The Culture of Fashion. A New History of Fashionable Dress (Studies in Design)
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.32 (689 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0719041252 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 244 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-09-16 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Some weaker aspects are the author's prose style, which can be inelegant, and the uneven picture research. When it comes to this century's fashions, the book's English bias also proves problematic. The effect is akin to watching one of those time-lapse sequences of flowers blooming, as hemlines rise and fall, corsets squash and squeeze, flounces come and go and colors grow florid and fade while listening to a learned commentary on the social, political and cultural significance of this seemingly arbitrary activity. From Publishers Weekly English design and fashion historian Breward constructs an informative history of Western European fashion that draws equally on established scholarship (based primarily on formal developments) and more recent critical theories. Sta
It provides a guide to the changes in style and taste, and challenges existing fashion histories, showing that clothes have always played a pivotal role in defining a sense of identity and society, especially when concerned with sexual and body politics. This illustrated survey of 600 years of fashion investigates its cultural and social meanings from medieval Europe to 20th-century America. It discusses: andrognous dressing; body piercing; fabrics, clothing and the rise of city life; dress, and the changing shape of the human body; controversies surrounding trousers and leg wear for both men and women; exposure of flesh; fashion and social status; and the dissemination of fashion through travel, film, magazines and catwalk shows.. With a chronological structure, each chapter focuses on both male and female fashion of a specific period, covering its fascinating developments
Alicia said The Best Book I've found on this subject. If you're interested in fashion, fashion history, design history, pretty pictures of clothes, and/or how commerce and social values affect style, you must get this book.