The Face of Fashion: Cultural Studies in FashionRoutledge, 2003 M09 2 - 264 pages First Published in 2004. "The Face of Fashion" is a study of fashion and the body which aims to establish the relations between codes and systems of clothing and the conduct of everyday life. Jennifer Craik questions the trickle-down theory that fashion is dictated by elite designers and opinion leaders with evidence of a trickle-up effect from sub-cultures, mass consumer behaviour and everyday bricolage of fashion items. The text addresses the neglected area of men's fashion, as well as women's fashion, within a broad examination of the role of fashion in gender identity. The argument is developed through a number of key agencies and processes: consumerism and everyday fashion; the iconization of the body through fashion models and photography; the use of cosmetics to "make-up" the body; the nexus between fashion and gender; the changing fashions in underwear and swimwear as maps of the revealed body. These topics are approached from an interdisciplinary perspective that treats fashion systems as ethnographic traces of the cultural projection of the body. |
Contents
Exotic impulses in techniques of fashion | |
Fashioning women Techniques of femininity | |
Fashion models Female bodies and icons of femininity | |
Soft focus Techniques of fashion photography | |
States of undress Lingerie to swimwear | |
Cosmetic attributes Techniques of makeup and perfume | |
Fashioning masculinity Dressed for comfort or style | |
Conclusion Nothing to wear | |
Bibliography | |
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Common terms and phrases
advertising androgyny appearance associated attributes bathing beauty became become body decoration body techniques Calvin Klein catalogue changing clothes colour consumerism contemporary conventions corsetry corsets cosmetics costumes couture created department stores designers desire display dress and decoration dress codes Elle MacPherson emphasised epitomised Estée Lauder etiquette European everyday fashion example exotic fabric fashion industry fashion photography fashion systems female body garments gender Gibson Girl girls groups Guerlain habitus Hageners Hall-Duncan haute couture high fashion ibid ideal identity Issey Miyake jacket jeans Kidwell Kunzle leisure lifestyle London look make-up male masculinity men's dress men's fashion moral offered perfume photographs popular popularised practical prestigious imitation production promoted Quoted Reekie reflected role models sari scent sexual Shrimpton skirt social body specific style suit swimming swimwear tattooing techniques of femininity themes traditional trousers underwear wardrobe wear western culture western fashion woman women women's magazines worn Yves Saint Laurent