Fashion: The Key Concepts

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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 chapterBullet points summarizing key ideas conclude each chapterChapter discussions are illustrated with integrated case materialEach chapter is supported by extended Case StudiesKey words are highlighted in chapters and defined in an extensive GlossaryFurther Reading guides the reader to other literature A timeline of Fashion Milestones provides a chronology of major events in the history of fashion

Reviews

"Craik's refreshing approach and lucid analysis of the complexities of dress and fashion theory provides essential reading. The author tackles many of those all too familiar dilemmas and questions about fashion's cultural significance with bravado. A panoramic and ambitious study of dress, in all its wider meanings and manifestations." Claire Wilcox, Senior Curator, Department of Furniture, Textiles & Fashion, V&A

Author Bio

Jennifer Craik is Research Professor of Communication and Cultural Studies in the Faculty of Design and Creative Practice at the University of Canberra and Adjunct Professor in Fashion at the School of Fashion and Textiles at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, Melbourne. Her seminal publications include The Face of Fashion: cultural studies in fashion and Uniforms Exposed: from conformity to transgression.