The Archaeology of Fashion

Using inherited garments, how is the choice of clothing significant in the context of the wearer’s surroundings and culture? How does it communicate one’s self-identity as a first-generation American?

When we dress ourselves, we are visually narrating to the world how we wish to be seen. Therefore, styling is a form of storytelling. It provides a framework to express cultural connections and ethnic pride across place and time; the outfit tells a story. Author Nicole K. Rivas combines visual and material culture to investigate sartorial representations of self-identity from the perspective of first-generation Americans, using garments of the past through contemporary archaeological approaches.

Touching on themes of memory, upbringing, culture, and autonomy, this book is ideal for students of Fashion and Personal Style, Textiles, Art, Material Culture, Cultural Anthropology, Gender Studies, and History.

Nicole K. Rivas is a fashion and costume historian, archivist, and professor of Fashion Studies at St. John’s University, where she teaches in the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies minor program within the Department of Art and Design. Her research focuses on identity, autonomy, and material culture within fashion history. Her professional experience includes exhibition curation, archival work, and collaborations with fashion brands and cultural institutions. Through her interdisciplinary approach to fashion scholarship, Rivas emphasizes accessibility, preservation, and the cultural significance of dress and material objects across historical and contemporary contexts.