Introduction : Hollywood stories ; The art of self-invention ; The visual world ; Faux identity ; Self-fashioning ; The popularity of disguise ; Love for sale ; Life imitates art ; The following chapters -- Part I. Self-invention : The impostor, trickster and spy : Martin Guerre ; Agnes ; Anthony Blunt as Victor Maskell ; Appearances matter ; Everyone lies -- Manners : The welcome guest ; Rules of the game ; History of manners ; Antique cool ; Deception and invention ; The modern subject ; On being calculating ; The science of the self ; Society as surface ; Playing the game -- Part II. Looking good : Identity : Status symbols ; Looking good ; Coded identity ; Finding the subject ; Self as surplus ; The irresistible allure of identity -- Advertising : The advertising industry ; The unnatural world ; The afterglow of advertising ; Subjectivity on sale ; Searching for the self ; Lives gone wrong ; Looking -- Fashion : The eye of the beholder ; The fashioned self ; The mind's eye ; Being conspicuous ; The depths of fashion ; The ethics of appearances -- Afterword : Visual culture ; Self-invention.
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