Defining dress : dress as object, meaning and identity

This collection of essays brings together many separate but related issues which form the focus of contemporary research into the history of dress.

Historically, in Britain at least, investigations of dress were primarily informed by historical and empirical protocols, although the symbolic meaning of dress was explored by anthroplogists and sociologists, who tended to concentrate on either non-Western cultures or British or Western sub-cultures.

In recent years these approaches have moved closer together partly as a result of the impact of feminism.The essays reflect this moment in the study of fashion, showing how in the late 1990s garments may be researched as discrete objects, as part of consumer culture, and as components of created meaning which are expressive of personal identity and social belonging.The partial breakdown of the traditional fashion system has made new approaches to the study of what we wear, how it is created and how we recreate ourselves possible.