Sociology Index
Sociological studies of fashion culturerelate the studies of fashion to two central sociological themes: social control and social change.Sociologists who have dealt with fashion as a mechanism of social control have focusedtheir attention on the relationship between fashion culture and custom. To what extentfashion culture is oriented towards innovation and to what extent it is amechanism of convention? Fashion and consumer culture is about consumption, media representations of the fashion industry, consumer activism,social class, and conspicuous consumption.
Fashion culture is not just imitating peers, but to be 'in fashion' capturing the mood and the fashion culture of the times. By appropriating fashion culture discourse, consumers generate personalized fashion narratives that negotiate key existential tensions and that often express resistance to dominant fashion culture norms or ConsumerCulture at large. From fashion culture and beauty culture to music and movies, youngsters have consumed and influenced what manufacturers, marketers, and retailers offered to them.
Fashion Culture And SocialControl
1) Relationshipbetween fashion culture and social stratification: doesfashion culture mirror the social structure or does itrepresent an equalising force? is fashion culture an exculsionary discourse originated by themainstream élite, or does it give voice to marginalised discourses?
2) Functions,ideological meanings, and rationale of the uniform in general, school uniform inparticular. A group research project provides illustration of ideological critique throughcritical discourse analysis.
3) Is body alterationslike tattoo, piercing and cosmetic surgery a discourse of empowerment and control overone's body, or is it locked into the terms of reference of patriarchalideology.
Fashion Culture AndStratification
Trickle down theory or conspicuous consumption theory regarddifferentiation and stratification as essentialpreconditions of fashion. Smelser and Blumer regard fashion as an expression of collective behavior.
Trickle-down effect orphenomenon occurs when the lower social class adopt afashion culture. When fashion culture trickles down and are no longer exclusive, it will no longer bedesirable to the higher social classes.
Fashion culture theorists likeDavis point out that not only do fashions fail to trickle down, but often the inspirationfor new fashions start from the street.
Fashion culture theorists likeCrane argue that consumer society replaced class with "lifestyle groups".
Fashion culture theorists like Pierre Bourdieu and JeanBaudrillard see social hierarchy reflected in subtlepractices of education and consumption that underlie apparent social change.
Books On Fashion Culture
Clothing Art: The Visual Culture of Fashion, 1600-1914 by Aileen Ribeiro. Artists have documented the ever-evolving trends in fashion, popularized certain styles of dress, and at times even designed fashions.
The Fabric of Cultures: Fashion, Identity, and Globalization - by Eugenia Paulicelli, Hazel Clark. The Fabric of Cultures examines the impact of fashion as a manufacturing industry and as a culture industry that shapes the identities of nations and cities in a cross-cultural perspective, within a global framework.
Some Wore Bobby Sox : The Emergence of TeenageGirls' Culture, 1920-1945 (Girls' History and Culture) By Kelly Schrum.
Images of teenage girls in poodle skirts dominated American popularculture on the 1950's. But as Kelly Schrum shows, teenage girls were swooning over popidols and using their allowances to buy the latest fashions well beforehand.
Nothing in Itself: Complexions of Fashion(Theories of Contemporary Culture) by Blau Herbert.
Beyond the theatricality of fashion, or its commerce, are other seductive issues that comewith dress in its fascination-effect, including the validity,vanities, and deceits of appearance.
Fashion Cultures: Theories, Explorations, andAnalysis
By Stella Bruzzi (Editor), Pamela Church Gibson (Editor).
From the catwalk to the shopping mall, from the big screen to the art museum, fashionplays an increasingly central role in contemporary culture. Fashion Cultures investigateswhy we are so fascinated by fashion and the associated spheres of photography, magazinesand television, and shopping.
A Matter of Taste : How Names, Fashions, andCulture Change- By Stanley Lieberson.
Social scientists have long been interested in the question of how notions of taste andfashion culture change over time. Do aesthetic judgments reflect external forces such as statepolicies, class stratification, or commercial advertising, or are these judgments informedby largely subjective factors that are difficult to pin down in scientific terms?
Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age ofDiminishing Expectations
By Christopher Lasch
Christopher lasch has touched a very sensistive social nerve in his book "The CultureOf Narcissism." He gives the reader the awareness of living in a society that has become increasingly self-absorbed, out of touchwith its past and future, and totally focused on the moment where everyone is seekingdecadence and immediate self-gratification.
Fashion, Culture, and Identity - By Fred Davis.
Fred Davis discusses several intriguing theories about fashion's social and psychologicalsignificance in modern culture. What makes clothes fashion; how fashions evolve; howfashion choices express social status, gender identity,sexuality, and conformity; and how fashion is accepted are all discussed. Is the desire tobe "in fashion" universal, or is it unique to Western culture? How do fashionschange?
Social Communication in Advertising: Persons,Products and Images of Well-Being. By William Leiss, Stephen Kline, Sut Jhally.
Consumers and Luxury : Consumer Culture in Europe 1650-1850
By Maxine Berg (Editor), Helen Clifford (Editor).
This highly entertaining and interdisciplinary volume brings together an outstanding groupof scholars to chart the rise of consumer culture in Europe during this period.
Beauty and Business: Commerce, Gender, andCulture in Modern America (Hagley Perspectives on Business and Culture) - ByPhilip Scranton (Editor).
Our ideas about what is attractive are influenced by a broad range of social and economicfactors, and in Beauty and Business leading historians set out to provide this importantcultural context. How have retailers shaped popular consciousness about beauty? And how,in turn, have cultural assumptions influenced the commodification of beauty?
In the Culture Society: Art, Fashion Culture andPopular Music
By Angela McRobbie.
We may be living in a material world, but Angela McRobbie pinpoints a "newmaterialism" in In the Culture Society. She provides a lively, incisive look at howdifferent artistic and cultural practices develop in contemporary consumer culture, byexamining the new populism of young artists such as Damien Hirst and Tracy Emin and theproliferation of underground forms of dance music.
100 New Fashion Designers by Hywel Davies. The fashion industry has always celebrated innovativedesign and young talented fashion designers can make a huge impact as they explore newideas and push boundaries. This book showcases the diverse and unique work of the best 100 new creatives in fashion design from around the world. The ultimate reference guide to the world's movers and shakers in fashion today this is abook all fashionistas will want to own.
Paris-New York: Design Fashion Culture1925-1940 by Donald Albrecht. A burst of creative energy in the fields of architecture, design, and fashion culture characterized the years between the two World Wars. The era's most creative figures rarely worked in isolation, preferring instead to participate in international dialogues that crossed national boundaries and linked capital cities in collaborative artistic enterprise.
