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Fashion Talks: Undressing the Power of Style By Shira Tarrant and Marjorie Joles (2012)
Exchanging Clothing: Habits of Being II By Christina Giorcelli and Paula Rabinowitz (2012)
Both books reviewed by Amy J. Harden
Each of these two books is a collection of essays with authors from a number of countries. Both books engage the reader with real-world, current issues.
Fashion Talks' 14 essays are written by feminist theorists. Topics range from the politics of gender and sexuality with essays such as "Fashioning a Feminist Style, Or, How I Learned to Dress from Reading Feminist Theory" and "The Baby Bump Is the New Birkin" to those on the ethics of consumption, production, and style with titles such as "The Lady is a Vamp: Cruella de Vil and the Cultural Politics of Fur" and "DIY Fashion and Going Bust: Wearing Feminist Politics in the Twenty-First Century." As stated by the editors, "These essays grapple with how fashion both enables and constrains expression in ways that are uniquely raced, gendered, classed, sexed, and bound to national and cultural histories" (p. 1).
Fashion, not only symbolic and expressive, is a powerful way to communicate politics and personalities as well as preferences. Even people who are not interested in fashion cannot reject the messages that-intentionally or unintentionally-are communicated. Values are implicitly connected to one's style, habits, mannerisms, and practices. Although it would be helpful for the reader to have some awareness of feminist theory, the essays illustrate that fashion is bound to time, both in terms of self-awareness of the newest trends and historically in terms...