Research Guides: FASH 130: The Meaning of Dress: Home

Related Guides

For additional research information try these guides:

Diversity in Design - Fashion
Sustainable Design - Fashion
FASH 319: Fashion History - Modern Era
FASH 320: Twenty-First Century Fashion
Fashion Design Research Guide
More resources for researching clothing and fashion, including history, articles, and images.

Clothing + Culture Online

We Wear Culture: The Stories Behind What We Wear
Google virtual experience project. Digital exhibits include images of 30,000 artifacts, including 700 ultra high-resolution gigapixel images, over 450 curated exhibits, four VR experiences as well as six Google expeditions.
A tailored history of who wears what -- and why (TED Talk)
From puffy trousers to pantsuits and everything in between, law professor and author Richard Thompson Ford takes us on a fascinating tour through the history of fashion and the evolution of dress codes that still influence style today, tracing the real consequences people face for the way they dress.

Fashion + Culture Podcasts

99% Invisible: Articles of Interest
The Articles of Interest podcast covers a broad range of concepts including the rise of casual wear, the environmental impact of the textile industry and why womenswear doesn’t have pockets. Together, the episodes link thematically, each one to the next, like a daisy chain. Think of it as a podcast concept album … on clothes.
The Invisible Seam: Unsung Stories of Black Culture and Fashion
Compelling interviews with expert guests, including designers, academics, fashion historians, museum curators, stylists and artists.

Arts Research Librarian

Carla-Mae Crookendale

(she/her)

Contact:

cmcrookendale@vcu.edu
(804) 827-0367
Cabell Library, Room 121-L

Subjects: Arts, Performing, Arts, Visual

Bloomsbury Fashion Central

Bloomsbury Fashion Central
Provides cross-searchable access to interdisciplinary text and image content on world dress, fashion and textiles. Includes e-books, reference works, images, and more.

Fashion History Timeline

Fashion History Timeline
An open-access source for fashion history knowledge, featuring objects and artworks from over a hundred museums and libraries that span the globe. The Timeline website offers well-researched, accessibly written entries on specific artworks, garments and films for those interested in fashion and dress history. Created by art history faculty and students at FIT.

Recommended Books

The Meanings of Dress
Call Number: GT524 .D36 2019
This collection of articles and essays from magazines, newspapers, books, and academic journals is designed to expand the reader's awareness and understanding of the role dress plays in cultures and subcultures across the globe.
African Luxury : aesthetics and politics
Call Number: ebook
Highlights and critically interrogates the visual and material cultures of lavish and luxurious consumption already present on the continent.
Also in Print: HB841 .A37 2019
Fashion, agency, and empowerment performing agency, following script
Call Number: ebook
In this global and interdisciplinary collection, leading authors explore the relationships between the dressed body, fashion, sex, and power, with an emphasis on the role of dress in both reinforcing and challenging social norms.
Fashion Tribes : global street style
Call Number: GT525 .T36 2015
With essays by leading experts in fashion, photography, anthropology, and sociology, 'Fashion tribes' offers a broad view of world dress and shows the power that clothing can hold.
Items: Is Fashion Modern?
Call Number: GT596 .A57 2017
An encyclopaedic selection of 111 garments, footwear, and accessories - from humble masterpieces to high fashion - that have had a strong impact on society in the 20th and 21st centuries and continue to hold currency today.
The Language of Fashion
Call Number: GT511 .B363 2006
Essays by critic Roland Barthes that lay down the foundation for a structural and semiological analysis of clothing and jewellery.
The New Beauty : a modern look at beauty, culture, and fashion
Call Number: HQ1219 .M65 2021
From using makeup as a means to challenge gender, to the link between hairstyling and community-building, or the rituals of skincare as a form of self-care, we are rediscovering beauty as a way of defining who we are and what we value. This book explores this shift from historical, scientific and journalistic perspectives.

Meanings of Clothing Cues in Social Context

Research Tips

When browsing for books in VCU Libraries Search, filter results by:
1. Publication Date e.g. within 5-10 years for currency
2. Subject e.g.
  1. Fashion -- Psychological aspects
  2. Clothing & dress -- Psychological aspects
  3. Clothing & dress -- Symbolic aspects
  4. Beauty culture -- Social aspects
  5. Beauty, Personal -- Social aspects
When Browsing for Print Books at Cabell Library, look for:
1. The GT 500-2370 call number range (1st Floor)
  1. Costume and fashion history, social customs, psychology, etc

Annotated Bibliography

Annotated Bibliographies - Perdue OWL
Annotated Bibliography definition, breakdown and examples.