Each essay in Producing Fashion is presented in full and has been selected from the original print edition. The essays show how economic institutions in Europe and North America laid the foundation for the global fashion system and sustained it commercially through the mechanisms of advertising, licensing, marketing, publishing, and retailing. The titles of the essays are: 1) "Rethinking Fashion"; 2) "Accessorizing, Italian Style"; 3) "Licensing Practices at Maison Christian Dior"; 4) "American Fashions for American Women"; 5) "California Casual"; 6) "Marlboro Men"; 7) "The Body and the Brand"; 8) "French Hairstyles and the Elusive Consumer"; 9) "Why the Old-Fashioned is in Fashion in American Houses".

This collection reveals how public and private institutions worked to shape fashion, style, and taste with varying degrees of success. Nine expert contributors draw on original research and fresh insight into the producers of fashion - advertising agents, architects, corporate executives, department stores, designers, editors, government officials, hairdressers, haute couturiers, and Web retailers - in thier bid for influence, acclaim, and shoppers' dollars. The book is published by the University of Pennsylvania Press.