Description
Book SynopsisGenevieve Alva Clutario traces how beauty and fashion in the Philippines shaped the intertwined projects of imperial expansion and modern nation building during the turbulent transition between Spanish, US, and Japanese empires.
Trade Review“Peering through a gendered lens, Clutario exposes the complex roles Filipinas played within empire and the fraught establishment of the Philippine Commonwealth. . . . Writing about the wives of politicians, embroiderers, beauty queens, and socialites, Clutario renders beauty as a complex weapon. In the hands of her Filipina subjects, it is deployed with both tenderness and aggression.” -- Alice Sarmiento * Rappler *
"A unique book that delivers fresh insights into the American colonial period in the Philippines through the politics of fashion and beauty regimens."
-- Mina Roces * Fashion Theory *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
Introduction. A Queen Is Crowned 1
1. Tensions at the Seams: Petty Politics and Sartorial Battles 19
2. Queen Makers: Beauty, Power, and the Development of a Beauty Pageant Industrial Complex 63
3. Philippine Lingerie: Transnational Filipina Beauty Labor under US Empire 107
4. Beauty Regimes: Structure, Discipline, and Needlework in Colonial Industrial Schools and Prisons 139
5. “The Dream of Beauty”: The Terno and the Filipina High-Fashion System 183
Epilogue. Protectionism and Preparedness under Overlapping Empires 223
Notes 237
Bibliography 287
Index 319
