Dress Casual: How College Students Redefined American Style

by Deirdre Clemente

Overview

As Deirdre Clemente shows in this lively history of fashion on American college campuses, whether it’s jeans and sneakers or khakis with a polo shirt, chances are college kids made it cool. The modern casual American wardrobe, Clemente argues, was born in the classrooms, dormitories, fraternity and sorority houses, and gyms of universities and colleges across the country. As young people gained increasing social and cultural clout during the early twentieth century, their tastes transformed mainstream fashion from collared and corseted to comfortable. From east coast to west and from the Ivy League to historically black colleges and universities, changing styles reflected new ways of defining the value of personal appearance, and, by extension, new possibilities for creating one’s identity.

The pace of change in fashion options, however, was hardly equal. Race, class, and gender shaped the adoption of casual style, and young women faced particular backlash both from older generations and from their male peers. Nevertheless, as coeds fought dress codes and stereotypes, they joined men in pushing new styles beyond the campus, into dance halls, theaters, homes, and workplaces. Thanks to these shifts, today’s casual style provides a middle ground for people of all backgrounds, redefining the meaning of appearance in American culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469614083
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	04/15/2014
Series:	Gender and American Culture
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Deirdre Clemente is assistant professor of history at the University of Nevada–Las Vegas.

Table of Contents

As Deirdre Clemente shows in this lively history of fashion on American college campuses, whether it's jeans and sneakers or khakis with a polo shirt, chances are college kids made it cool. The modern casual American wardrobe, Clemente argues, was born in the classrooms, dormitories, fraternity and sorority houses, and gyms of universities and colleges across the country. As young people gained increasing social and cultural clout during the early twentieth century, their tastes transformed mainstream fashion from collared and corseted to comfortable. From east coast to west and from the Ivy League to historically black colleges and universities, changing styles reflected new ways of defining the value of personal appearance, and, by extension, new possibilities for creating one's identity.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“A wonderful, informative, and engaging contribution to our understanding of so many aspects of twentieth-century America, the histories of gender, higher education, fashion, and entrepreneurship prominently among them.”—Daniel Horowitz, Smith College

“A thoroughly researched and often vibrantly written book. By highlighting the agency of collegians themselves and their influence on both college administrators and arbiters of the fashion industry, Clemente offers an original take on the history of clothing and consumerism that both builds upon and challenges existing scholarship.”_Lori Rotskoff, co-editor of When We Were Free to Be: Looking Back at a Children’s Classic and the Difference It Made

Editorial Reviews

“Well written and solidly researched, Clemente’s text offers a needed step forward in considering fashion in the first half of the twentieth century as essential to American collegiate life.”—Journal of American History

“A serious and genuine contribution to the history of American fashion and cultural life.”—Reviews in History

“Clemente’s approach to using apparel as a lens for understanding large cultural issues is a model that can, and should be, utilized by more historians, especially historians of material culture.”—American Historical Review

“A well-researched, accessible, and enjoyable narrative with many examples and images to reinforce her argument that it is college students who have been the force behind the casualization of American fashion.”—Journal of American Culture

“Clemente has created an exemplary history of fashion and consumerism, one that positions clothing not just as reflective of cultural change but as a subjective and powerful force in and of itself.”—Fashion Theory

“This engaging and highly readable cultural history is highly recommended for readers interested in the development of clothing or in early 20th-century college life.”—Library Journal

“The book’s thesis is convincing and enlivened by well-chosen illustrations and delightful quotes from students themselves. . . . Highly recommended.”—CHOICE

“Dress Casual explores issues surrounding race, gender and class, with Clemente arguing that once higher education became more open to those other than white elites, college administrators had to shift their attitudes about which clothing was considered appropriate.”—Inside Higher Ed

From the Publisher