Fashion and Motherhood: Image, Material, Identity

Motherhood and fashion are closely related, with social pressures and public opinion influencing how they are dressed. This collection explores the relationship between motherhood and fashion, examining power, misogyny, temporality, longing, and embodiment. The essays examine representations in film, popular print, and literature from the 19th to the 21st centuries, tracing how fashion and motherhood have operated as interdependent experiences and continue to determine how women are judged and corralled.

Format: Hardback
Length: 264 pages
Publication date: 22 February 2024
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Motherhood, whether achieved through biological or other means, is not a rare experience; dressing oneself, even less so. The two phenomena are intimately linked, as both occur on and to the private body and are also fully subject to social pressures and the changing tides of public opinion. They also, for anyone who experiences motherhood, define one another and work together to shape an individual's identity and place in their culture. This rich collection explores the essential question of how motherhood and fashion interact, interrogating their relationships to power, misogyny, temporality, longing, and embodiment, among other themes. The 13 essays examine representations on film, in popular print and literature; they use images, narrative, and material evidence from the past to excavate the historical cleavages in how mothers have been expected to hide, display, share, and sacrifice their bodies. An international range of scholars explores the 19th to the 21st centuries, tracing how fashion and motherhood have operated as powerfully interdependent experiences and continue to determine how women are judged and corralled, yet also find meaning, connection, and strength.

Motherhood, whether achieved through biological or other means, is not a rare experience; dressing oneself, even less so.

The two phenomena are intimately linked, as both occur on and to the private body and are also fully subject to social pressures and the changing tides of public opinion.

They also, for anyone who experiences motherhood, define one another and work together to shape an individual's identity and place in their culture.

This rich collection explores the essential question of how motherhood and fashion interact, interrogating their relationships to power, misogyny, temporality, longing, and embodiment, among other themes.

The 13 essays examine representations on film, in popular print and literature; they use images, narrative, and material evidence from the past to excavate the historical cleavages in how mothers have been expected to hide, display, share, and sacrifice their bodies.

An international range of scholars explores the 19th to the 21st centuries, tracing how fashion and motherhood have operated as powerfully interdependent experiences and continue to determine how women are judged and corralled, yet also find meaning, connection, and strength.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781350276697