Fashion, Culture, and Identity

by Fred Davis

What do our clothes say about who we are or who we think we are? How does the way we dress communicate messages about our identity? Is the desire to be "in fashion" universal, or is it unique to Western culture? How do fashions change? These are just a few of the intriguing questions Fred Davis sets out to answer in this provocative look at what we do with our clothes—and what they can do to us.

Much of what we assume to be individual preference, Davis shows, really reflects deeper social and cultural forces. Ours is an ambivalent social world, characterized by tensions over gender roles, social status, and the expression of sexuality. Predicting what people will wear becomes a risky gamble when the link between private self and public persona can be so unstable.

Genres: Fashion, Nonfiction, Sociology

233 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Serves as a good introductory book on the subject. However, it could have been more comprehensive in its exploration of the overall themes.

One of its compelling arguments is the communicative aspect of fashion beyond the Marxist lens of it being only a reflection of class differentiation. Though, I would argue that fashion trends being "trickle-down" from the upperclass to the masses go hand-in-hand with fashion leadership today, as influential social media personalities and celebrities are more often than not well-off themselves. As this book was written over three decades ago, it's interesting to compare the changes in the past to the ones happening now. For example, the emancipation of women has made it so that they are able to wear "masculine" clothes without much prejudice; today, I see a similar gradual acceptance of feminine elements in men's clothing (accessories, pastels, etc.) which may be indicative of another cultural shift. There are many insights to be gained from the book, but it is quite short and insufficient in accounting for such a broad subject as the intersection of fashion, culture and identity.

Some random facts I've saved while reading:

• Denim stands for hard work but also democracy and idealism; and thus appeals to people of different classes. I find it amusing that rich people used to pay larger prices for distressed or worn-out jeans.
• Nudism extinguishes eroticism, as sexual tension is found in the contrast of concealment and vulgarity (unbuttoned buttons at the bosom, see-through meshes, etc.)
• Runways only had few "genuine" entries, some looks were added to give the collection depth, and many were exaggerated versions of looks they would release for sale.
• The dependency of fashion and antifashion on each other

[J · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thick academic language made this book very hard to read. The author took an interesting subject and made it inaccessible. It was frustratingly difficult to penetrate the language barrier in this book. :-/

I quickly started skimming the book and eventually gave up before finishing. I think the author had some interesting analysis, but it was rendered inaccessible by his writing style.

[Luiza Andrade · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hard to read but extremely worth it! Great academic book!!!!!

[Nilay Ertürk]

read

[Christina Barzdukas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very interesting, but dated and waaaaaay too scholastic

[Katrina Sark · Rating 3 out of 5]

1 – Do Clothes Speak? What Makes them Fashion?

p.4 – sociological interest in clothing and fashion: we know that through clothing people communicate some things about their persons, and at the collective level this results typically in locating them symbolically in some structured universe of status claims and life-style attachments.

2 – Identity, Ambivalence, Fashion’s Fuel

“For the truth of the matter is that people have mixed feelings and confused opinions and are subject to contradictory expectations and outcomes, in every sphere of experience.” (Donald N. Levine, The Flight form Ambiguity, Chicago: UP, 1985)

p.21 – collective identity ambivalence is an important cultural source of the code changes in clothing that are fashion. This generalized cultural source is also a key resource for fashion designers in the practice of their craft. Ambivalences of gender, social status, and sexuality draw repeatedly on this formulation.
Although the two terms are accorded rather distinct dictionary definitions (ambiguity alludes to multiple meanings, while ambivalence points more to contradictory and oscillating subjective states), they are commonly confounded in everyday speech.

3 – Ambivalence of Gender: Boys will be Boys, Girls will be Boys

p.33 – The history of Western fashion is marked by a profound symbolic tension arising from the desire, sometimes overt though more often repressed, of one sex to emulate the clothing and associated gender paraphernalia of the other. Until well into the eighteenth century the habit of cross-gender emulation in dress was somewhat more pronounced on the male side in the privileged classes than on the female. (The common people were for the most part excluded from fashion’s orbit until the nineteenth century.)

9 – Conclusion, and some Afterthoughts

p. 198-99 – fashion can serve as “a vehicle for the broadening of minds” because it can “initiate persons into realms of thought and experience that could otherwise have bypassed them. Some of this can be attributed to the circumstance that the molders of fashion, whatever area they work in, are persons who often are in close contact with leading creative and progressive elements in the arts, sciences, politics, and culture generally.”