African Fashion, Global Style provides a lively look at fashion, international networks of style, material culture, and the world of African aesthetic expression. Victoria L. Rovine introduces fashion designers whose work reflects African histories and cultures both conceptually and stylistically, and demonstrates that dress styles associated with indigenous cultures may have all the hallmarks of high fashion. Taking readers into the complexities of influence and inspiration manifested through fashion, this book highlights the visually appealing, widely accessible, and highly adaptable styles of African dress that flourish on the global fashion market.

From yellow-face performance in the 19th century to Jackie Chan in the 21st, Chinese Looks examines articles of clothing and modes of adornment as a window on how American views of China have changed in the past 150 years. Sean Metzger provides a cultural history of three iconic objects in theatrical and cinematic performance: the queue, or man's hair braid; the woman's suit known as the qipao; and the Mao suit. Each object emerges at a pivotal moment in US-China relations, indexing shifts in the balance of power between the two nations. Metzger shows how aesthetics, gender, politics, economics, and race are interwoven and argues that close examination of particular forms of dress can help us think anew about gender and modernity.

The Fourth Edition of Cultures and Societies in a Changing World sheds light on the role culture plays in shaping our social world. A vital and personal aspect of individual identity, culture shapes a person's norms, values, beliefs and practices. This Fourth Edition introduces the sociology of culture and explores cultural phenomena including stories, beliefs, media, ideas, art, religious practices, fashions and rituals from a global-sociological perspective.

Coverage includes the origins of clothing and body adornment, the development of fabrics and technologies, and the social meanings of dress.

Provides facts and information about the cultural, religious and social implications of human decoration and adornment throughout history, with a particular emphasis on the decades of the 20th century. In 500 entries, detailed information about clothing, hairstyles, tattoos, jewelry, body piercing, feet binding and other types of fashion or style is examined. Additionally, entries explain the fashion or style within the context of the traditions, customs, rituals or practices it relates to, as well as its significance to society or culture.

For the fifth edition, Amy de la Haye, former Curator of Twentieth-Century Dress at the Victoria and Albert Museum, has revised the final chapter and included a new section addressing the fashion industry in the twenty-first century. She discusses the expansion of the Asian luxury market; the rise of "fast fashion," stylists, and celebrity endorsements; and the influence of the Internet.

"Take a walk in someone else's shoes in this fascinating examination of shoes and feet around the world! This one-of-a-kind A-Z reference work contains over 150 fascinating entries and intriguing sidebars that look at feet and adornment of feet across the many cultures of the world throughout time. A wide range of international and multicultural topics are covered, including foot binding, fetishes, diseases of the foot, customs and beliefs related to the foot, shoe construction, myths and folktales featuring feet or shoes, the history of footwear, iconic brands and types of shoes, important celebrities associated with shoes, and the types of footwear worn around the world. This exhaustive compilation is ideal for students and general readers interested in the human body, fashion, and medicine, and even scholars looking for more in-depth coverage on the social and cultural uses of the body will find it as a useful starting point in their research.

In the shops of London's Oxford Street, girls wear patterned scarves over their hair as they cluster around makeup counters. Alongside them, hip twenty-somethings style their head-wraps in high black topknots to match their black boot-cut trousers. Participating in the world of popular mainstream fashion--often thought to be the domain of the West--these young Muslim women are part of an emergent cross-faith transnational youth subculture of modest fashion. In treating hijab and other forms of modest clothing as fashion, Reina Lewis counters the overuse of images of veiled women as "evidence" in the prevalent suggestion that Muslims and Islam are incompatible with Western modernity. Muslim Fashion contextualizes modest wardrobe styling within Islamic and global consumer cultures, interviewing key players including designers, bloggers, shoppers, store clerks, and shop owners.

The universal act of dressing--shared by both men and women, young and old, rich and poor, minority and majority--has shaped human interactions, communicated hopes and fears about the future, and embodied what it means to be Somali. Heather Marie Akou mines politics and history in this rich and compelling study of Somali material culture. Akou explores the evolution of Somali folk dress, the role of the Somali government in imposing styles of dress, competing forms of Islamic dress, and changes in Somali fashion in the U.S. With the collapse of the Somali state, Somalis continue a connection with their homeland and community through what they wear every day.

Taking a global, multicultural, social, and economic perspective, this work explores the diverse and colourful history of human attire. From prehistoric times to the age of globalization, articles cover the evolution of clothing utility, style, production, and commerce, including accessories (shoes, hats, gloves, handbags, and jewelry) for men, women, and children. Dress for different climates, occupations, recreational activities, religious observances, rites of passages, and other human needs and purposes - from hunting and warfare to sports and space exploration - are examined in depth and detail.