Global Masculinities and Dress

This publication sets out to decentre fashion scholarship in menswear by exploring style cultures and design histories in a wider context.While there has been growing academic interest in menswear in recent years, to date most exhibitions and publications have focused on established fashion centres in the Global North. Meanwhile, despite welcome moves to broaden the geographical scope of fashion studies, few texts seeking to do so concentrate on men’s style.Tracing connections across national and regional borders, Global Masculinities and Dress examines men’s style as a transnational and transcultural set of practices in which Korean popular culture inflects upon Central Asian fashion, the image of the American cowboy is rearticulated in Botswana, and textile collecting practices reveal threads of aesthetic influence from South Asia to North Africa. An introductory essay by the book’s three editors frames the authors’ contributions within the broader context of masculinities studies and post-colonial theory, highlighting themes and concerns in common across the diverse chapters, and chapter contributors to this richly illustrated volume include leading fashion scholars and emerging design practitioners.Global Masculinities and Dress offers historical perspectives as well reaching to contemporary dress cultures, uncovering stories previously obscured and exploring the practice and representation of men’s dress in South America, South and East Asia, South and West Africa and beyond.