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








In examining fashion in relation to the body, the book offers amuch 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 showshow an understanding of fashion and dress requires an understandingof the meanings acquired by the body in culture - since it is thebody that fashion speaks to and which is dressed in almost allsocial situations and encounters. She argues that while fashionrefers to a specific system of dress originating in the west, allcultures 'dress' the body in the same way, making it a crucialfeature of social order. Drawing on the work of Douglas, Foucault,Merleau-Ponty, Goffman and Bourdieu, the book offers insights intothe connections that need to be made between the body, fashion anddress, arguing for an account of fashion and dress as 'situatedbodily practice'.








The Fashioned Body will be an invaluable resource for students andacademics interested in the social role of fashion and dress inmodern culture and will also be of interest to students andresearchers in the areas of consumption, cultural studies, genderstudies and feminist theory.