Crossing Gender Boundaries

'At the heart of this book is a desire to expose how gender binaries have defined self-presentation for centuries and the impact these practices have had in the development of the fashion industry in western-centric areas. The book also accounts for how we have challenged (or crossed) boundaries and how we must continue challenging, disrupting and transcending the identity oppression created by the strict social structures imposed on many of us in terms of gender identity. This is not the first time the field of fashion studies questions these binaries, but this volume is an excellent resource adding new material and new perspectives corresponding to the global and changing zeitgeist of gender identities. [...] While a more global perspective would be welcomed, this new collection is essential reading in fashion and gender – understood as the social and political understanding and construction of bodies as based on cultural norms and not on biological features. [...] The road to destabilize and transcend the long-established gender binary system is a long one. The essays in this reader relate some successful stories and outline possibilities for a future that may allow us to fully cross gender boundaries.'

-- José Blanco F., Fashion, Style & Popular Culture

'This collection of essays is timely and innovative, drawing on a range of theoretical and methodological frameworks to understand and show the role that fashion and dress have in crossing gender boundaries. [...] This edited collection is exemplary, not only in terms of its content, but also in terms of its form. Scholars thinking about putting together an edited collection may look toward Crossing Gender Boundaries as an example of an excellent edited collection. The essays work well together, but also work well in isolation. This is an impressive collection that recognizes the importance of diversity in the study of fashion, and I am confident that Crossing Gender Boundaries will spark new debates in the ongoing and important critical study of fashion, which is central to how many think about bodies, sexualities, and masculinities.'

-- Jonathan A. Allan, Journal of Bodies, Sexualities, and Masculinities

'This volume examine[s] the significance of dress and fashion for creating and transcending binary gender distinctions. The studies it comprises represent diverse case studies that explore how dress constructs gender as a situated, appearance- and performance-mediated bodily practice. The panoramic overview of historical and contemporary examples in which gender boundaries maintained or crossed through dress and fashion also guides the structure of this book. . . . [It] highlights how dress and gender are mutually constructive. As the Western concept of gender becomes challenged, redefined and reexamined, this timely volume examines gender- and dress-related issues, while highlighting how gender can be created, disrupted and transcended using fashion clothing, personal style and fashion accessories.'

-- Pablo Markin, Open Culture

'The chapters and sections flow very well together, and it is a credit to the editing skills of Reilly and Barry that each chapter is perfectly placed within the book. [...] Overall, the wide range of topics collated by Reilly and Barry gives an extremely interesting overview of both personal and public aspects of the relationship between gender and dress. Chapters range from personal accounts to theoretical and cover both well known and more niche, potentially less well known, designers and fashion trends. [...] Crossing Gender Boundaries is a book which will be attractive to those whose research and interests are in several different fields whether that be historical fashion, contemporary fashion, gender studies, or cultural studies. In fact, this book is such an enjoyable read and is readily accessible that it may even be of interest to the general reader.'

-- Jennifer Cameron, The Journal of Dress History

'[Crossing Gender Boundaries] augments the larger body of scholarship on the topic of gender and dress by adding a variety of study areas that are missing from the existing largely white, heteronormative European–American focused literature. [..] This volume is certainly a must-read for readers interested in exploring gender construction – and deconstruction – in fashion studies.'

-- Lauren Bradley, Critical Studies in Fashion & Be