Books & ideas

Algorithms and the female silhouette

Hélène Bourdeloie & Solenne Carof — 2026-02-17T06:30:00Z

The female silhouette – understood as the body's visible form and socially perceived appearance – has long been shaped by social norms. In the age of social media, these norms are intensifying, prompting, in response, the rise of so-called “body-positive” movements.

Where do our clothes go?

Leslie Belton-Chevallier — 2026-01-13T06:30:00Z

The international and industrialized market for used or secondhand clothes—known in French as “fripes” - is not a genuine alternative to “fast fashion”. Rather, it preserves, pursues, and reproduces economically, socially, and symbolically the characteristics of the market for new clothes.

A Compendium on Consumption

Hubert Bonin — 2019-12-12T08:00:00Z

Mingling all kinds of historical approaches—economic, social, entrepreneurial and societal mentality—J.-C. Daumas dedicates a fresco to the immaterial perception of consumer goods.

The Afro: More Than a Hairstyle

Ary Gordien — 2019-09-19T07:00:00Z

Recent contentious comments on social media in France show that the hair of Afro-descendants is still stigmatized. How is one to explain this persistence of the stigmatization of curly hair? What are the underlying political stakes of these seemingly purely aesthetic considerations?

Veils in the Western World: a Thousand-Year History

Francesca Canadé Sautman — 2019-01-03T07:00:00Z

Men and women have been wearing veils for over a millennium in the West. Nicole Pellegrin shows that, far from always being a response to religious or moral precepts, head coverings also tell us about the aesthetic experiences of a Western world hungry for transparency.

Fashion, Soviet Style?

Julie Hessler — 2012-10-17T06:19:50Z

What about fashion in the Soviet Union, during Khrushchev's partial opening to the West? This question frames Larissa Zakharova's impressive new study, which uses clothing and fashion as a window onto wider economic, social, cultural, and political processes. Above all, Zakharova captures the growing rift between the methods and promises of the socialist economy and the increasingly Westernized consciousness of Soviet consumers.