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The Politics of Dress
in Asia and the Americas

Mina Roces and Louise Edwards
Mina Roces teaches in the School of History, at the University of New South Wales, in Sydney, Australia. She is author of Women Power and Kinship Politics: Female Power in Post-War Philippines. Louise Edwards is Professor of China Studies at the University of Technology, Sydney. She has published widely in the field of women in China. Together with Mina Roces, she has previously edited two influential books on women in Asia.

“A truly fascinating and original collection of essays. By discussing the reciprocal relationship between dress and political identity and action, the authors in this book provide a fresh and very insightful entry into analyses of the ever-changing relation between power and gender. The instances which are described are taken from all around the Pacific rim, thus providing important elements for comparison, both within the wider region itself and through the rest of the world. Those of us who work on other parts of the world can only be jealous.” Robert Ross, Professor of African History, Leiden University

“Try to imagine Fidel Castro in white tie and tails, or George Bush in a Polynesian sarong. For most people, these images just don’t work. Clothes make a statement. Roces (history, University of New South Wales) and Edwards (China Studies, University of Technology, Sydney) have assembled articles on how dress has been and continues to be a statement of politics. With a focus on Asia and America, topics range from scholars and school uniforms in China to the invention of a Thai national costume for women in order to promote local silk weavers. Others discuss how the use of a particular hair comb in Argentina could signal solidarity for the democratic movement or how Blackfoot peoples used adaptations of Western clothing and that of other tribes to indicate status. The rest of the essays are equally varied in time and region, giving a fascinating angle on a facet of politics that is rarely seriously studied.” Reference & Research Book News

“Editors Roces and Edwards provide 13 case studies (7 Asian, 6 American) covering 18th- to 21st-century examples of transcultural interactions related to colonialism, imperialism, democratic republicanism, enlightened monarchialism, and globalization, whereby new forms and interpretations of hybrid dress were created. Themes and examples include the evolutionary problem of which group is accepted as wearing the national dress (indigenous peoples, ethnic groups, peasants, or mestizos); power dressing by elites; gender clothes as expressing power; and use of dress by elites related to political programs. The book’s cover illustrates the controversial use of “national” dress as Asian Pacific Economic cooperation leaders pose wearing clothing of the host nation. Overall, this small book is a rich gem that poses new questions, penetrates contrasting cultures over time and space, and demonstrates that the study of dress is a serious academic endeavour. Highly recommended.” Choice

“Those who delve into the history of clothing and politics will be rewarded with an extremely fertile field of study. The subject offers diverse examples of how specific garments, cultural practices of clothing the body, or indeed, keeping parts of the body naked, have been manipulated to serve or undermine political ideologies and agendas, promote class values, or craft sexual identities, within a myriad of temporal contexts.” Asian Studies Review

This book examines how the politics of dress has been incorporated in constructions of nationhood in both Asia and the Americas, and reveals how politicians and political regimes (including tribal, revolutionary, authoritarian, colonial, and democratic) manipulate sumptuary practices in order to create national identities, to legitimise hierarchies of power or to build personal political identities. In tackling these broad themes over two centuries, the editors and contributors grapple with gender politics; in particular, how men and women’s dress reflect their political and economic position in the nation-states.
… This collection of pioneering essays – the first volume in the Sussex Library of Asian Studies – explores the transnational nature of dress in a host of different locations and shows how changing dress codes have long been conversations between cultures. It brings the politics of dress into contemporary times and engages directly with the topical issues of dress legislation in the twenty-first century. Country case studies include: China, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Burma, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Native America, Latin America and Argentina.

Chapter 1 Trans-national Flows and the Politics of Dress in Asia and the Americas Mina Roces and Louise Edwards Chapter 2 Gender, Nation and the Politics of Dress in Twentieth-Century Philippines Mina Roces Chapter 3 Dressing for Power: Scholars’ Robes, School Uniforms and Military Attire in China Louise Edwards Chapter 4 Refashioning Civilization: Dress and Bodily Practice in Thai Nation-Building Maurizio Peleggi Chapter 5 Gender, Citizenship and Dress in Modernizing Japan Barbara Molony Chapter 6 Identity, Nation and Islam: A Dialogue about Men’s and Women’s Dress in Indonesia Jean Gelman Taylor Chapter 7 “Dressed in a Little Brief Authority”: Clothing the Body Politic in Burma Penny Edwards Chapter 8 Power Dressing on the Prairies: The Grammar of Blackfoot Leadership Dress, 1750–1930 Blanca Tovías Chapter 9 Nationalism and National Dress in Spanish America Rebecca Earle Chapter 10 Refashioning the Inca: Costume, Political Power and Identity in Late Bourbon Peru David Cahill Chapter 11 Wigs, Weapons, Tattoos and Shoes: Getting Dressed in Colonial Amazonia and Brazil Barbara A. Sommer Chapter 12 Fabricating Specimen Citizens: Nation Building in Nineteenth-Century Mexico Magali M. Carrera Chapter 13 Urban Expressions of Solidarity: Fashioning Citizenship in Argentina Regina A. Root

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