Classifying Fashion, Fashioning Class

This book explores the associations women make between everyday clothing and class status, and considers how women's own fashion practices, perceptions and tastes are informed and influenced by class positions. By exploring the notions of "dressing up" and "looking good," the book emphasizes important differences in women's notions of femininity, their understanding of public space and their buying criteria, and documents the important role mothers play in socializing daughters into classed practices and attitudes towards fashion. In doing so, Appleford restates the importance of class in contemporary society and in our everyday lives, and demonstrates how class is increasingly viewed in terms of consumer practice and cultural tastes.