This book examines how the politics of dress has been incorporated in constructions of nationhood in both Asia and the Americas, and reveals how politicians and political regimes (including tribal, revolutionary, authoritarian, colonial, and democratic) manipulate sumptuary practices in order to create national identities, to legitimise hierarchies of power or to build personal political identities. In tackling these broad themes over two centuries, the editors and contributors grapple with gender politics; in particular, how men and women’s dress reflect their political and economic position in the nation-states. ? This collection of pioneering essays ? the first volume in the Sussex Library of Asian Studies ? explores the transnational nature of dress in a host of different locations and shows how changing dress codes have long been conversations between cultures. It brings the politics of dress into contemporary times and engages directly with the topical issues of dress legislation in the twenty-first century. Country case studies include: China, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Burma, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Native America, Latin America and Argentina.