Joseph "Joe" Henry Hancock, II is an international authority in fashion branding as a form of storytelling. He is known internationally for his scholarship on cargo pants. He started in academia after 20 years in the retailing industry, having been a leader for such legendary companies as The Gap, L. Brands, and Target Corporation. His work has included the ideologies of diversity, equity, and inclusion since the writing of his master's thesis in 1997. Social justice is second nature to him as the only gay child of a single parent who was victimized by the bullying of the 1970s and 1980s. He has consistently advocated for those marginalized and social outcasts. For the past 19 years, he has been his mother's in-home provider and caregiver, who suffered from a stroke in 2004. During his tenure at Drexel University, Dr. Hancock has conducted over five international conferences and spearheaded programming for the Two-Spirit communities, GLBTQIA communities, Black communities, Asian communities, and others. His most recent workshops includes Drag Culture and its impact on material and consumer cultural identities.
He has written the books Brand/Story: Ralph, Vera, Johnny, Billy and Other Adventures in Fashion Branding (2009), Brand/Story: Explorations and Cases in Fashion Branding (2016, both through Fairchild) and edited the books Fashion in Popular Culture: Literature, Media & Contemporary Studies (2013), Global Fashion Brands: Style, Luxury & History (2014), Cotton: Companies, Fashion & The Fabric of Our Lives (2016), and Transglobal Fashion Narratives: Clothing Communication, Style Statements, and Brand Storytelling (2018) all with Intellect Books UK. In 2019, he co-edited the collection The Fashion Business Reader (2019, Bloomsbury); the first comprehensive reader reinforced the impact of the arts and humanities in understanding the business side of fashion. Dr. Hancock's works on branding and storytelling have appeared in such publications as The Brand Challenge, edited by Kartikeya Kompella (Kogan Page 2016), and Strategic Design Thinking, edited by Natalie Nixon (Bloomsbury, 2015) and The Luxury Economy and Intellectual Property: Critical Reflections edited by Haochen Sun, Barton Beebe, and Madhavi Sunder (Oxford Press, 2015). For the past 11 years, Dr. Hancock has been the Principal Editor of the peer-reviewed journal Fashion, Style, and Popular Culture (Intellect Publishers). He has just published the third edition of his book Fashion Brand Stories (2022) and is working on Marketing Fashion to be released in 2025, both published by Bloomsbury.
In leadership, he is the former Executive Director for Events for the Popular Culture/American Culture Associations (PCA/ACA, 2010-2015) and was their 2009 recipient of the Felicia F. Campbell Award for Area Chairs in addition to being given two PCA/ACA President Awards in 2013 and 2018. He was awarded Drexel University’s Steinbright Cooperative Career Center's Faculty of the Year in 2008. In 2011 he received the 2011 Stanley J. Gwiazda Professorship Award from the Goodwin College of Professional Studies for his ability to teach and engage adult students. He was awarded the 2018-2019 Honors College Faculty of the Year and was their Faculty Fellow that same year! Dr. Hancock has received over $180,000 in grants, fellowships, awards, and corporate gifts for Drexel University. He has been the invited speaker, lectured, and taught courses at Denison University, Thomas Jefferson University, Sacred Heart University, Albright College, Cornell University, University of Delaware, Oregon State University, The Ohio State University, Ohio University, the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia, Stockholm University Sweden, and London College of Fashion.
PhD, Consumer Sciences, Ohio State University
MS, Apparel Merchandising, Indiana University
BS, Apparel Merchandising, Indiana University
Hancock, Joseph H., II, “Cargo Pants: The Transnational Rise of the Garment That Started a Fashion War,” In Meanings of Dress, 5th Edition, 2024.
Hancock II, Joseph H., Marketing Fashion: A Transglobal Perspective, Fairchild Books, In Contract 2025.
Single Authored Books, Edited Books, and Special Issues of Journals
Hancock II, Joseph H., and Vicki Karaminas (eds), Journal of Bodies, Sexualities and Masculinities, Special Issue Fashion and Style, 2023
Sauro, Clare and Joseph H. Hancock, II (eds), Journal of American Culture, Special Issue on Fashion, Volume 46, Issue 1, 2023
Hancock, Joseph H., II, Fashion Branding Stories 3rd Edition, Bloomsbury Visual Arts, UK, October 2022.
Hancock, Joseph H., II and Anne Peirson-Smith (eds) Business Fashion Reader, Bloomsbury, UK, August 2019.
Peirson-Smith, Anne, and Joseph H. Hancock, II (eds), Transglobal Fashion Narratives, Intellect, UK, 2018.
Hancock, Joseph H., II, Jessica Strubel, Anne Peirson-Smith and Keith Nishida (eds) “Fashion Issue”, Journal of Popular Culture, 50.6, 2017.
Journal Articles and Book Chapters
Hancock, Joseph H., II, “Happy 10th Anniversary, FSPC,” Fashion, Style, & Popular Culture, Volume 10, Number 1, pp. 3-7, 2023.
Sauro, Clare and Joseph H. Hancock, II (eds), Journal of American Culture, “Introduction: Fashion and American Culture,” Volume 46, Issue 1, pp. 3-4, 2023.
