The Body in Fashion: The Politics of Appearance

Available to pre-order - this title is due to ship in November The Body in Fashion: The Politics of Appearance is a wide-ranging essay by Maria Luisa Frisa, one of the most influential fashion historians and curators working today. Moving between biographical accounts, cultural criticism, and fashion history, Frisa argues that fashion is one of the systems through which modern societies regulate bodies, shaping how they are seen, desired, measured, and displayed. From the construction of femininity and masculinity to make-up, red carpets, celebrity image culture, and the rituals of self-presentation, Frisa traces how fashion constructs identities and governs appearances. Drawing on references that span Roland Barthes and the feminist writer Carla Lonzi to designers such as Coco Chanel and Martin Margiela, as well as contemporary figures like Kim Kardashian, Frisa shows how fashion operates simultaneously as fantasy, discipline, and cultural language. Treating the body as fashion’s primary medium, The Body in Fashion invites readers to reconsider how their own bodies move through structures of image, desire, and self-representation.