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It is commonly known that fashion is big business, yet given its global significance, little has been written on the phenomenon of the fashion system. Instead, books have tended to focus on dress history, although recently the discipline has taken a more theoretical turn, with a spate of books ...

It is commonly known that fashion is big business, yet given its global significance, little has been written on the phenomenon of the fashion system. Instead, books have tended to focus on dress history, although recently the discipline has taken a more theoretical turn, with a spate of books appearing that analyze the underlying forces motivating fashion. This pioneering book unites theory and practice to provide an integrated series of snapshots taken from different perspectives of the fashion business in the second half of the twentieth century.Featuring contributions by leading experts in three main areas of important debate within the industry - the theory and culture of fashion; design and industry; and image and marketing - the book will be an essential reference for students, practitioners and theoreticians. It addresses such key issues as: the relationship between culture and clothing; the intersection of fashion and modernity; the origins of glamour; the role of creativity and the power of design; the chain store challenge; the age of the thinking designer; retail concepts; and minimalism in fashion. It is certain to be required reading on fashion courses and in related disciplines, including media, cultural and consumption studies.

When Hong Kong entrepreneur David Tang opened his Shanghai Tang boutique on New York's Madison Avenue, it was not an isolated example of the globalization of Asian fashion. Further evidence is written on the labels in our closets, and paraded in the form of salwaar-kameez and silk sarongs by the ...

When Hong Kong entrepreneur David Tang opened his Shanghai Tang boutique on New York's Madison Avenue, it was not an isolated example of the globalization of Asian fashion. Further evidence is written on the labels in our closets, and paraded in the form of salwaar-kameez and silk sarongs by the rich and famous of London. The phenomenon merits scrutiny. This vanguard attempt points to the colonial era as the origin of fashion globalization, and describes its development as paralleling the gradual take-over of Asian daily wear by Western dress. From indigenous Batak weavers to Hong Kong designers, and from Indonesian businesswomen's power suits to Korean feminists' national costume, this book explores the sartorial interface of East and West.The globalization of Asian dress needs to be understood as part of an ongoing Orientalism that construes Asia as a feminine Other to the masculine West. The conventional Orientalist definition of fashion as an exclusively Western phenomenon has proved self-fulfilling in both East and West so that the conceptual boundary between the two is continually reasserted by design. Paying close attention to Asians' decisions about what clothing to make, sell, buy, and wear, the case studies in this book challenge Orientalist stereotypes of Asian style as passive and traditional and highlight how these actions are often made invisible by global cultural, rhetorical, and material practices that feminize Asia and the fashion world.This timely book will be of interest to dress and fashion theorists,anthropologists, sociologists, historians, art historians and all those interested in globalization, Orientalism and their effects.