Clothed in the Body


Book Description

Hunt examines the apparent paradox that Jesus' earthly existence and post resurrection appearances are experienced through consummately physical actions and attributes yet some ascetics within the Christian tradition appear to seek to deny the value of the human body, to find it deadening of spiritual life. Hunt considers why the Christian tradition as a whole has rarely managed more than an uneasy truce between the physical and the spiritual aspects of the human person. Why is it that the 'Church' has energetically argued, through centuries of ecumenical councils, for the dual nature of Christ but seems still unwilling to accept the full integration of physical and spiritual within humanity, despite Gregory of Nazianzus's comment that 'what has not been assumed has not been redeemed'?




The Clothed Body


Book Description

Dress is everywhere imbued with symbols that reflect different meanings in different contexts. This compelling book convincingly demonstrates how clothing is analogous to a working language and is similarly underpinned by deeper meanings and philosop hies. From tattoos and mini-skirts, to skin decoration, makeup and hair, Calefato unpicks the multiple functions of modern dress. Exploring intriguing commonalities - for example, between tattooed Egyptian mummies of 2000 BC and modern subcultural st yles - Calefato considers the psychological, cultural, spiritual and symbolic significances at play in what she aptly labels 'body cartography'. What we wear is a vehicle for the (often contentious) expression of politics, gender and identity, placin g clothing at the root of a complex set of messages, many of which are paradoxical. Clothing may, for example, liberate through the pleasures of masquerade and at the same time 'cage' or control the body. The Clothed Body shows how semiotics can prov ide a convincing template for understanding dress in a wide range of contexts and will be essential reading for anyone interested in the meaning of what we wear.




Clothing the Body of Christ at Colossae


Book Description

What we think of our bodies and what we wear says something about who we are and how we belong. This was the same in the ancient world. Rosemary Canavan explores the imagery of clothing and body in the first century CE Christian writing. An examination of statuary, funerary monuments and coins in this geographical location contemporaneous with the letter's writing reveals how clothing and body images were understood. This is then placed in dialogue with the metaphorical use of clothing and body in other texts, especially the Letter to the Colossians. Social identity and rhetorical studies draw on archaeological, epigraphical, iconographical and literary sources to formulate a new approach to biblical interpretation aptly named "visual exegesis."




Dress Your Best


Book Description

The 8 million fans of TLC’s hottest show, What Not to Wear, know it as the place to go for real-life fashion advice. Now the show’s hosts, Clinton Kelly and Stacy London, offer spot-on fashion wisdom—with an attitude—in this fully illustrated, authoritative, and irreverent fashion guide to dressing your best for every occasion. Clinton and Stacy’s surefire method for boosting appearance rests on their belief that we can all win admiring glances by selecting clothes that play up our positives and create a balanced body shape. In Dress Your Best, Clinton and Stacy match a wide range of female and male body types with the perfect work, casual, and evening attire, showing you exactly how to make your best parts “work” for you. Dressing tips for 26 body types! Features 18 women and 8 men: bigger on top, bigger on bottom, a little extra in the middle, not curvy, extra curvy, small-framed, athletic, and more! Whether you’re searching for a way to accentuate your assets, puzzling over the right print pattern for your frame, or just looking for a solution to the dilemma “What do I need to wear to look fabulous?” you’ll find here the universal tips, dos and don’ts, seasonal alternatives, and must-haves that will deliver the answers. Dress Your Best is certain to become the standard by which all other fashion guides are measured.




Clothing and Difference


Book Description

This volume examines the dynamic relationship between the body, clothing, and identity in sub-Saharan Africa and raises questions that have previously been directed almost exclusively to a Western and urban context. Unusual in its treatment of the body surface as a critical frontier in the production and authentification of identity, Clothing and Difference shows how the body and its adornment have been used to construct and contest social and individual identities in Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Kenya, and other African societies during both colonial and post-colonial times. Grounded in the insights of anthropology and history and influenced by developments in cultural studies, these essays investigate the relations between the personal and the public, and between ideas about the self and those about the family, gender, and national groups. They explore the bodily and material creation of the changing identities of women, spirits, youths, ancestors, and entrepreneurs through a consideration of topics such as fashion, spirit possession, commodity exchange, hygiene, and mourning. By taking African societies as its focus, Clothing and Difference demonstrates that factors considered integral to Western social development--heterogeneity, migration, urbanization, transnational exchange, and media representation--have existed elsewhere in different configurations and with different outcomes. With significance for a wide range of fields, including gender studies, cultural studies, art history, performance studies, political science, semiotics, economics, folklore, and fashion and textile analysis/design, this work provides alternative views of the structures underpinning Western systems of commodification, postmodernism, and cultural differentiation. Contributors. Misty Bastian, Timothy Burke, Hildi Hendrickson, Deborah James, Adeline Masquelier, Elisha Renne, Johanna Schoss, Brad Weiss




The Clothed Body in the Ancient World


Book Description

The papers in this volume provide fascinating snapshots of the clothed body in the ancient world. These snapshots reveal common themes in scholarship and allow a comparison of methodologies across disciplines and periods.




