The Fashioned Body: Fashion, Dress and Modern Social Theory

by Joanne Entwistle

The Fashioned Body provides a wide-ranging and original overview of fashion and dress from an historical and sociological perspective. The book gives a clear summary of the theories surrounding the role and function of fashion in modern society, and examines how fashion plays a crucial role in the formation of modern identity through its articulation of the body, gender and sexuality.


In examining fashion in relation to the body, the book offers a much needed synthesis between the literature on fashion and dress, which has tended to ignore the body, and the sociology of the body, which has tended to marginalize fashion and dress. Entwistle shows how an understanding of fashion and dress requires an understanding of the meanings acquired by the body in culture - since it is the body that fashion speaks to and which is dressed in almost all social situations and encounters. She argues that while fashion refers to a specific system of dress originating in the west, all cultures 'dress' the body in the same way, making it a crucial feature of social order. Drawing on the work of Douglas, Foucault, Merleau-Ponty, Goffman and Bourdieu, the book offers insights into the connections that need to be made between the body, fashion and dress, arguing for an account of fashion and dress as 'situated bodily practice'.


The Fashioned Body will be an invaluable resource for students and academics interested in the social role of fashion and dress in modern culture and will also be of interest to students and researchers in the areas of consumption, cultural studies, gender studies and feminist theory.

Genres: Fashion, Nonfiction, Sociology, Fashion History, Research, Cultural

264 pages, Paperback

First published July 26, 2000

About the author

Jo Entwistle is Senior Lecturer in Culture, Media and Creative Industries at King’s College London.

Reviews

[Malcolm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entwistle starts from the basic position that there are significant and serious gaps in fashion-linked scholarship: on the one hand we have design and related issues framed through either art history or a semiotic bent in cultural studies (so style and image centred), and on the other we have business focussed studies of clothing and fashion companies but that do not consider consumption or related cultural & sociological questions. Her conclusion is that there are two gaps – fashion, dress and clothing as lived experience (so we need to inject the body into sociologies of fashion) and the linkage of production and consumption. These are huge gaps that she sets out to fill, and is much more successful at the former (fashion/clothing as embodied practice) than she is at the latter. This is partly a result of the balance of content – there are about 25 pages on the fashion industry, 140 or so on historical and contemporary meanings of embodied fashion plus nearly 80 exploring the theoretical justification for considering embodiment as central to making sense of fashion and clothing. Consequently, the brief production-consumption linkage element of the analysis is more tantalising than satisfying, suggesting many more questions than it does answers – but the case for considering embodiment is extremely good, historically savvy, and insightful. Now, I’d just like her to do the same thing with the industry.

[J Go Outside · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I began this book I suspected that fashion studies was unencompassable in any one discipline, narrative, or book. Ultimately that is both argued and demonstrated by Entwistle, who actually gets rly close. Embodiment as the nexus of 'fashion system', everyday dress practices, and social-economic formations is a practical solution to the hybrid object of fashion studies.

More than anything I think this book WAS a landmark and IS a good guide to thinking productively about/thru fashion, but so much research has been done since 2000 that basically all the features of the landscape have changed.

[Garron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Entwistle's work is quite complete and brings winderful viewpoint that connects socio-historical and cultural aspects to the forefront in a more inclusive way

However, the book itselfnis extremly dry. Even with a strong background in academia, this was extremely dry. Put it down 3/4 of the way through a year ago.

[T.R. Ormond · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the 2nd edition

[Luiza Andrade · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hard to read as there are many questions here, lots of thinking to do and a lot to study. This book is absolutely amazing and I strongly recommend it to anyone who's interested in studying fashion in general - whether it's business, history, culture or whatever.

[Jana · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Understanding the body in culture requires understanding both how the textual body (the body articulated in discourses produced by texts, such as the fashion magazine) relates to the experience of embodiment (the body articulated in everyday life through experiences and practices of dress)."

This is the starting and finishing point of this book, which explores the connection between fashion and identity. It's a very good introduction to fashion theory (I did need it!) and it clarifies concepts like embodiment according to Foucault, or gender performativity according to Butler, or desire according to Freud, which makes it approachable without philosophical/identity theory background. It also includes a brief history of Western fashion and makes a point of relating aesthetics to actual politics and economic practices, which is great. My only complaints are that it is a bit repetitive (that's better if you are only interested in a chapter) and that some parts could have used a bit more depth. Still, it's a very good introduction and it's thankfully readable.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not a book about Gaultier, Chanel, all the other prestigious designers, not so much about haute couture and barely mentions Charles Fredrick Worth the father of haute couture. Still, this ended up being far better than just a common retell of the history of fashion.

Joanne Entwistle introduces many other considerations including industry, history, identity, social class, gender discourse, cultural production blablabla... a lot of jargons but the easiest way to convey it is that the content can be categorised into two major sections:
- one section that considers fashion in sociological terms supplied with strong points about its interaction with the body
- another section that considers fashion in terms of being a commodity industry / cultural industry

Just a very thought provoking book overall that extends into many other studies, I enjoyed it and it increased my fundamental understanding of fashion as a whole, beyond the aesthetics - I thought the chapters intersected very well and the delivery was very concise

[Katrina Sark · Rating 2 out of 5]

p.1 – Fashion is about bodies: it is produced, promoted and worn by bodies. It is the body that fashion speaks to and it is the body that must be dressed in almost all social encounters.