Through the media of cross-sectional interviews and the published literature, Diana Crane attempts to paint a vivid picture of the evolution of the twin cultures of fashion and society over a canvas spanning the last centuries. However, the strokes she uses are so broad and the foundations so myopically eurocentric that the reader is stuck with a defrosted antipasto of catalogues, classifications and categories. It is as if the only continents melding fashion and society were Europe (meaning only France) and America (read the United States). For a book professing to use contemporary source material, the emphasis is distinctly on haute couture with a conspicuous neglect of prêt à porter, while it is actually the ready-to-wear market that drives nearly most of the current clothing industry. The notion of social class identity is painfully drawn across several chapters comparing countries (France and the United States) and centuries (nineteenth and twentieth) to demonstrate the obvious. The scholastic approach cocks a snook at prevalent notions of gender, sexual orientation, age and ethnicity. There is also the obligatory tirade about the shifting meanings behind leisure clothes and the hideous oxymoron that is business casual.

Crane plays it safe by using the voices of collegiate and middle-aged women in focus groups, as if the inclusion of men would somehow throw off neat conclusions about our perceptions of (female) identity and sexuality. Indeed, the most interesting segment in the book features a series of black-and-white photographs that regularly ginger popular women’s fashion magazines, and the women’s predictable yet vivid reactions to them. Similarly, Crane fares better when she fawns upon concrete trend icons, such as the hat (cf. Charlie Chaplin, the Magritte paintings), the tee shirt (cf. Marlon Brando, the Bart Simpson caricatures) and the denim jeans. To illustrate her views, she uses historical documents that are surprisingly slavish in detail and a pleasure to peruse even as we watch the ether diffuse across class lines and bisect concurrent spheres of rural and urban existence.

While classic houses of high fashion dressed the rich and famous of yesteryear, with trickle down adoptions by the forme fruste subpopulations of society, current designers are unashamedly influenced by popular street cultures, a phenomenon addressed en passante by Crane. Today’s operatives leech on the networked incestuous worlds of television, film and popular music, most trends with intense yet ultrashort life spans. The emerging consciousness of bargain basement and off-the-rack culture among the high priests of clothiers’ houses is insufficiently highlighted. The changing emphasis of the omniscient gay sensibility from feminine to masculine is acknowledged almost as little as the American takeovers of most of the major designer labels in Europe. Arguably, more emphasis on the reflection of designers upon their firms would be without the scope of this deucedly small book that valiantly tries to tackle a subject too big for its Prada shoes. The index is extremely deficient: Gucci, the zoot suit and Zandra Rhodes are MIA. The glaring omission of Dolce and Gabbana, not only very popular contemporary designers but also one of the more inspired trendsetters, would provoke a self-respecting fashionista to let the (fake) fur fly.

Fashion and its Social Agendas may best be viewed as a pre-appetizer for those trying nothing more than to gauge their interest in the subject. It cannot be recommended as a critical study or a sweeping analysis.

Ashelford, Jane & von Einsiedel: The Art of Dress: Clothes and Society, 1500-1914. Harry N Abrams, 1996

Edwards, Tim: Men in the Mirror: Men’s Fashion, Masculinity and Consumer Society. Cassell Academic, 1999

Eicher, Joanne B, Lutz, Hazel A and Evenson, Sandra Lee: The Visible Self: Global Perspectives on Dress, Culture, and Society (Second Edition). Fairchild Publications, 2000

McRobbie, Angela: In the Culture Society: Art, Fashion and Popular Music. Routledge 1999

Rubinstein, Ruth P: Society’s Child: Identity, Clothing, and Style. Westview Press, 2000

Sproles GB, and Burns Leslie Davis: Changing Appearances: Understanding Dress in Contemporary Society. Fairchild Publications, 1994

To buy this book from Barnes & Noble.com at a discount, click here: Fashion and Its Social Agendas: Class, Gender, and Identity in Clothing

Dr. Nayak is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Radiology in the University of California School of Medicine San Francisco and his interests include mental health and gender studies. A voracious reader and intrepid epicure, he enjoys his keyboards as much as his Dolce and Gabbana shoes.