Fashioning identities: gender, class and the self

Date

2004-01-01

Advisors

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

ISSN

0022-0094

Volume Title

Publisher

Journal of Contemporary History

Type

Article

Peer reviewed

Abstract

Description

This article focused on four publications from Berg’s ‘Dress, Body and Culture’ series. It situates these publications within the context of the development of dress and fashion studies and acknowledges dress and adornment as universal practices which aid our understanding of our individual and collective attempts to express identities. This article utilises a discussion and analysis of these publications to reflect on the current state of fashion theory and research. Drawing on the writer’s own extensive knowledge of fashion history and theory, the essay intervened in debates about fashion and identity and argued that studies of fashion have come of age. Researchers in fashion history and theory display rigorous methods and creative interdisciplinary theories and methods of study, and should stop apologising for their focus on the supposedly “frivolous” field of fashion studies. This should now be accepted as a valid area of serious academic study.

Keywords

RAE 2008, UoA 63 Art and Design

Citation

Boydell, C.E. (2004) Fashioning identities: Gender, clss and the self. Journal of Contemporary History, 39(1), pp. 136-146.

Rights

Research Institute