Dress And Society

In ancient Rome, the subtlest details in dress helped to distinguish between levels of social and moral hierarchy. Clothes were a key part of the sign systems of Roman civilization – a central aspect of its visual language, for women as well as men. This engaging book collects and examines artistic evidence and literary references to female clothing, cosmetics and ornament in Roman antiquity, deciphering their meaning and revealing what it meant to be an adorned woman in Roman society. Cosmetics, ornaments and fashion were often considered frivolous, wasteful or deceptive, which reflects ancient views about the nature of women. However, Kelly Olson uses literary evidence to argue that women often took pleasure in fashioning themselves, and many treated adornment as a significant activity, enjoying the social status, influence and power that it signified. This study makes an important contribution to our knowledge of Roman women and is essential reading for anyone interested in ancient Roman life.

Understanding the social expectations and meanings associated with dress is critical to a successful career in fashion. Just as critical is familiarity with research techniques to capture the history of fashion trends. Dress and Society fulfills these requirements by presenting a socio-lo-gical perspective on how people dress and a research perspective on how to develop and appreciate research skills. Analyzing dress as an individual social behavior enables students to draw connections between their own lives and different styles of dress. Concepts such as gender, religion, race, education, cultural norms, and violations of cultural norms are thoroughly discussed. By starting each chapter with a headline from mass media, engaging the students in lively discussion, and presenting research with practical applications, the content becomes enjoyable and memorable for students. Instructors, contact your Sales Representative for access to Instructor's Materials.

It was traditionally said that ′clothes maketh the man′. But what codes and meanings are associated with dress in a society that consists of divisions between class, race, gender, family status and religion? Is social and cultural life still fundamentally themed by the clothes that we wear? If so, how should we read these codes and themes in order to decipher their relation to power and meaning? This exhaustive book demonstrates how dress shapes and is shaped by social processes and phenomena such as beauty, time, the body, the gift exchange, class, gender and religion. It does this through an analysis of topics like the Islamic clothing controversy in state schools, the multitude of identities associated with dress, the Dress Reform movement, the construction of the body in fashion magazines and the role of the internet in fashion. What emerges is a trenchant, sharply observed account of the place of dress in contemporary society. The book will be of interest to students and researchers in Sociology, Cultural Studies, Women′s Studies, Gender Studies, Anthropology and Fashion Studies.

The clothes worn by our ancestors afford an unparalleled insight into lifestyles that have disappeared forever.

- Dress, Society, and Social Control - Dress, Society, and the Novice Researcher - The Rules We Live By: Norms - Research: Dress Codes, Gender Norms, Group Norms, and More - Violation of Norms - Tattooers, Body Piercers, Cross-Dressers, Punks, Goths, and More - Recognition of Norm Violation: The Fashion Police - Research about Recognition of Norm Violations - Reports of Norm Violations: Spreading the Word - Reading and Talking about Norm Violations - Response to Norm Violation: Sanctions - Sanctions in Various Settings - Enforcement of Sanctions - Research about Enforcement of Sanctions - Newspaper and magazine articles as opening vignettes for each chapter engage students' interest - Discussion questions relate the terms, concepts, and procedures back to the opening vignettes - Research activities give students an opportunity to apply and expand their knowledge of dress and society and practice research methods and tools to collect data - Instructor's Guide provides a test bank, internet research activities, and discussion questions - PowerPoint Presentation provides outlines and ideas for lectures; compatible with PC and Mac platforms

While traditional studies of dress and jewellery have tended to focus purely on reconstruction or descriptions of style, chronology and typology, the social context of costume is now a major research area in archaeology. This refocusing is largely a result of the close relationship between dress and three currently popular topics: identity, bodies and material culture. Not only does dress constitute an important means by which people integrate and segregate to form group identities, but interactions between objects and bodies, quintessentially illustrated by dress, can also form the basis of much wider symbolic systems. Consequently, archaeological understandings of clothing shed light on some of the fundamental aspects of society, hence our intentionally unconditional title. Dress and Society illustrates the range of current archaeological approaches to dress using a number of case studies drawn from prehistoric to post-medieval Europe. Individually, each chapter makes a strong contribution in its own field whether through the discussion of new evidence or new approaches to classic material. Presenting the eight papers together creates a strong argument for a theoretically informed and integrated approach to dress as a specific category of archaeological evidence, emphasising that the study of dress not only draws openly on other disciplines, but is also a sub-discipline in its own right. However, rather than delimiting dress to a specialist area of research we seek to promote it as fundamental to any holistic archaeological understanding of past societies.

The clothes worn by our ancestors afford an invaluable insight into lifestyles that have disappeared. Choice of dress at any point in time is determined by a number of factors, such as social and economic pressures, moral codes, technical advances, influence of designers and artisitc movements, and the vagaries of individual taste.