Description
Book SynopsisFifteen scholars examine the social identities, class hierarchies, regionalisms, and other codes of communication that are exhibited or perceived in meXicana clothing styles.
Trade ReviewOne of the greatest strengths of this work is its commitment to combatting a tendency toward essentialism in dress studies, particularly for what typically gets deemed 'ethnic,' 'minority,” or 'subcultural' dress, by underscoring the complex, inconsistent, and sometimes contradictory ways we may experience self and how we variously perform those intersectional identities...The chapters of
meXicana Fashions demonstrate many thoughtful attempts to interrogate old and invent new terms, categories, and concepts for identification and analysis...For folklorists, dress scholars, and those interested in material culture, media, and gender studies, there is a lot to value here. * Journal of Folklore Research *
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meXicana Fashions's] editors' intentions of initiating discussion, questioning, and exploration of the significance of fashion, self adornment, and the economics of self fashioning are well served by this diversity of current writings by meXicanas and women of Colour searching for social and self identity outside of the hegemonic fashion industry. This book would be an important point of reference within Mexican American studies and particularly in studies of dress and the creation of both personal and social identity. It is a useful source for complexities of dress, adornment, and the constructions and reconstructions of cultural identities. * Journal of Dress History *
This book is a jewel of fashion knowledge and should be a part of every fashion library to learn how clothing can be used for personal identity and more so, a form of respect for society as a whole – a respect through ‘fashion for all’ and one always evolving within our likes and differences. Change is what makes up the ideal of fashion. * Fashion, Style & Popular Culture *
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meXicana Fashions] presents the academy with an inspirational model for weaving authenticity and authority alongside the rigors of multimedium and multimethodological research. The result is an insightful and innovate book for those interested in fashion theory, cultural theory, identity politics, textile arts, Latinx/Xicana/Indigenous identity, history, art, and literature, as well as pedagogy. * New Mexico Historical Review *
I have been waiting years for this book...The editors are courageous in their refusal of conformity, even at the level of citation styles, and they appear to model for us what academic diversity can look like in print…the book is a delightful and recommended read. * Chiricú Journal *
Table of Contents
- Introduction (Aída Hurtado and Norma E. Cantú)
- Section I. Rendering of Self: Personal Narratives/Personal Adornment
- Chapter 1. Wearing Identity: Chicanas and Huipiles (Norma E. Cantú)
- Chapter 2. Con el huipil en la mente: The Metamorphosis of a Chicana (Josie Méndez-Negrete)
- Chapter 3. “Rebozos, huipiles, y ¿Qué?”: Chicana Self-Fashioning in the Academy (Micaela Díaz-Sánchez)
- Chapter 4. Por la facha y por el traje, se conoce al personaje: Tales about Attire as Resistance and Performativity in a Chicana’s Life Trajectory (Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs)
- Chapter 5. A Familial Legacy of meXicana Style (Domino Renee Perez)
- Section II. The Politics of Dress: Saying It Loud/Saying It Clear
- Chapter 6. Buying the Dream: Relating “Traditional” Dress to Consumer Practices within US Quinceañeras (Rachel Valentina González-Martin)
- Chapter 7. Visuality, Corporality, and Power (Aída Hurtado)
- Chapter 8. Black, Brown, and Fa(t)shionable: The Role of Fat Women of Color in the Rise of Body Positivity (Jade D. Petermon)
- Chapter 9. Fashioning Decolonial Optics: Days of the Dead Walking Altars and Calavera Fashion Shows in Latina/o Los Angeles (Laura Pérez)
- Chapter 10. “Fierce and Fearless”: Dress and Identity in Rigoberto González’s The Mariposa Club (Sonia Alejandra Rodríguez)
- Section III. The Politics of Entrepreneurship: Making (It)/Selling (It))
- Chapter 11. Lydia Mendoza, “Reina de la Música Tejana”: Self-Stylizing Mexicanidad through China Poblana in the US-Mexico Borderlands (Marci R. McMahon)
- Chapter 12. (Ad)Dressing Chicana/Latina Femininities: Consumption, Labor, and the Cultural Politics of Style in Latina Fashion (Stacy I. Macías)
- Chapter 13. Urban Xican/x-Indigenous Fashion Show ARTivism: Experimental Ethnographies and Perform-Antics in Three Actos (Chela Sandoval, Amber Rose González, and Felicia Montes)
- Contributors
- Index
