The World In Dress

Dressing Global Bodies addresses the complex politics of dress and fashion from a global perspective spanning four centuries, tying the early global to more contemporary times, to reveal clothing practice as a key cultural phenomenon and mechanism of defining one’s identity. This collection of essays explores how garments reflect the hierarchies of value, collective and personal inclinations, religious norms and conversions. Apparel is now recognized for its seminal role in global, colonial and post-colonial engagements and for its role in personal and collective expression. Patterns of exchange and commerce are discussed by contributing authors to analyse powerful and diverse colonial and postcolonial practices. This volume rejects assumptions surrounding a purportedly all-powerful Western metropolitan fashion system and instead aims to emphasize how diverse populations seized agency through the fashioning of dress. Dressing Global Bodies contributes to a growing scholarship considering gender and race, place and politics through the close critical analysis of dress and fashion; it is an indispensable volume for students of history and especially those interested in fashion, textiles, material culture and the body across a wide time frame.

"Brilliantly tracing influences from culture to culture, this tour-de-force journey across the globe includes descriptions of each region's population, geography and climate, allowing the reader to understand the development of an area's clothing customs. Complete with an extensive reference section, this treasure trove of information is a glorious celebration of ethnographic clothing and is destined to be the standard reference work on the subject." --BOOK JACKET.

In the early modern period costume books and albums participated in the shaping of a new visual culture that displayed the diversity of the people of the known world on a variety of media including maps, atlases, screens, and scrolls. At the crossroads of early anthropology, geography, and travel literature, this textual and visual production blurred the lines between art and science. Costume books and albums were not a unique European production: in the Ottoman Empire and the Far East artists and geographers also pictured the dress of men and women of their own and faraway lands hybridizing the Renaissance western tradition. Acknowledging this circulation of knowledge and people through migration, travel, missionary and diplomatic encounters, this Element contributes to the expanding field of early modern cultural studies in a global perspective.

This two-volume set presents information and images of the varied clothing and textiles of cultures around the world, allowing readers to better appreciate the richness and diversity of human culture and history. The contributors to Encyclopedia of National Dress: Traditional Clothing around the World examine clothing that is symbolic of the people who live in regions all over the world, providing a historical and geographic perspective that illustrates how people dress and explains the reasons behind the material, design, and style. The encyclopedia features a preface and introduction to its contents. Each entry in the encyclopedia includes a short historical and geographical background for the topic before discussing the clothing of people in that country or region of the world. This work will be of great interest to high school students researching fashion, fashion history, or history as well as to undergraduate students and general readers interested in anthropology, textiles, fashion, ethnology, history, or ethnic dress.

Taking a global, multicultural, social, and economic perspective, this work explores the diverse and colourful history of human attire. From prehistoric times to the age of globalization, articles cover the evolution of clothing utility, style, production, and commerce, including accessories (shoes, hats, gloves, handbags, and jewellery) for men, women, and children. Dress for different climates, occupations, recreational activities, religious observances, rites of passages, and other human needs and purposes - from hunting and warfare to sports and space exploration - are examined in depth and detail. Fashion and design trends in diverse historical periods, regions and countries, and social and ethnic groups constitute a major area of coverage, as does the evolution of materials (from animal fur to textiles to synthetic fabrics) and production methods (from sewing and weaving to industrial manufacturing and computer-aided design). Dress as a reflection of social status, intellectual and artistic trends, economic conditions, cultural exchange, and modern media marketing are recurring themes. Influential figures and institutions in fashion design, industry and manufacturing, retail sales, production technologies, and related fields are also covered.

From the mountains of Montenegro to the shores of South-East Asia and beyond, the V&A's renowned world dress collection is highlighted in World Dress Fashion in Detail . The book, part of the V&A Fashion in Detail series, explores cut work and silk embroidery from Indonesia, applied metal braid and cord fastenings from Albania, as well as elaborate patchwork from Tibet, India, Korea and Iran. Specially commissioned photographs, authoritative text and line drawings showcase the breathtaking richness of detail that will delight and inspire anyone interested in dress.

A history of the women who taught Americans how to dress in the first half of the 20th century—and whose lessons we’d do well to remember today.

This beautifully illustrated book explores the rich complexity of Regency clothing through the lens of the collected writings of Jane Austen.