Japanese Fashion: A Cultural History by Toby Slade

Abstract

Dr. Toby Slade is Australian-trained, a Japanese speaker, and a lecturer in Tokyo where he teaches cultural theory. In some ways his career exemplifies the cross-disciplinary nature of fashion studies and its audiences today. Trained at the University of Sydney, he was influenced by the lecture series of Dr. Michael Carter, the anthropologically inclined rhinkeJ; and the innovative scholarship of Professor John Clark, who twenty··five years ago was advocating in his classes and writings that we study Shanghai art-deco men's tie design in its own right as much as Nihol1ga paiming. Slade has now published a monograph, based on his doctoral studies. This ambitious project negotiates theoretical specula_ tion and empiricist observation, as well as references to history, litera_ ture, art, and politics, in a wholly convincing manner. Slade sets himself very ambitious targets inja/Janese Fashion: A Cult.ural History, an analytical survey of a whole clothing culture, which he successfully meets.