Clothing Appearance and Fit


Book Description

Fashion and beauty have helped shape history and today more than ever, we find ourselves under increasing pressure to think about what we wear, what we look good in and how best to enhance our body shape and size. Behind this seemingly superficial industry, however, lies a technical thinking firmly grounded in science and technology. In one fully comprehensive book, Clothing appearance and fit: Science and technology provides a critical appreciation of the technological developments and scientific understanding of the appearance and fit of clothing. The authors bridge the science of beauty and fashion design with garment evaluation technology, garment drape and human anthropometrics and sizing.The ten chapters of the book provide a detailed coverage of clothing appearance and fit. Chapter 1 considers body attractiveness and how it relates to clothing material and design parameters and discusses classical and contemporary theories of beauty. Chapters 2 and 3 present the industry's techniques, methods and standards for assessing clothing appearance and fit and Chapters 4 and 5 review the research and development of objective measurement technologies for evaluating clothing appearance and fit. Fabric objective measurement, fabric properties and garment drape are covered in Chapters 6 and 7 and the R & D of body measurement, anthropometrics and sizing systems are detailed in Chapters 8 and 9. The final chapter reviews published work on garment design and pattern alteration for achieving good clothing appearance and fit.This book is an essential reference for researchers, academics, professionals and students in clothing and textile academia and industry. It includes many industrial standards, techniques and practices. - Offers a critical appreciation of technological developments - Incorporates user-friendly illustrations and photographs - Valuable reference for students, researchers and professionals in the clothing and textile industries




Drop Two Sizes


Book Description

Groundbreaking research has shown that weight loss does not equal fat loss. The dreaded number on the scale and emotional backlash that come with years of frustrating yo-yo dieting is often what holds readers back from successfully losing weight. Women's Health fitness expert Rachel Cosgrove empowers readers to finally do what they've always wanted: throw out the scale! Readers start by creating a personalized action plan that includes a commitment to the program and to themselves. Cosgrove walks them through invaluable goal-setting skills, helpful strategies, and behavioral techniques that they can use daily to guarantee success. More importantly, readers will learn to finally let go of the number on the scale and focus on losing inches and fitting into their favorite skinny clothes! Drop Two Sizes includes effective, at-home strength and cardio routines that require little more than two dumbbells, as well as day-by-day menus, recipes, and suggestions for planning and cooking healthy meals, with the help of registered dietitian Chris Mohr, PhD, RD, CSSD. Packed with helpful advice and the powerfully inspiring stories and before-and-after photos of real women who have lost two clothing sizes (and more!) over 8 to 12 weeks, Drop Two Sizes proves that anyone can change their body and their life, for good!




Dressing Global Bodies


Book Description

Dressing Global Bodies addresses the complex politics of dress and fashion from a global perspective spanning four centuries, tying the early global to more contemporary times, to reveal clothing practice as a key cultural phenomenon and mechanism of defining one’s identity. This collection of essays explores how garments reflect the hierarchies of value, collective and personal inclinations, religious norms and conversions. Apparel is now recognized for its seminal role in global, colonial and post-colonial engagements and for its role in personal and collective expression. Patterns of exchange and commerce are discussed by contributing authors to analyse powerful and diverse colonial and postcolonial practices. This volume rejects assumptions surrounding a purportedly all-powerful Western metropolitan fashion system and instead aims to emphasize how diverse populations seized agency through the fashioning of dress. Dressing Global Bodies contributes to a growing scholarship considering gender and race, place and politics through the close critical analysis of dress and fashion; it is an indispensable volume for students of history and especially those interested in fashion, textiles, material culture and the body across a wide time frame.




Dress, Distress and Desire


Book Description

Dress, Distress and Desire explores representations of sartorial experience in eighteenth-century literature. Batchelor's study brings together for the first time canonical and non-canonical texts including novels, conduct books and women's magazines to investigate the pressures that the growth of the fashion market placed on conceptions of female virtue and propriety. It shows how dress dispelled the sentimental myth that the body acted as a moral index and enabled the women reader to resist some of sentimental literature's more prescriptive advice.