Overview

In virtually all the countries of the world, men, and to a lesser extent women, are today dressed in very similar clothing. This book gives a compelling account and analysis of the process by which this has come about. At the same time it takes seriously those places where, for whatever reason, this process has not occurred, or has been reversed, and provides explanations for these developments. The first part of this story recounts how the cultural, political and economic power of Europe and, from the later nineteenth century North America, has provided an impetus for the adoption of whatever was at that time standard Western dress. Set against this, Robert Ross shows how the adoption of European style dress, or its rejection, has always been a political act, performed most frequently in order to claim equality with colonial masters, more often a male option, or to stress distinction from them, which women, perhaps under male duress, more frequently did. The book takes a refreshing global perspective to its subject, with all continents and many countries being discussed. It investigates not merely the symbolic and message-bearing aspects of clothing, but also practical matters of production and, equally importantly, distribution.

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9780745631868

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Reviews

A model work of synthesis - lucid, lively, accessible, globally informed, stuffed with rich and fascinating examples, making good use of theory and comparison, and approaching its topic from economic, political, social and cultural points of view. Peter Burke, University of Cambridge Robert Ross admirably weaves the history of dress into the broader contours of modernization and the rise and fall of western imperialism. Clothing offers the reader insights into the power of bodily adornment, both as a tool of western hegemony, and as a potential symbolic medium for nationalist aspirations of the colonized. John Mackey, Birmingham University

Author Information

Robert Ross is Professor of African History at the University of Leiden.

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