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The traditional costumes worn by people in the Andes—women's woolen skirts, men's ponchos, woven belts, and white felt hats—instantly identify them as natives of the region and serve as revealing markers of ethnicity, social class, gender, age, and so on. Because costume expresses so much, scholars study it to learn how the indigenous people of the Andes have identified themselves over time, as well as how others have identified and influenced them.

Costume and History in Highland Ecuador assembles for the first time for any Andean country the evidence for indigenous costume from the entire chronological range of prehistory and history. The contributors glean a remarkable amount of information from pre-Hispanic ceramics and textile tools, archaeological textiles from the Inca empire in Peru, written accounts from the colonial period, nineteenth-century European-style pictorial representations, and twentieth-century textiles in museum collections. Their findings reveal that several garments introduced by the Incas, including men's tunics and women's wrapped dresses, shawls, and belts, had a remarkable longevity. They also demonstrate that the hybrid poncho from Chile and the rebozo from Mexico diffused in South America during the colonial period, and that the development of the rebozo in particular was more interesting and complex than has previously been suggested. The adoption of Spanish garments such as the pollera (skirt) and man's shirt were also less straightforward and of more recent vintage than might be expected.

For award-winning fashion writer Elizabeth Wellington, style was initially less about labels and more about how she styled her looks. She knew what looked good and that what she wore was an essential form of self-expression. Mirror, Mirror collects thirty-six of Wellington’s columns for the Philadelphia Inquirer, where she has written about fashion, politics, and pop culture since 2002. Each chapter includes an opening essay defining the era and how Wellington fit into it along with a “Fashion Fast Forward” that reflects how both she and society have evolved.

Wellington started covering fashion when the industry was on the cusp of social and sartorial change. As trends evolved, so too did Wellington, who found her place as she defined Philadelphia’s style scene. She profiles local doyennes Joan Shepp and Toby Lerner and writes about finding the perfect jeans. Wellington also intertwines optics and social justice in columns about First Lady style, the power of the hoodie, and the impact of the CROWN Act, which protects against discrimination based on hair.

Writing thoughtfully about fashion with nostalgia and passion, Wellington covers retail, Fashion Week runways, and the changing political landscape. Mirror, Mirror showcases Wellington’s flair in her work as she writes about style and herself. 

A remarkable anthology of key writings that parallels the history of fashion with modern life

Writing more than a century before Vogue, no less a figure than G. W. F. Hegel reviewed the fashion of his day and found it wanting because, in becoming outmoded so quickly, it drew attention away from the timeless beauty of the human form. And Hegel is not unique among philosophers in his interest in fashion’s role; for more than 250 years, social thinkers have considered fashion—its transitive nature, the conformity it inspires, the vast range of its influence—as a defining feature of modern life.

Showing Out: Fashion in Harlem explores the unprecedented and enduring impact of the Harlem Institute of Fashion (HIF) on American culture and style. Founded in 1966 by Lois K. Alexander-Lane, HIF produced legendary fashion shows for the annual HARLEM WEEK festival. With their eye-catching costumes, dramatic runway presentations, and embrace of the local community, the shows became one of HIF’s most popular and successful initiatives, spotlighting the underrepresented talents of Black fashion designers, models, and administrators. Tracing HIF’s legacy within the larger narrative of fashion history, Showing Out uses fashion shows as a portal, showcasing previously unpublished archival photos; first-hand accounts from HIF alumni, and contemporary collectives that continue to celebrate the Black contribution to fashion. In the wake of Black Lives Matter, anti-DEI policies, and ongoing political and racial turmoil, Showing Out is the much-needed voice of inspiration to reshape the narrative around fashion.

The Female Economy explores that lost world of women's dominance, showing how independent, often ambitious businesswomen and the sometimes imperious consumers they served gradually vanished from the scene as custom production gave way to a largely unskilled modern garment industry controlled by men. Wendy Gamber helps overturn the portrait of wage-earning women as docile souls who would find fulfillment only in marriage and motherhood. She combines labor history, women's history, business history, and the history of technology while exploring topics as wide-ranging as the history of pattern-making and the relationship between entrepreneurship and marriage.

A volume in the series The Working Class in American History, edited by David Brody, Alice Kessler-Harris, David Montgomery, and Sean Wilentz, and in the series Women in American History, edited by Anne Firor Scott, Nancy A. Hewitt, and Stephanie Shaw

2020 Second Place, Best Nonfiction Multi Author, International Latino Book Awards

Collecting the perspectives of scholars who reflect on their own relationships to particular garments, analyze the politics of dress, and examine the role of consumerism and entrepreneurialism in the production of creating and selling a style, meXicana Fashions examines and searches for meaning in these visible, performative aspects of identity.

Focusing primarily on Chicanas but also considering trends connected to other Latin American communities, the authors highlight specific constituencies that are defined by region (“Tejana style,” “L.A. style”), age group (“homie,” “chola”), and social class (marked by haute couture labels such as Carolina Herrera and Oscar de la Renta). The essays acknowledge the complex layers of these styles, which are not mutually exclusive but instead reflect a range of intersections in occupation, origin, personality, sexuality, and fads. Other elements include urban indigenous fashion shows, the shifting quinceañera market, “walking altars” on the Days of the Dead, plus-size clothing, huipiles in the workplace, and dressing in drag. Together, these chapters illuminate the full array of messages woven into a vibrant social fabric.