Description: A vital update to the definitive guide to fashion and cultural theory. Features four new chapters and essential revisions throughout in light of key developments in fashion and fashion studies.
Brief description: Elizabeth Wilson is a pioneer in the development of fashion studies, and has been a university professor, feminist campaigner and activist. Her writing career began in the 'underground' magazines of the early 1970s, (Frendz, Red Rag, Spare Rib, Come Together) before she became an academic. She's written for the Guardian and her non-fiction books include Adorned in Dreams (1985, 2003), The Sphinx in the City (1992) (shortlisted for the Manchester Odd Fellows Prize), Bohemians (2000) and Love Game (2014) (long listed for the William Hill sportswriting prize), as well as six crime novels, including War Damage (2009) and The Girl in Berlin (2012) (long listed for the Golden Dagger Award).
Review Quotes:
"The book continues to raise its academic bar ... Rocamora and Smelik have done an outstanding job in compiling an enlightening and insightful book that covers a group of crucial thinkers whom readers can compare and contrast ... [This] is an important resource and essential reading for educators, researchers and students." --Critical Studies in Fashion & Beauty
"Built on the cornerstone that fashion can no longer be regarded as only a western phenomenon, [this] new edition transcends its previous notions of fashions inequalities ... [It] remains a valuable resource for fashion studies scholars everywhere." --International Journal of Fashion Studies "An outstanding resource for readers interested in key social and cultural theorists of the late 19th to the early 21st century and the ways their ideas apply to issues of fashion, dress, and material culture ... The 19 contributors are respected authorities in their disciplines, making this an excellent reference volume well worth having in academic collections." --CHOICE "Rocamora and Smelik have done an outstanding job in compiling an enlightening and insightful book that covers a wide range of important thinkers and explores their theoretical and conceptual relevance in fashion research. The second edition includes scholars, such W.E.B. Du Bois, Edward Said, and bell hooks, whose works have been key to theories of race and postcolonialism, and their analytical frameworks on diversity, inclusion, and social justice, help us deconstruct the Eurocentric viewpoints of fashion. This book is an important resource and essential reading for professors, researchers, and students who are interested in 'thinking through fashion' critically and theoretically." --Yuniya Kawamura, Fashion Institute of Technology, USA "This new edition is a must-read book; it offers an outstanding update and a more inclusive reach to an already excellent work. The new introduction melds social movements with theory in a conceptually rich, accessible, and contemporary yet historically grounded way. The addition of thinkers such as DuBois, Fanon, hooks, and Said highlights the importance of anti-racist and decolonial theory in critical fashion studies." --Susan B. Kaiser, University of California, Davis, USA "I am so pleased to have a copy of this revised version in my hands. It underlines how postcolonial studies, critical race theory, Black studies and decolonial theory have all had a profound influence on the field of Fashion Studies in the last 30 years, helping to challenge Eurocentric colonial systems of power and knowledge." --Elizabeth Kutesko, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, UK "The second edition of Thinking Through Fashion cements its status as an indispensable guide to understanding how key social and cultural theorists can enrich the thinking-research-practice of fashion and dress. With the addition of crucial new chapters, this edition moves readers beyond the field's dominant white Eurocentric assumptions to cultivate a more progressive and inclusive foundation. Undoubtedly, Thinking Through Fashion will become a well-worn, frequently referenced staple on the bookshelves of every fashion educator and student." --Ben Barry, Parsons School of Design, The New School, USA "Rocamora and Smelik have rethought their original intervention and augmented this important volume with key thinkers, like hooks, Du Bois, and Said, whose works can decentre and decolonize fashion. This second edition redresses the gaps the editors acknowledged when the book was published in 2015. A must-read for students and educators seeking tools for a more inclusive field of fashion!" --Nigel Lezama, Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada "A welcome reedition of an essential fashion reader, this already diverse collection has been refreshed with chapters that foreground decolonial, postcolonial and intersectional viewpoints. Examining histories of fashion through a wide range of theoretical lenses, it provides vital context for any student making, styling or writing about clothes. An indispensable introduction to fashion thinking." --Philip Clarke, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, UK "Useful to anyone making their first foray into the world of academic theory, and also for those needing to refresh their memories on the various theoretical approaches key to the study of western fashion." --The Journal of Dress History (of the first edition) "An important pedagogical contribution to the field of fashion studies ... Thinking Through Fashion offers a very accessible guide as to how to use social and cultural theory to analyze fashion in its 'many manifestations'." --Fashion Theory (of the first edition) "While there's no shortage of useful fashion studies readers and reference books for fashion studies students ... none have gone so far as to systematically provide suggestions for the application of key western theorists and philosophers to fashion studies so comprehensibly and concisely." --The Fashion Studies Journal (of the first edition)