Dress, Fashion, and National Identity in Puerto Rico

Reviews / Votes

A thorough and accessible volume highlighting the rich complexity of Puerto Rican identity and its expression through dress, costume, and fashion. The authors' keen understanding of how dress and fashion have become a tool for resistance, endurance, and celebration for Puerto Ricans on and off the island makes this a must-have volume for anyone interested in fashion studies or Latin American studies. -- Melissa Marra, The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, USA A landmark work-rigorous, accessible, and alive with the exuberance and political force of Puerto Rican dress, costume, and fashion. Through the careful recovery and analysis of dress histories, the authors offer a powerful example of decolonial fashion scholarship that challenges and expands how fashion and dress theory have been codified. Their intellectually veracious and sophisticated analysis, delivered with remarkable clarity, makes this book a gift to fashion scholars, students, and enthusiasts alike. -- Ben Barry, School of Fashion, Parsons School of Design, USA This ground-breaking book elucidates the impact of Puerto Rico and its diaspora on contemporary sartorial practices and unpacks the complexity of Puerto Rican identity. -- Tanya Melendez-Escalante, The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, USA Blanco F. and Vazquez-Lopez elegantly navigate the personal and the political, making a meaningful contribution to the growing scholarship on fashion and decoloniality. Through engaging and accessible prose, they explore the 'fluidity and ambiguity' of Puerto Rican dress in the face of centuries of colonization while also celebrating its beauty, joy, and exuberance. -- Lauren Downing Peters, Columbia College Chicago, USA In this timely yet long overdue material culture investigation, revelatory chapters interrogate examples of representational agency within diaspora, colonialism, nationalism, heritage, and liminal states of authority, as diverse and complex as the island itself. -- Michelle McVicker, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, USA Using a diverse range of examples from across Puerto Rican fashion, this book's engaging voice makes it clear that-from the Taino's gold to the pageant's rhinestones-Boricuas will shine. -- Hector Omar, Creative Director, HECTOROMAR, Puerto Rico Overall, Blanco and Vazquez-Lopez deliver a groundbreaking investigation of the interconnectedness of Puerto Rican dress and national identity across intertwined trajectories of conquest, migration, and cultural resilience. Dress, Fashion, and National Identity in Puerto Rico both enriches and expands global fashion scholarship while offering remarkable insights into the field. * Dress: The Journal of the Costume Society of America *