ABSTRACT
One of the most distinctive features of visual culture during postmodern times is the disorganization and heteroglossia of dress codes and styles. Within the field of cultural studies these and related propositions are illustrated memorably in Dick Hebdige's pioneering book, Subculture: The Meaning of Style, which, it will be recalled, charts the differing styles during the 1960s and '70s of teddy boys, mods, skinheads, Rastas, and especially punks in relation to both the historical conjuncture of mainstream hegemonic culture and the contentious constellation of various male subcultural groups in England. There is little surprise in affirming that clothing and fashion are invariably connected with power, money, beauty, sexuality, and identity. Moreover, fashions substances, particularly fabric, texture, design, color, and drape, highlight its materiality, which, significantly, opens onto long intertwined histories of costuming and textile crafting. Cultural critics often reveal vexed relations to women's fashion magazines, which, taken together, constitute an influential forcefield in contemporary visual culture.
