Fashion, Culture, and Identity (Paperback)

~ (Author) "That the clothes we wear make a statement is itself a statement that in this age of heightened self-consciousness has virtually become a cliche..." (more)
Key Phrases: fashion system model, fashion pluralism, shifting erogenous zone, New York, World War, Los Angeles (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Davis (emeritus professor of sociology, Univ. of California-San Diego) discusses several intriguing theories about fashion's social and psychological significance in modern culture. What makes clothes fashion; how fashions evolve; how fashion choices express social status, gender identity, sexuality, and conformity; and how fashion is (or is not) accepted are all discussed, Davis having reviewed over 200 sources of writings by social scientists and fashion students. Especially good is the chapter on the dynamics of certain groups' intentional resistance to fashion. Davis does propose a few of his own ideas, always backed up by the literature. The work would have been enlivened by increased emphasis on Davis's actual interviews with designers, editors, and manufacturers, whose opinions are only briefly summarized. This book is a good basis for further reading, but lay readers will need handy access to an unabridged dictionary to cope with the scholarly language. For academic and specialized collections.
- Therese D. Baker, Western Kentucky Univ. Libs., Bowling Green
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

What do our clothes say about who we are or who we think we are? How does the way we dress communicate messages about our identity? Is the desire to be "in fashion" universal, or is it unique to Western culture? How do fashions change? These are just a few of the intriguing questions Fred Davis sets out to answer in this provocative look at what we do with our clothes--and what they can do to us.

Much of what we assume to be individual preference, Davis shows, really reflects deeper social and cultural forces. Ours is an ambivalent social world, characterized by tensions over gender roles, social status, and the expression of sexuality. Predicting what people will wear becomes a risky gamble when the link between private self and public persona can be so unstable.

Product Details

• Paperback: 233 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press (September 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226138097
• ISBN-13: 978-0226138091
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #65,880 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For academics not the layperson, January 4, 2007

By	textile fiend (Auckland, New Zealand) - See all my reviews

I just wanted to offer an alternative viewpoint to P.Campbell's review. What they say is correct, in that there is a lot of academic language in this book, but I think only to a degree that is appropriate to the level the book is aimed at.

The book refers to the 'dialectic' of fashion, there's a lot of 'mediating the body' etc, and true, Mr Davis does use the word 'apercu', which I will admit is nearly unforgiveable, when 'perception' would have done just as well.

However overall this book reads in tone pretty similar to an issue of 'Dress, Body, Culture'. It's a standard text for graduate research - you HAVE to read this if you are serious about fashion theory. It's really pretty accessible for a university level text; much more so than Barthe's fashion writing.

So, although it's not for everyone,I found this is a clear and insightful look at the way our culture and our dress influence each other.

3 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars overwritten and pretentious., November 10, 2006

By	P. Campbell "non-plused student" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The author wrote out this book, and then went back and replaced every word under 3 syllables with a larger, more obscure one. While I have been under the inpression that books of this nature were meant to convey information, he seem to think that informative books are for patting oneself on the back for being SO SMART. This book is self-indulgent and poorly written, and that's too bad, because it does cover a really interesting topic. Yes, it's dense, but it is possible to muddle through. But do you really want to?