Dress as Biography

Dress as Biography looks at the way clothing and dressed appearance contribute to a deep and empathetic understanding of an individual's life. Scholarly writing on dress and identity primarily focuses on dress as an articulation of collective social identities – gender, sexuality, subcultures, ethnicity – with relatively little in-depth attention paid to dress as an expression of the individual. Alongside analysis of social identities, this book explores how appearance can be read as an indicator of an individual's character and self-identity, while revealing many aspects of their life's circumstances. With 10 chapters written by leading specialists in their fields, Dress as Biography takes an interdisciplinary approach, exploring the subject through art history, material culture, and literature.