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The Empire of Fashion
Dressing Modern Democracy
by Gilles Lipovetsky
ISBN: 0691033730
ISBN-13: 9780691033730
Format: Hardcover
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"Lipovetsky is engaged in the contemporary predicament. He sees the sophistication of modern advertising: he is alive to the social possiblities of our cultural transformation....And because he embraces, rather than merely dismisses, the new age, he understands it better." -- Andrew Sullivan
-- New Republic
Bibliographic Details
Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr
Published date: 1994
Size: 6.5 x 9.5 inches
Weight: 1.35 pounds
Pages: 276
Publisher's Notes
In a book full of playful irony and striking insights, the controversial social philosopher Gilles Lipovetsky draws on the history of fashion to demonstrate that the modern cult of appearance and superficiality actually serves the common good. Focusing on clothing, bodily deportment, sex roles, sexual practices, and political rhetoric as forms of "fashion," Lipovetsky bounds across two thousand years of history, showing how the evolution of fashion from an upper- class privilege into a vehicle of popular expression closely follows the rise of democratic values. Whereas Tocqueville feared that mass culture would create passive citizens incapable of political reasoning, Lipovetsky argues that today's mass-produced fashion offers many choices, which in turn enable consumers to become complex individuals within a consolidated, democratically educated society. Superficiality fosters tolerance among different groups within a society, claims Lipovetsky. To analyze fashion's role in smoothing over social conflict, he abandons class analysis in favor of an inquiry into the symbolism of everyday life and the creation of ephemeral desire. Lipovetsky examines the malaise experienced by people who, because they can fulfill so many desires, lose their sense of identity. His conclusions raise disturbing questions about personal joy and anguish in modern democracy.
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The Empire of Fashion : Dressing Modern Democracy (New French Thought Ser.)
Lipovetsky, Gilles; Porter, Catherine (translator)
Princeton, NJ, U.S.A.: Princeton, NJ, U.S.A.: Princeton University Press, 1994, 1994. Hb. VG/No Dj. 1st. 276pp. Corners & ends of spine rubbed. Notes; biblio.; index.. 1st. Hb. VG/No Dj. ( more information) Offered by Priceless Books (United States)
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The Empire of Fashion
Gilles Lipovetsky
Princeton University Press. Used - Very Good. Hardcover. . Slight shelf wear; Otherwise, Very Good. ( more information) Offered by Powell's Bookstores Chicago (United States)
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5)
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Empire of Fashion, The: Dressing Modern Democracy
Lipovetsky, Gilles
Woodstock, United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 1994. Apart from a slight damage to the jacket, it is like new and ready for immediate dispatch. . Hard Cover. As New/Very Good. ( more information) Offered by Badrisbooks (United Kingdom)
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