Clothes make the man, the woman, and, the articles in this study suggest, cultural and national identities. This book grew from a project that included an exhibition, seminar, lecture series, and a symposium, at which many of the papers in the volume were first presented. Paulicelli (Italian, comparative literature and women's studies, Queens College) and Clark (art and design history and theory, Parsons the New School for Design, New York) have selected work by anthropologists, historians, and specialists in design. After an historical introductory chapter, the chapters in the first half of the book address aspects of post World War II fashion in France, Italy, India, and Soviet Russia. Following are contributions on micro-national fashion in the 1990s, in the countries of Brazil, Viet Nam, China, Zambia and Greece, with discussion of artistic expression as well as political influence in the shaping of collective identities. The fortunes of the ubiquitous blue jeans are also discussed, and the book closes with an anthropological study of the fashion industry in New York City, including how it has changed with the exportation of production. The book as a whole is greater than the sum of its parts, demonstrating the multi-layered nature of the subject and how fashion has been a focal point of both social and political revolutions and will, no doubt, continue as such. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
