The study of dress and adornment has never been more popular, and this substantial new volume, which is comprised of an editors’ introduction, twenty-five thematic chapters, bibliography and index, brings together twenty-two contributors with two principal aims: first, to map its growing influence on and within various branches of academia; and second, to highlight the work being done by current scholars in the field, within a chronological time-frame of about 1200 bce to ce 500.

The thematic chapters are divided into three sections, although the ambiguous section titles do require the editors’ explanation. Part A, ‘Methods’, groups four chapters on the intersection of dress with other academic disciplines: classical studies (Olsen), religious studies (Batten), anthropology (Hume) and sociology (Graybill). The latter three all overlap to some degree, with their discussions of veiling and agency, and indeed the dividing line between cultural anthropology and sociology is a fine one. Hume's contribution stands out here for its accessible overview of anthropological approaches, key themes and recent scholarship.

Part B, ‘Materials’ (an ambiguous term in a book about dress), groups seven chapters posited as ‘examinations of the building blocks of ancient dress, as opposed to the social construction of appearance’ (p. 3). This comprises depictions of dress in sculpture (Davies), epigraphic evidence for Greek textile production and use (Gawlinski), colours and dyes (Brøns), Roman jewellery and social identity (Ward), textile remains from Roman Egypt (Jørgensen), depiction of clothing in painting and mosaics from the Bay of Naples (Hughes) and dress in Roman mummy portraits (Corcoran). This is a very impressive series of chapters, introducing the reader to a wide range of source materials and perspectives. Gawlinski and Jørgensen, especially, have achieved that rare feat of presenting and explaining highly technical or specialised source materials in such a way as to make their chapters suitable for any university reading list.

Less persuasive is the editors’ suggestion that this section does not concern social construction. Many of these chapters not only describe the physical attributes of dress but discuss its social significance. Ward's chapter on Roman jewellery, which she argues can be used as evidence for the wearer's personal identity, or Corcoran's (significantly subtitled ‘Aspects of self-presentation’) on mummy portraits are a clear case in point. The division of this section from that which follows it does not seem especially meaningful on closer inspection.

Part C, ‘Meanings’, comprises fourteen chapters on dress with various social historical contexts, chronologically arranged and based on a range of source materials. It comprises two chapters by Llewellyn-Jones on ceremonial dress in Achaemenid Persia, and hairstyles in the Near East and Greece, the wearing and removal of shoes in Ancient Greece (Blundell), Roman ritual dress (Olson), the painted figure of Andromeda in the House of the Dioscuri (McFerrin), crowns in Roman culture (Gallia), the distinctiveness (or not) of Jewish dress (Schwartz), depictions of Mary Magdalen (Taylor), the transformative symbolism of dress in Christian texts (Peters), the regulation of female dress in 1 Peter (Morrison-Atkins), nakedness in the Book of Revelation (Maier), the literal and symbolic association of dirty clothes in early Christianity (Batten), the provision of clothing to married Jewish women described in Tannaitic texts (Labovitz) and methodological challenges in using the Talmud to study Jewish dress (Turner).

Olson's chapter on Roman ritual dressing would make a very fine accompaniment to any course on Roman religion, and will be especially useful to students of Roman figurative sculpture. Among these chapters are topics which, on the face of it, appear slightly outside what we might consider ‘dress’, but which fully deserve their place in the volume: Blundell and Gallia's chapters (on shoes and crowns respectively) are both excellent examples of the rewards of looking closely at ‘accessories’, Schwartz and Batten's chapters highlight the importance, not of what one wears but how one wears it, while Maier rightly advocates the inclusion of nakedness as a culturally potent ‘uniform’ in its own right. Only Llewellyn-Jones’s second contribution seemed slightly out of place among the more focused studies of this section. To consider the social significance of hair styles across 600 years of history, from different cultures, with both fictional and historical subjects, male and female, was perhaps ambitious in the space allotted, but it does suggest the potential of a much longer study. Its own volume even.

There is great diversity in material here, but the editors have done an excellent job in corralling the contributions into a harmonious whole with a broadly chronological framework and judicious formatting which makes the volume easy to navigate and a pleasure to read. The apparent dominance of the early Christian and Jewish material in part C would have been offset had not the seven Greek and Roman chapters been channelled off into part B. But gripes about the internal division of the volume aside, this really is an excellent, exciting volume, which offers both helpful overviews and up-to-date research within dress studies and is certain to be of use to both researchers and students. I learned a great deal and was encouraged to look at familiar material in new ways. I found myself using it in my own research immediately.