There is an increasing trend within both the study of visual culture and fashion itself to restore fashion to an aesthetic role - one that moves beyond its commercial success as a global industry and places fashion within a nexus of art, the body, and femininity. This emphasis aims to separate fashion from mere clothing, and illustrate its cultural power as an integral aspect of modern life. In this innovative new book, Alison Bancroft re-examines significant moments in twentieth-century fashion history through the focal lens of psychoanalytic theory. Her discussion centres on studies of fashion photography, haute couture, queer dressing, and fashion/art in an attempt to shed new light on these key issues. According to Bancroft, problems of subjectivity are played out through fashion, in the public arena, and not just in the dark, unknowable unconscious mind. The question of what can be said, and what can only be experienced, and how these two issues may be reconciled, become questions that fashion addresses on an almost daily basis. Psychoanalysis has been profoundly influential in the arts, thanks to its capacity to add layers of meaning to things that, without it, would remain obtuse and intractable. It has proved crucial to the development of film studies, art theory and literary criticism. What it has not yet been brought into dialogue with in great depth is fashion. By interpreting fashion within a psychoanalytic frame, Bancroft illustrates how fashion articulates some of the essential, and sometimes frightening, truths about the body, femininity and the self.

Psychoanalysis in Fashion, the editors have assembled a series of riveting essays that span a broad range of connections between the unconscious mind and its expression in the dressing and adornment of the self. Fashion trends, hairdos, jewelry, and even cross-dressing are all fair game for the book's bold expositions and intriguing ideas. Conscious and unconscious fantasies play large roles in dressing up, which itself shapes, expresses, and even conceals portions of identity. Ultimately, we are shown how we banish the animal body while cloaking ourselves in cultural glory. Danielle Knafo, Author, Dancing with the Unconscious and The Age of Perversion Psychoanalysis and Fashion is a much needed contribution to the psychoanalytic literature on the body, particularly the body as looked at. Katz and Richards and their co-authors have us think about the body and its accoutrements from psychodynamic, interpersonal and sociological perspectives. Clothing, as well as jewelry, hair styles, tattoos reveal, as well as conceal, social status, gender identity and sexual availability. It is a page-turner: delightful, delicious, at times personal while being scholarly. It covers the myriad complex aspects that make up a "fashion identity." Janice Liebermanm Author, Body Talk: Looking and Being Looked at in Psychotherapy

According to Nigel, problems of subjectivity are played out through fashion, in the public arena, and not just in the dark, unknowable unconscious mind. The question of what can be said, and what can only be experienced, and how these two issues may be reconciled, become questions that fashion addresses on an almost daily basis. By interpreting fashion within a psychoanalytic frame, Bancroft illustrates how fashion articulates some of the essential, and sometimes frightening, truths about the body, femininity, and the self.

Each chapter examines the correspondence of a particular psycho-analyst with a particular author.

Learning how to think through fashion is both exciting and challenging, being dependent on one s ability to critically engage with an array of theories and concepts. This is the first book designed to accompany readers through the process of thinking through fashion. It aims to help them grasp both the relevance of social and cultural theory to fashion, dress, and material culture and, conversely, the relevance of those fields to social and cultural theory. It does so by offering a guide through the work of selected major thinkers, introducing their concepts and ideas. Each chapter is written by an expert contributor and is devoted to a key thinker, capturing the significance of their thought to the understanding of the field of fashion, while also assessing the importance of this field for a critical engagement with these thinkers ideas. This is a guide and reference for students and scholars in the fields of fashion, dress and material culture, the creative industries, sociology, cultural history, design and cultural studies."

The Psychology of Fashion offers an insightful introduction to the exciting and dynamic world of fashion in relation to human behaviour, from how clothing can affect our cognitive processes to the way retail environments manipulate consumer behaviour. The book explores how fashion design can impact healthy body image, how psychology can inform a more sustainable perspective on the production and disposal of clothing, and why we develop certain shopping behaviours. With fashion imagery ever present in the streets, press and media, The Psychology of Fashion shows how fashion and psychology can make a positive difference to our lives.