Although globalization is often criticized for producing a low-quality sameness across the world, it can also promote hand-crafted fashions using distinctive materials, concludes UC Davis women and gender studies scholar Leslie Rabine.

She is the author of a new book, "The Global Circulation of African Fashion," which studies clothing designers and producers in Dakar, Senegal, the African fashion capital; jewelry makers in Kenya; and fashion consumers in the African and African American communities of Los Angeles.

"We think of 'globalization' as mass media, large electronic and capitalist networks," Rabine says. "But it is also about informal and invisible networks across the world."

Rabine found that small-scale designers and tailors from Africa are selling their handmade clothing and jewelry through what she calls "suitcase vendors," who travel internationally to sell their wares. The goods are purchased through an underground market operated in homes and churches.

Rabine, who has studied and critiqued couture fashion for the past 13 years, says the distinctive fashions of the past have mostly disappeared in Europe and the United States as design houses have been purchased by large corporations. In the goal to mass-produce cheaper clothing, materials and designs have been greatly simplified.

However, Rabine discovered that Senegali and Kenyan cultures continue to consider elaborate handmade fabric, clothing and jewelry as major forms of aesthetic expression.

In her study of consumers in Los Angeles, Rabine found women have been willing to spend more money for the fashions because they recognize the creative and aesthetic artistry that has gone into its production.