| The relative insignificance of fashion to the discipline of sociology, as well as academia writ large, has led to a substantial paucity of theory and scholarship about people dressing their bodies. Despite Aspers and Godart's 2013 plea in the Annual Review of Sociology to change the tide and seriously examine of the sociology of fashion, the area remains largely devoid of sociological analysis. This is particularly true of the intersection of race and dress. The few sociological studies do address race and dress focus on body modifications and bodywork used to either achieve or resist hegemonic notions of beauty (Gimlin 2007; Anderson et al 2010). This model, while illustrative and representative of women with defined political or cultural objectives, says very little about the complexities of women's quotidian dress considerations and behaviors.;Employing a "talking while walking" methodology, I interviewed and examined the wardrobes, makeup and styling tools of 35 African American, White, Latina and Middle Eastern women at a large midwestern university in 2015. The participants expressed awareness of the racialized nature of their clothing and actively grappled with racially specific expectations and preferences for their bodies and styling. Consequently, their bodily supplementations and modifications contained numerous, overlapping and, at times, conflicting notions of race. By focusing on dress, this groundbreaking study adds a new dimension the ways in which race impacts our diurnal activities. |
