The fashioned body : fashion, dress and modern social theory.

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This book provides a comprehensive overview of fashion and dress from historical and sociological perspectives. It summarizes theories regarding the role of fashion in modern society and its vital contribution to the formation of identity through the lens of body, gender, and sexuality. By examining fashion in relation to the body, it bridges the gap between literature on fashion, which often overlooks the body, and the sociology of the body, which tends to marginalize fashion. The author emphasizes that understanding fashion requires recognizing the cultural meanings associated with the body, as fashion communicates through the body in nearly all social contexts. While fashion originates from a specific Western system of dress, the book argues that all cultures engage in 'dressing' the body, making it essential to social order. Drawing on the works of theorists like Douglas, Foucault, Merleau-Ponty, Goffman, and Bourdieu, it explores the connections between body, fashion, and dress, advocating for a view of fashion as 'situated bodily practice.' This resource is invaluable for students and academics interested in the social dimensions of fashion and dress, as well as those in consumption studies, cultural studies, gender studies, and feminist theory.