Sauro, Clare and Joseph H. Hancock, II, “Jeans and their Fashionable Meanings: Revisiting Beverly Gordon's Cultural Conceptual Framework, Journal of American Culture,, Volume 46, Issue 1, pp. 55-67, 2023
Peirson-Smith, Anne, and Joseph H. Hancock, II, “The A&F Brand/Story,” in Linda Welters and Abby Lillethun (Eds) The Fashion Reader Third Edition, London: Bloomsbury, pp. 411-16, 2022
Hancock, Joseph H., II, “Merchandising Technologies: It’s still all about people; thank goodness,” Fashion, Style & Popular Culture, Volume 9, Number 4, pp. 433-435, 2022.
Hancock, Joseph H., II, “My Fabulous Gay Lifestyle: Love is Love,” Fashion, Style & Popular Culture, Volume 9, Number 3, pp. 251-257, 2022.
Hancock, Joseph H., II, “Welcome, 2022: A Time to Celebrate?” Fashion, Style & Popular Culture, Volume 9, Number 1-2, pp. 3-7, 2022.
Hancock, Joseph H., II, “Volume 8 was Stellar,” Fashion, Style & Popular Culture, Volume 8, Number 4, pp. 347-49, 2021.
Hancock, Joseph H., II, “Thanks to Ali Khan and Congratulations to Dr. Ann Paulins,” Fashion, Style & Popular Culture, Volume 8, Numbers 2-3, pp. 151-52, 2021.
Joseph H. Hancock, II is a known scholar in the area of fashion branding and its function of storytelling. His research explores mass fashion and lifestyle merchandising using three intersecting themes: identity, cross-cultural encounters and everyday practices. These themes are the core of fashion and dress: as an everyday individual and social project, and as a system in which people and clothing globally circulate. The performance of identity, social practices such as shopping, and the movement of commodities that create and transfer cultural meanings.
Contracted Works in Process
Hancock II, Joseph H. Marketing Fashion: A Transglobal Perspective, Fairchild Books, 2025
Principal Editor, Fashion, Style & Popular Culture (Intellect Books, Bristol, UK)
Fashion, Style & Popular Culture is a double-blind reviewed academic journal specifically dedicated to the area of fashion scholarship and its interfacings with popular culture. It was established to provide an interdisciplinary environment for fashion academics and practitioners to publish innovative scholarship in all aspects of fashion and popular culture relating to design, textiles, production, promotion, consumption and appearance-related products and services. Articles related to history, manufacturing, aesthetics, sourcing, marketing, branding, merchandising, retailing, technology, psychological/sociological aspects of dress, style, body image, and cultural identities, as well as purchasing, shopping, and the ways and means consumers construct identity are acceptable works.
Awards
June 2023, Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design Rankin Scholar Recipient, Dr. Vicki Karaminas, Queer Style
Dr. Hancock orchestrates conferences in conjunction with his journal Fashion, Style & Popular Culture and The Westphal College. The website can be found here: https://drexel.edu/fashion-style/
Fashion, Style & Global Culture Conference, May 16-18th, 2019
Orchestrated Symposium for Drexel’s Pennoni Honors College for attendees and guests.
Fashion, Style & Media Conference, October 12-14th, 2017
Orchestrated Symposium for Drexel’s Design Department for attendees and guests
In the Media
KCBS Radio San Francisco, August 30, 2023, “The crop top is back in men's fashion, changing norms and paying homage to the 80s,”https://omny.fm/shows/kcbsam-on-demand/the-crop-top-is-back-in-mens-fashion-challenging-n
USA Today, August 29, 2023, “Men Are Showing Their Stomachs in Crop Tops. Why Some May Shy Away from the Trend,” https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2023/08/29/crop-tops-men-body-dysmorphia/70597894007/
Vanity Fair, June 8, 2023, “Vanderpump Rules: There’s Something About Her Scandoval Merch,”
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023/06/vanderpump-rules-scandoval-merch
Broad Street Review, March 2023, “GREAT BRANDING = QUALITY + MYTHOLOGY, Fashion Brand Stories, by Joseph H. Hancock II, review by Pamela J. Forsythe, https://www.broadstreetreview.com/reviews/fashion-brand-stories-by-joseph-h-hancock-ii
Fashion Talk, January 20 & 23, 2023 “In Conversation with Dr. Joseph Henry Hancock II on Fashion Brand Stories
https://fashiontalk.substack.com/p/in-conversation
Invited Talks & Guest Speaking
Intellect Publishers Editors Workshop, Guest Speaker on Running a Top Tier Journal, June 15, 2023
Drexel University’s Inaugural LGBTQIA Symposium Guest Speaker “Lessons from Teaching Can Be a Real Drag,”
June 1, 2023
Drexel University Department of Communication, PhD Student Publication Workshop, April 17, 2023
Thomas Jefferson University, March 6, 2023, “Fashion Brand Stories Book Launch”
Drexel University Graduate College, February 23, 2023, “Fashion Consumer Brands as DEI”