The study examines the sartorial production of feminine identities in 20th-century Britain.Cognitive metaphor theory is applied to demostrate the importance of clothing in public assertion of gender identities.

This book traces the interconnectedness of women's sartorial practices and social change in 20th-century Britain. Based on a wide range of cultural texts, which include literary works, magazines, posters, advertisements and political cartoons, this study endeavours to prove that due to the metaphorical function of clothing, womenswear imparted significant information about women's positions in society during transformative historical moments.

Autorentext

Katarzyna Agnieszka Kociöek is an assistant professor at the Institute of English Studies, University of Warsaw, Poland. Her doctoral dissertation (2009) examined the representations of ethnic identities in the British visual arts discourse of the 1980s and 1990s. Her research interests include the representation of identities and the visual culture, which incorporates fashion, film and visual arts

Klappentext

This book traces the interconnectedness of women s sartorial practices and social change in 20th-century Britain. Based on a wide range of cultural texts, which include literary works, magazines, posters, advertisements and political cartoons, this study endeavours to prove that due to the metaphorical function of clothing, womenswear imparted significant information about women s positions in society during transformative historical moments.

Inhalt

INTRODUCTION

THEORIES OF FASHION

1.1 Fashion as Communication

1.2 Identity Formation Through Fashion: Gender, Class, Subculture, Age

THE METAPHORS WE LIVE IN - DRESS AS A METAPHOR

2.1 Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Fashion

2.2 Seeing Through Clothes - Fashion as Metaphor in Visual Culture

SARTORIAL PRACTICES AND METAPHORS IN THE REPRESENTATIONS OF THE BRITISH SUFFRAGETTES AND THE FLAPPERS

3.1 Fashionable Suffragettes

3.2 The Flappers and Their (Mis)representation in the British Media

THE UNIFORMED FEMINITY OF THE WARTIME FASHIONS

4.1 Civilians in Uniforms - Sartorial Representations of Female Identity During the WWI

4.2 Utility Fashion and Military Women of WWII

THE POST-WAR SUBCULTURAL REBELLION AND WOMEN'S FASHION OF THE TEDDY GIRLS, MODS AND PUNKS

5.1 The Teds
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5.2 The Mods

5.3 The Punks

ANTI-FASHION OF THE SECOND WAVE FEMINISM

6.1 British Second-Wave Feminism, Spare Rib, and Fashion

6.2 Feminist Fashion in Anti-feminist Cartoons

POLITICAL LEADERSHIP AND FEMALE FASHION IN THE 1990s

7.1 British Political Institutions and Their Dress Codes as Metaphors

7.2 British Women in Politics: Betty Boothroyd's Style as a Metaphor of Tradition

CONCLUSION

Works Cited

Index