The Female Economy explores that lost world of women's dominance, showing how independent, often ambitious businesswomen and the sometimes imperious consumers they served gradually vanished from the scene as custom production gave way to a largely unskilled modern garment industry controlled by men. Wendy Gamber helps overturn the portrait of wage-earning women as docile souls who would find fulfillment only in marriage and motherhood.

Researchers have laid out a set of proposals outlining how consumers could satisfy their needs for clothes and textiles with significantly reduced impact on the environment, while also offering new business opportunities to UK companies. This book looks at these proposals.

"A tribute to a time when style -- and maybe even life -- felt more straightforward, and however arbitrary, there were definitive answers." -- Sadie Stein, Paris Review As a glance down any street in America quickly reveals, American women have forgotten how to dress. We lack the fashion know-how we need to dress professionally and beautifully. In The Lost Art of Dress, historian and dressmaker Linda Przybyszewski reveals that this wasn't always true. In the first half of the twentieth century, a remarkable group of women -- the so-called Dress Doctors -- taught American women that knowledge, not money, was key to a beautiful wardrobe. They empowered women to design, make, and choose clothing for both the workplace and the home. Armed with the Dress Doctors' simple design principles -- harmony, proportion, balance, rhythm, emphasis -- modern American women from all classes learned to dress for all occasions in ways that made them confident, engaged members of society. A captivating and beautifully illustrated look at the world of the Dress Doctors, The Lost Art of Dress introduces a new audience to their timeless rules of fashion and beauty -- rules which, with a little help, we can certainly learn again.

Social Psychology of Dress presents and explains the major theories and concepts that are important to understanding relationships between dress and human behavior. These concepts and theories are derived from such disciplines as sociology, psychology, anthropology, communication, and textiles and clothing. Information presented will provide summaries of empirical research, as well as examples from current events or popular culture. The book provides a broad-based and inclusive discussion of the social psychology of dress, including: - The study of dress and how to do it - Cultural topics such as cultural patterns including technology, cultural complexity, normative order, aesthetics, hygiene, ethnicity, ritual - Societal topics such as family, economy-occupation, social organizations and sports, fraternal organizations - Individual-focused theories on deviance, personality variables, self, values, body image and social cognition - Coverage of key theories related to dress and identity provide a strong theoretical foundation for further research Unique chapter features bring in industry application and current events. The end-of-chapter summaries, discussion questions and activities give students opportunities to study and research dress. Teaching resources including an instructor's guide, test bank and PowerPoint presentations with full-color versions of images from the textbook. Social Psychology of Dress STUDIO - Study smarter with self-quizzes featuring scored results and personalized study tips - Review concepts with flashcards of essential vocabulary - Download worksheets to complete chapter activities

A law professor and cultural critic offers an eye-opening exploration of the laws of fashion throughout history, from the middle ages to the present day, examining the canons, mores and customs of clothing rules that we often take for granted