Dressing the Elite Hardback Author: Susan Vincent Published by Berg Publishers Page extent: 320pp Format: Hardback Additional Blurbs: 26 bw illus  bibliog  index Clothing occupies a complex and important position in relation to human experience. Not just utilitarian, dress gives form to a society's ideas about the sacred and secular, about exclusion and inclusion, about age, beauty, sexuality and status. In Dressing the Elite, the author explores the multiple meanings that garments held in early modern England. Clothing was used to promote health and physical well-being, and to manage and structure, life transitions. It helped individuals create social identities and also to disguise them. Indeed, so culturally powerful was the manipulation of appearances that authorities sought its control. Laws regulated access to the dress styles of the elite, and through less formal strategies, techniques of disguise were kept as the perquisites of the powerful. Focusing on the elite, the author argues that clothing was not just a form of cultural expression but in turn contributed to societal formation. Clothes shaped the configurations of the body, affected spaces and interactions between people and altered the perceptions of the wearers and viewers. People put on and manipulated their garments, but in turn dress also exercised a reverse influence. Clothes made not just the man and the woman, but also the categories of gender itself. Topics covered include cross-dressing, sumptuary laws, mourning apparel and individual styles.              Contents: Introduction When I am in Good Habitt History and Dress    The Meaning of Clothing and the Clothing of Meaning in Early Modern England Chapter 1 Fashioning Appearances    The Wardrobe - Men  The Wardrobe - Women    Reviewing the Wardrobe   Chapter 2 Addressing the Body    Outwardly for Defence - Inwardly for Cleanliness Bodily Transitions     Clothing Grief   Chapter 3 Clothes Make the Man    His Garments Helpe Him to bee Counted Such a One Godly Apparel     The Way of Wearing - Hat Honour    To See and be Seen   Increasing Visibility - Portraits and Livery   Punishment and Shame   A Very Good Fancy in Making Good Clothes   Chapter 4 None Shall Wear    Dress and the Law    Economic Regulation    Moral Regulation     Social Regulation    Deformity and Change  - Discipline and Display    Doomed to Failure?   Chapter 5         Them and Us, He or She? The Rogue    Being and Seeming     Actors and Courtiers     Women to Men     Cross-Dressing    Conclusion       From Riches to Rags    Bibliography   The Textile Directory Bookstore postal charges: UK 1 book = £2.50 2 books = £4.50 3 books = £7.00 4 books or more = £9.00 Overseas 1 book = £6.00 2 books = £10.00 3 books = £14.00 4 books or more = £18.00 Price: £55.00