Fashion: A Philosophy

(Paperback)

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Description

The book opens with an exploration of all the possible meanings encompassed by the word 'fashion', as Svendsen probes its elusive place in art, politics, and history. Ultimately, however, he focuses on the most notable type of fashion: clothing. With his trademark dry wit, he deftly dismantles many of the axioms of the industry and its supporters. For example, he points out that some of the latest fashions shown on catwalks aren't actually 'fashionable' in any sense of the word, arguing that they're more akin to modern art works.

Reviews

Fashion is an elegant and relatively easily read tour de force along academic and literary roads into the notion of fashion ... History is combined with contemporary material, academic views with concrete aesthetics; designers are used as examples and are treated on a par with great thinkers - nothing is too big or too small to be included in his considered analyses ... A very convincing book, recommended to everyone who is interested in fashion, sociology and philosophy in a practical or an academic context. Weekend-Avisen, Copenhagen

Author Bio

Lars Svendsen is Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy, University of Bergen, Norway. He is the author of many books, including Man, Morals and Genes: A Critique of Biologism (2001), The Philosophy of Evil (2001) and the critically acclaimed and successful A Philosophy of Boredom (Reaktion, 2005).