Not Fitting In

What effect does the lack of inclusion of a particular style have on the social and personal identity of someone it excludes?

Drawing from personal experience, author Elizabeth Kealy-Morris explores how the back brace that her scoliosis required excluded her from the socially accepted preppy style of her community, and the effect it had on the way she interacted with her peers. Not Fitting In examines themes of group identity, exclusion, and belonging through style and fashion.

This book is ideal reading for students of Fashion Studies, Disability Studies, Fashion Psychology, and Cultural Anthropology.

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Acknowledgments
• Abstract
• Author biography
• Table of Contents
• Learning objectives
• 1 Introduction
• Why dress matters
• Body Dressing Work
• Disability, embodiment, and ambivalent belonging
• Methodological positioning: Autoethnography, memory, visual material
• Autoethnography, embodied labor, and ordinary endurance
• Memory
• Visual material, memory, and dressing labor
• How the book unfolds
• 2 The rise of the “American Look”
• New York sportswear: Movement and modernity
• Historic development of American aesthetic and style
• Ready-to-wear apparel production
• Leisure time and the rise of sportswear
• Sportswear
• Early popular depictions of sportswear
• Defining fashionability
• Claire McCardell
• Depression-era experiences shaping the American Look
• The American Look: A style imbued with nostalgia and patriotism
• The American Look through the Second World War
• Media influence
• The legacy of the American Look
• 3 Growth of the American suburbs: The roots of middle-class aspirational culture and style
• Introduction
• Suburbia’s regime of place
• The birth of the middle-class suburb
• King car: The four-wheeled expansion of the middle-class suburb
• The suburb’s regime of place and “the American Dream”
• The G.I. Bill
• The G.I. Bill and me
• Postwar rise of the middle class
• 4 Wellesley, Massachusetts: Birth of the upper-middle-class suburb
• Introduction
• My family story: built on the promise suburbia offered
• Growth of highway networks to Boston’s suburbs
• Wellesley’s regime of place
• Wellesley’s regime of place and “the American Dream”
• Wellesley: National and international reputation
• A walk of twenty steps
• 5 Fashion and suburbia: Garment analysis
• Introduction
• Khaki Pants: From military front to college campus, to suburb
• History of khaki
• Chinos
• Khaki enters civilian style
• Workwear becomes casualwear
• 1970s
• 1980s–2000s
• “Dress down Fridays”: business casual and designer jeans
• Normcore: 1990–2000s
• The polo shirt
• History of the polo
• The rise of the branded polo shirt
• Shift dress
• The shift dress: Form, function, and feminine ideals
• 6 Fashion and suburbia: Style analysis
• Introduction
• Everyday smart casual
• The polo and khaki trousers
• The shift dress
• Smart casual sportswear goes to college; Ivy League and Seven Sisters styles
• Ivy style
• Seven Sisters style
• Preppy
• 7 Preppy style and the politics of fit: Disability, girlhood, and exclusion
• Introduction
• The brace
• Body dressing work: Testing fit, visibility, camouflage, and endurance
• A photo essay of my “brace style”
• Ambivalent social identity: camouflaging/performing
• Preppy, fit, and the ordinary labor of dressing
• Notes
• References
• Recommended projects, assignments, and discussion questions
• Projects / assignments
• 1. Photograph, memory, and body dressing work
• 2. Iconic garments and cultural memory
• 3. Interview-based study of dressing labor
• Discussion questions
• Index
• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Acknowledgments
• Abstract
• Author biography
• Table of Contents
• Learning objectives
• 1 Introduction
  • Why dress matters
  • Body Dressing Work
  • Disability, embodiment, and ambivalent belonging
  • Methodological positioning: Autoethnography, memory, visual material
  • Autoethnography, embodied labor, and ordinary endurance
  • Memory
  • Visual material, memory, and dressing labor
  • How the book unfolds
• 2 The rise of the “American Look”
  • New York sportswear: Movement and modernity
  • Historic development of American aesthetic and style
  • Ready-to-wear apparel production
  • Leisure time and the rise of sportswear
  • Sportswear
  • Early popular depictions of sportswear
  • Defining fashionability
  • Claire McCardell
  • Depression-era experiences shaping the American Look
  • The American Look: A style imbued with nostalgia and patriotism
  • The American Look through the Second World War
  • Media influence
  • The legacy of the American Look
• 3 Growth of the American suburbs: The roots of middle-class aspirational culture and style
  • Introduction
  • Suburbia’s regime of place
  • The birth of the middle-class suburb
  • King car: The four-wheeled expansion of the middle-class suburb
  • The suburb’s regime of place and “the American Dream”
  • The G.I. Bill
  • The G.I. Bill and me
  • Postwar rise of the middle class
• 4 Wellesley, Massachusetts: Birth of the upper-middle-class suburb
  • Introduction
  • My family story: built on the promise suburbia offered
  • Growth of highway networks to Boston’s suburbs
  • Wellesley’s regime of place
  • Wellesley’s regime of place and “the American Dream”
  • Wellesley: National and international reputation
  • A walk of twenty steps
• 5 Fashion and suburbia: Garment analysis
  • Introduction
  • Khaki Pants: From military front to college campus, to suburb
  • History of khaki
  • Chinos
  • Khaki enters civilian style
  • Workwear becomes casualwear
  • 1970s
  • 1980s–2000s
    • “Dress down Fridays”: business casual and designer jeans
  • Normcore: 1990–2000s
  • The polo shirt
    • History of the polo
  • The rise of the branded polo shirt
  • Shift dress
  • The shift dress: Form, function, and feminine ideals
• 6 Fashion and suburbia: Style analysis
  • Introduction
  • Everyday smart casual
  • The polo and khaki trousers
  • The shift dress
  • Smart casual sportswear goes to college; Ivy League and Seven Sisters styles
  • Ivy style
  • Seven Sisters style
  • Preppy
• 7 Preppy style and the politics of fit: Disability, girlhood, and exclusion
  • Introduction
  • The brace
  • Body dressing work: Testing fit, visibility, camouflage, and endurance
  • A photo essay of my “brace style”
  • Ambivalent social identity: camouflaging/performing
    • Preppy, fit, and the ordinary labor of dressing
• Notes
• References
• Recommended projects, assignments, and discussion questions
  • Projects / assignments
    • 1. Photograph, memory, and body dressing work
    • 2. Iconic garments and cultural memory
    • 3. Interview-based study of dressing labor
• Discussion questions
• Index

Elizabeth Kealy-Morris, PhD, originally from the USA, is Senior Lecturer and Researcher in Fashion Communication at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK.