Kimono: Fashioning Culture

Dalby may be best known as the American anthropologist who spent a year as a geisha in Japan, an experience she wrote about in her 1983 book Geisha . This paper reprint of a 1993 original actually grew out of a chapter in Geisha and explores the history and cultural meanings embedded in the national costume of Japan. Beautifully illustrated in b&w and some color, the work is part fashion history and part social analysis. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)