Dress Cultures in Zambia

Karen Tranberg Hansen is Professor Emerita at Northwestern University. Her research focuses on the informal economy, clothing, and consumption. Her previous publications include Distant Companions: Servants and Employers in Zambia, 1900–1985 (1989), African Encounters with Domesticity (1992), Keeping House in Lusaka (1997) and Salaula: The World of Secondhand Clothing and Zambia (2000), which was awarded the Anthony Leeds Prize in Urban Anthropology in 2001, and the Society of Economic Anthropology Book Award in 2003. She is the recipient of several book prizes and awards including the Conrad M. Arensberg Award from the Society for the Anthropology of Work in 1997.

• List of Figures; Acknowledgments; Prologue: the global world of dress in Zambia; 1. Dress practice as history; Part I. Dressing Well: 2. The migration nexus; 3. Dressing for freedom: snapshot 1. The national fabric; Part II. Dress and Undress: 4. Dress, undress, body, and nation; 5. Miniskirts and dangerous dress practice: snapshot 2. Chitenge; 6. The dramaturgy of body politics: snapshot 3. Accessories; Part III. Fashionable Transformations: Chapter 7. Youth and urban cultures of consumption: snapshot 4. Salaula; Chapter 8. Fashioning demonstrative displays:snapshot 5. 'Chinese clothes'; Chapter 9. Dressing Zambian: snapshot 6. A digital fitting room; Conclusion; References; Index.

'National histories and cultures of fashion are entwined with global flows of goods and ideas as Hansen takes the reader deep into the intimate lives, dynamic styles, and evolving dress patterns of Zambians, from the power dressing practices of presidents to shoppers rummaging for new looks in second-hand markets.' Andrew Brooks, King's College London