Dress Casual: How College Students Redefined American Style

by Deirdre Clemente

As Deirdre Clemente shows in this lively history of fashion on American college campuses, whether it's jeans and sneakers or khakis with a polo shirt, chances are college kids made it cool. The modern casual American wardrobe, Clemente argues, was born in the classrooms, dormitories, fraternity and sorority houses, and gyms of universities and colleges across the country. As young people gained increasing social and cultural clout during the early twentieth century, their tastes transformed mainstream fashion from collared and corseted to comfortable. From east coast to west and from the Ivy League to historically black colleges and universities, changing styles reflected new ways of defining the value of personal appearance, and, by extension, new possibilities for creating one's identity. The pace of change in fashion options, however, was hardly equal. Race, class, and gender shaped the adoption of casual style, and young women faced particular backlash both from older generations and from their male peers. Nevertheless, as coeds fought dress codes and stereotypes, they joined men in pushing new styles beyond the campus, into dance halls, theaters, homes, and workplaces. Thanks to these shifts, today's casual style provides a middle ground for people of all backgrounds, redefining the meaning of appearance in American culture.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Fashion

203 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2014

Reviews

[Rebecca Rranza · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The clothing we put on our bodies is a lived experience, not an afterthought."
One of the defining books in my dress history education. Well written and such a fresh way of looking at youth culture in America. Fashion is important (yes) but it's more than that. This book delves into it.

[Alyssa True · Rating 4 out of 5]

I usually don't finish books with a clunky start, but the subject deeply interested me so I stuck with it and I'm glad I did. The author took pains to pursue the college experience beyond that of the wealthy white male and her work is all the better for it. At 145 pages (with a fair amount of photos and before the extensive endnotes) and divided into five main sections, Dress Casual is easily digestible. It's also decently written -- with the exception of a few editing mistakes. And due to the rich variety of sources consulted, I am have a deeper understanding of both the rise of American youth culture in the first half of the 20th century and its influence on the modern everyday wardrobe.

[Jules The Book Junkie Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deirdre Clemente is the daughter of a sociologist and a fashionista, and she's used that influence to write about the influence college students have had on fashion. In particular, casual fashion. The book primarily covers the early 20th century and the transition from formal attire at colleges to that of khakis, jeans and crew neck sweaters. The decline in fashion standards seems to have led to or coincidentally occurred parallel to a decline in manners and morals.

An interesting quick read about how fashion, dress codes, and social interactions changed in the early to mid 1900s on college campuses and beyond.