Taking cultural theorist Michel de Certeau’s notion of ’the everyday’ as a critical starting point, this book considers how fashion shapes and is shaped by everyday lives. Looking for the imprint of fashion within everyday rituals such as going out dancing or to job interviews, we glimpse the ’fashion system of the ordinary’, in which clothing has a distinct role in the ’making’ of the self and identity.
Based on a comparative study of London and New York from 1890 to 2010, a time at which these cities were socially, racially and culturally diverse and penetrated by increased anxiety about global consumption, the book takes a detailed look at individual wardrobes, family albums, television newsreels and mass media to draw upon everyday scenarios across classes and chronology. Unlike traditional fashion studies scholarship that focusses on the histories of haute couture, Buckley and Clark adopt a highly novel approach that considers clothing from the perspective of individual consumers and producers, whether going out shopping or dressing for occasions such as weddings and the races.
Addressing important themes such as time, memory, the tactility of fashion, and the role of the domestic in circulation and consumption,Fashion and Everyday Life is a unique contribution to the literature of fashion studies, cultural studies, and beyond.
