Fashion and Its Social Agendas: Class, Gender, and Identity in Clothing

"How does clothing contribute to a person's identity. . .? Intelligent and informative, [this] book proposes thoughtful answers." —Library Journal

It has long been said that clothes make the man (or woman), but is it still true today? Using a wide range of historical and contemporary materials, Diana Crane demonstrates how the social significance of clothing has been transformed.

Crane compares nineteenth-century societies—France and the United States—where social class was the most salient a...