Fashion and Power : Industry, Journalism, and Nation

How has fashion become such an important signifier of French nationhood? How has fashion journalism been used to mediate political ideologies like fascism?

These questions and more are answered in the first book to comprehensively explore the interactions between fashion, the media, soft power, and nationhood. With a geographically diverse range of case studies and a unique focus on fashion journalism, Fashion and Power covers the origins of the relationship between fashion, cultural power, and national identity in ‘courtly’ societies, through the Cold War to the identities of emerging fashion nations such as China and Nigeria. Examining figures from ‘La Jeune Fille Américaine’ to First Ladies, Nelson Best argues how, in Susan Kaiser’s words, ‘representations of nation are built on the backs of women’s bodies.’

By exploring fashion journalism as a discourse of cultural power that shapes the identity of nations in different times and places, Fashion and Power reveals the contingency of these power relations and the possibility of their renegotiation. This accessible and highly engaging book is an invaluable resource not only for fashion studies students but also for those in media and cultural studies and anyone interested in fashion, identity, and power.