Man Appeal: Advertising, Modernism and Menswear

This book provides a much-needed evaluation of the history of men's fashion advertising in the first half of the twentieth century. Undoubtedly one of the most fecund and complex periods in the history of menswear promotion, the period saw vast sums of money spent on advertising men's clothing. As Jobling expertly shows, the erotic charge in evidence in the representation of the buff bodies in Calvin Klein's 80's campaigns had much earlier antecedents. Looking well beyond issues of representation to broader socio-economic contexts, Jobling addresses an exciting range of discourses relating to professionalization, modernity, mass-communication and marketing, display and consumer psychology.