Men in the Mirror

Men's Fashion, Masculinity, and Consumer Society

Tim Edwards

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9781474287340
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781474287357
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Gender Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

In recent decades, the myth of fashionable women and sartorially challenged men has been overturned not least through the proliferation of men's style magazines such as GQ and the emergence of masculinity as a marketing tool. In this engaging book, Edwards applies a sociological approach to our understanding of men's fashion, which he argues is significant in the nexus of masculinity and society, past and present, rather than a narrow artistic or aesthetic interest.

Rejecting an essentialist or 'natural' origin, Edwards explores how masculinity and men's fashion are constructed, particularly in relation to consumer society. It is the growing commodification and aestheticism of everyday life, alongside developments in marketing and advertising, that Edwards identifies as the catalyst in the emergence of men's fashion, rather than an abstract 'crisis of masculinity' or 'new man' identity. Concurrently, in the 1980s, changes in demography, economics and ideology gave certain men greater freedom and spending power than ever before. Edwards investigates how these men, clearly distinguished by age, class and sexual orientation, were seduced by advertisers with sexualised images of suited city gents and body-beautiful boys in Levis, and how the resultant process of consumption was facilitated through developments in the practice of shopping itself, such as easy access to credit. He examines the influence of the advertisers' message in creating a hierarchy of masculinity in which some men are valorised and others are denigrated.

Starting with a historical review of men's fashion and a discussion of its importance and meanings, Edwards goes on to analyse the contemporary marketing of menswear and masculinity in advertising and in the media, and considers the politics of fashion for men in terms of gender, class, race and sexuality.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• Introduction: Men in the Mirror
• 1 His Story of Fashion
• 2 The Classical Tradition
• 3 Private Investigations: Interpretations on the Theme of the New Man
• 4 The Marketing of Masculinities
• 5 Consuming Masculinities: Style, Content and Men's Magazines
• 6 Just Looking: Masculinity and the Contemporary Shopping Experience
• 7 Express Yourself: The Politics of Dressing Up
• 8 The Sting in the Tale: Social Policy and Social Divisions
• Conclusion: Men's Fashion, Masculinity and Consumer Society
• Epilogue
• References
• Index