num_pages: 396
description: If clothes make the man who makes the clothesand the trends they inspire? Fashion historian Daniel Delis Hill takes readers on a fascinatingly detailed tour of Americas changing sartorial landscape tracing menswear from the tailors and slop shops of the early nineteenth century to Calvins tattoos and the Armani tux. Each chronological section covers the full range of men's clothing by category including suits and evening wear outerwear sportswear accessories sleepwear swimwear underwear and grooming. Documenting the panorama of mens dress with 650 illustrations (many never before gathered in book form) Hill describes the social developments that contributed to and sprang from changing styles of masculine clothing. Additionally he demonstrates how technological innovations as small as the inch measuring tape or as sweeping as the treadle sewing machine revolutionized the manufacture of menswear and how mass production distribution and marketing democratized mens fashion. Examining evolving ideas and ideals of masculinity across two centuries of American history Hill thoughtfully considers the societal implications of mens choices in dress. American Menswear contributes a much-needed resource to the fields of costume history fashion design and merchandising mens studies advertising and marketing history popular culture and American historyas well as a treat for the casual reader and an eye-catching addition to any art reference library.
language: English
title: American Menswear: From the Civil War to the Twenty-First Century
publisher: Texas Tech University Press