Fashion has become a fertile field of study for academics across disciplines, now that the rules, once tightly fixed, have been deconstructed. This volume brings together academics from various disciplines - philosophy, sociology, medicine, anthropology, psychology and psychiatry - to examine fashion's complex relationship with post-industrial societies. Herein the authors address, from the standpoint of their respective disciplines, what crucial functions fashion fulfils in the modern world, especially as it relates to the construction and deconstruction of the self.

This volume is the result of a conference held by the Social Trends Institute at which the authors presented original papers. The Social Trends Institute is a non-profit research centre that offers institutional and financial support to academics in all fields who research and explore emerging social trends and their effects on human communities. The Institute focuses its research on four main subject areas: family, bioethics, culture and lifestyles, and corporate governance.