IANT155 — Anthropology of Fashion
When we hear "fashion" we think automatically of clothes and dress, but fashionability entails much more than the latest style of shoe that came down the catwalk. Trends of style and desirability occur in every human society, from the most "simple" to our own highly complex international interactions. Using the fashion of dress as a starting point, the course examines the universal patterns and particular variations of fashionability in both Euro-American and non-Western societies. We will examine the phenomenon of fashion in clothing, speech, and activities by searching for trends and examining the trajectory of fashionability as practices move.