Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Search

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

2 results

  • 2 - The Migration Nexus

  • from Part I - Dressing Well
  • Karen Tranberg Hansen, Northwestern University, Illinois
  • Book:
    Dress Cultures in Zambia
    Published online:
    20 April 2023
    Print publication:
    27 April 2023, pp 21-39

  • Summary

    The social and cultural significance of dress practice and its changes is shaped by the way clothing was delivered and how it has entered people’s lives. Since the early days of the colonial encounter in what today is Zambia, imported textiles and clothing became far more than quotidian wear. Western-styled clothing became a centrepiece of consumption, a focal point of everyday life, which people localised in the process. Labour migration across the region made cities and towns into key spaces for work and consumption, enabling the development of both new clothing practices and the tailor’s craft. Men’s suits and women’s dresses were actively involved in these processes. Migrants spent a good part of their cash earnings on purchasing clothing for relatives and dependents.

    African men were eager to wear long trousers and suits and they went to great lengths to obtain them. As a result of new dress sensibilities, the repertoire of tailors expanded to include garments that required more skill and attention to individual client desire in the design of suits and elaborately styled dresses.

Dress Cultures in Zambia
  • Interwoven Histories, Global Exchanges, and Everyday Life
  • Karen Tranberg Hansen
  • Published online:
    20 April 2023
    Print publication:
    27 April 2023
  • Drawing on half-a-century of research in Zambia and regional scholarship, Karen Tranberg Hansen offers a vibrant history of changing dress practices from the late-colonial period to the present day. Exploring how the dressed body serves as the point of contact between personal, local, and global experiences, she argues that dress is just as central to political power as it is to personal style. Questioning the idea that the West led fashion trends elsewhere, Hansen demonstrates how local dress conventions appropriated western dress influences as Zambian and shows how Zambia contributed to global fashions, such as the colourful Chitenge fabric that spread across colonial trading networks. Brought to life with colour illustrations and personal anecdotes, this book spotlights dress not only as an important medium through which Zambian identities are negotiated, but also as a key reflector and driver of history.