Thinking Through Fashion
A vital update to the definitive guide to fashion and cultural theory, featuring four new chapters and essential revisions throughout in light of key developments in fashion and fashion studies. Across 19 major thinkers from the 19th to the 21st century, the second edition of this comprehensive collection introduces readers to the process of thinking through rich cultural fields such as fashion with the help of social and cultural theory, and thinking through social and cultural theory with the help of fashion. Each chapter guides you through the work of a major thinker and considers their historical context, the role of fashion within their theory, how their theoretical frameworks apply to contemporary fashion studies, and the strengths and limitations of their approach. Featuring new chapters on key theorists Edward Said, bell hooks, Frantz Fanon and W.E.B. Du Bois, this new edition prepares readers to question and diversify the field of fashion. A revised introduction resituates theories in relation to each other and reflects on changing approaches to fashion studies, while revisions to existing chapters equip readers with the most up-to-date critical perspectives and developments in fashion and fashion theory.
Dress, Dreams, and Desire
"Fascinating." - The New Yorker What can psychoanalysis tell us about the power and allure of fashion? Valerie Steele, author of Dress, Dreams and Desire, was described by critic Suzy Menkes as "the Freud of fashion." In this pathbreaking book, the first cultural history of fashion and psychoanalysis, Steele does not merely hold a mirror up to fashion's surface, she looks into its soul. A renowned fashion historian, Steele draws on key psychoanalytic concepts about the body, sexuality, and the unconscious - from the dream theories of Freud and Jung to Lacan's mirror stage and Anzieu's skin ego - to interpret the work of designers such as Elsa Schiaparelli, Gianni Versace, and Alexander McQueen. She explores how fashion is the lens through which we see ourselves - and how others see us. Far from being superficial, fashion can be regarded as a "deep surface" that communicates our unconscious desires and anxieties, with none of us fully aware of what we are "saying" with the clothes we wear.
