristwatch (p. 198)
• 6 fashion as a business and cultural industry (p. 205)
• i the structure of the fashion industry (p. 206)
• ii fashion forecasting, marketing, and the fashion consumer (p. 212)
• iii the changing role of the fashion designer (p. 220)
• iv luxury brands and global marketing (p. 225)
• v conclusion (p. 231)
• case study 21 celebrity models (p. 233)
• case study 22 louis vuitton as luxury accessory (p. 237)
• case study 23 the gap as global fashion (p. 240)
• case study 24 secondhand clothing (p. 242)
• 7 popular culture and fashion (p. 245)
• i fashion and the rise of popular culture (p. 246)
• ii representing fashion (p. 248)
• iii fashion subcultures and popular music (p. 254)
• iv fashion journalism, public relations, and stylists (p. 264)
• v conclusion (p. 270)
• case study 25 sports clothing for everyman (p. 272)
• case study 26 australian bush wear as urban chic (p. 275)
• case study 27 retailing erotic lingerie (p. 278)
• case study 28 oliviero toscani's advertisements for benetton (p. 281)
• 8 the politics of fashion (p. 283)
• i what are the politics of fashion? (p. 284)
• ii endogenous and exogenous factors (p. 285)
• iii fashion and colonialism (p. 296)
• iv fashion and postcolonialism (p. 301)
• v conclusion: global fashion futures? (p. 302)
• case study 29 the politics of veiling (p. 306)
• case study 30 renegotiating chinese fashion (p. 310)
• case study 31 indian fashion: from diasporas to designers (p. 314)
• case study 32 burberry's brand of britishness (p. 316)
• glossary (p. 319)
• fashion milestones (p. 341)
• questions for essays and class discussion (p. 349)
• annotated guide for further reading (p. 353)
• bibliography (p. 357)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Craik (Univ. of Canberra) has written on fashion and dress before: Uniforms Exposed: From Conformity to Transgression (CH, Jun'06, 43-5958) and The Face of Fashion: Cultural Studies in Fashion (1994). She also writes more generally on culture, so she brings a lot to the table. Unfortunately, this book is poorly executed. The introduction uses the word "performativity" in boldface. That looks interesting, but nothing appears in the index on this concept, not even a reference back to the boldfaced word. The book includes a photo of some "Sloane Rangers" taken at the Glastonbury Festival, but a jump to the index to learn more leads ... nowhere. The photos are, in a word, terrible. Lopped-off feet and skulls abound, and the captions are very strange: many lack dates (even though dates are often critical to understanding fashion). When dates are given, they are mostly for when the work was licensed; the captions are unhelpful. The author appears to have relied far too heavily on freely available photos and Getty Images. A case in point is the photo of the Rolling Stones, which is dated 2006 but taken well before then, lacks Charlie Watts, includes two interlopers, and is captioned only as "The Rolling Stones." Some intriguing ideas are interspersed throughout this volume, and Craik includes a bibliography. However, this volume will be better placed as a circulating book than a reference work, and only in comprehensive collections related to fashion. Summing Up: Optional. Lower-level undergraduates through faculty/researchers. C. Stevens Lake Forest College