Dress Codes: How the Laws of Fashion Made History by Richard Thompson Ford.

Description: A “sharp and entertaining” (The Wall Street Journal) exploration of fashion through the ages that asks what our clothing reveals about ourselves and our society.Dress codes are as old as clothing itself. For centuries, clothing has been a wearable status symbol; fashion, a weapon in struggles for social change; and dress codes, a way to maintain political control. Merchants dressing like princes and butchers’ wives wearing gem-encrusted crowns were public enemies in medieval societies structured by social hierarchy and defined by spectacle. In Tudor England, silk, velvet, and fur were reserved for the nobility, and ballooning pants called “trunk hose” could be considered a menace to good order. The Renaissance-era Florentine patriarch Cosimo de Medici captured the power of fashion and dress codes when he remarked, “One can make a gentleman from two yards of red cloth.” Dress codes evolved along with the social and political ideals of the day, but they always reflected struggles for power and status. In the 1700s, South Carolina’s “Negro Act” made it illegal for Black people to dress “above their condition.” In the 1920s, the bobbed hair and form-fitting dresses worn by free-spirited flappers were banned in workplaces throughout the United States, and in the 1940s, the baggy zoot suits favored by Black and Latino men caused riots in cities from coast to coast.Even in today’s more informal world, dress codes still determine what we wear, when we wear it—and what our clothing means. People lose their jobs for wearing braided hair, long fingernails, large earrings, beards, and tattoos or refusing to wear a suit and tie or make-up and high heels. In some cities, wearing sagging pants is a crime. And even when there are no written rules, implicit dress codes still influence opportunities and social mobility. Silicon Valley CEOs wear t-shirts and flip-flops, setting the tone for an entire industry: women wearing fashionable dresses or high heels face ridicule in the tech world, and some venture capitalists refuse to invest in any company run by someone wearing a suit.In Dress Codes, law professor and cultural critic Richard Thompson Ford presents a “deeply informative and entertaining” (The New York Times Book Review) history of the laws of fashion from the middle ages to the present day, a walk down history’s red carpet to uncover and examine the canons, mores, and customs of clothing—rules that we often take for granted. After reading Dress Codes, you’ll never think of fashion as superficial again—and getting dressed will never be the same. We will ALWAYS COMBINE SHIPPING on items that do not ship for free. We will issue a refund for any excess shipping charges AUTOMATICALLY AND IMMEDIATELY AFTER the actual shipping cost is determined and the label is printed. Please purchase multiple items as close to the same time as possible; we ship packages six days a week and always on the same day as the purchase whenever possible. Books will be packaged with great care and ship via USPS Media Mail. If you are ordering from Alaska, Hawaii, or Puerto Rico a $30.00 surcharge MAY or MAY NOT apply. If the surcharge is not added to the price we are charged for shipping, the $30.00, or any portion of the $30.00 not charged to us will be refunded. Thank you. Please take a look at the many other comics we have listed, there's always a great variety, and we often have related issues, and a good number of complete collections, as well as many Golden, Silver, Bronze, and Modern Age comics. We also have thousands of magazines, zines, pulps, and science fiction & fantasy paperbacks that we don't have listed yet, so if you are seeking something in particular, contact us, as there is a decent chance we'll have it. We ship internationally through ebay's Global Shipping Program. Return policyWe take great care in giving accurate and detailed descriptions of our books and comics, and always package them safely and securely. Please take a good look at the photos and contact us if you have any questions before purchasing or bidding. We hope you have no cause to return an item, but if you do we offer 30 day returns. Standard ebay return policies are followed. FeedbackIf you are happy with your purchase and the service, please leave positive feedback, and we will reciprocate right away.If you are not happy for any reason, please contact us at your earliest convenience. Thank you!

Price: 7 USD

Location: West Hartford, Connecticut

End Time: 2024-09-08T15:05:32.000Z

Shipping Cost: 5.38 USD