Fashion is a phenomenon that has always defined the body and its understanding in society. Sizing, pattern making and representation of bodies in fashion media are only few of the fashion industry’s practices that have informed the formation of our own identity. While the perception of our bodies is affected by the construction of beauty ideals and the disciplinization of bodies, ‘dressed bodies’ are also tools affecting the ways in which the social world and power relations are organised and structured. This course explores these cultural relationships, investigating it from different theoretical perspective: from gender and queer studies to postcolonial and affect theory. Students will explore how bodies are constructed in fashion, studying different representations and ideals of beauty, design practices, forms of discrimination and empowerment of bodies in image-making during the XX and XXI century. By looking at different fashion media, this course also explores how ideals of body (normative and non-normative) and body practices (dieting, plastic surgery for example) are culturally constructed, specifically investigating how fashion images have informed ideals of beauty, gender, race and size in our society.