Syllabus Overview
This course delves into theories regarding appearance, clothing, and fashion, exploring their impacts on cultural identities, gender perceptions, and the consumption of fashion products. It scrutinizes contemporary dress from both within and outside the United States, interpreting dress as a communication system that signifies individuality and one’s position within social systems like kinship, economy, religion, and polity. The analysis extends to technologies and types of dress within a society, revealing their connections to behavioral patterns, including beliefs about morality, hygiene, ritual, and beauty.
