The object of fashion : methodological approaches to the history of fashion

This essay considers the role of artefacts in the historical study of dress and fashion and suggests the existence of three different approaches. The field of history of dress and costume has a long tradition going back to the nineteenth century. It adopts the methodologies of art history and considers artefacts as central to the analysis of different periods and themes. In the last few decades the emergence of fashion studies has been interpreted as a distancing from artefacts. It is here claimed that fashion studies brought theoretical rigour and embraced a deductive methodology of analysis in which artefacts still played an important function. The final part of this essay introduces the reader to what I call the material culture of fashion, a hybrid methodology borrowed from anthropology and archeology in which the object is central in the study of social, cultural and economic practices that are time specific. It shows in particular the challenges and paybacks of such an approach

Basics Fashion Design 08: Styling

Basics Fashion Design 08: Styling is the first comprehensive illustrated text book on fashion styling. The publication covers: a brief history of the origins of fashion styling, key stylists past and present, aspects of the job, essential research, a description of the sectors within styling, preparation and production of a shoot, and the presentation of fashion online within retail, fashion shows and blogs. Writing is supported by case studies by both graduates and practitioners

Madame Gres – Goddess of Drape: Review of ‘Madame Gres: Couture at Work’, Musee Bourdelle, Paris 25th March – 28th August 2011

With the revived importance attached to object based research for fashion scholars and its obvious significance to fashion designers, the Madame Gres retrospective at the Musee Bourdelle in Paris, promoted an ideal opportunity to analyse her work in close detail. As fashion historian Valerie Steele (1998) commented; “Object based research provides unique insights into the historic and aesthetic development of fashion” (p.27). It allows the researcher to analyse the history, material, construction, design, and function of garments. This can be achieved through touching, feeling and by trying clothes on. The fashion scholar can gain an understanding about a garments cultural significance and its impact on fashion design and technology. The designer or pattern cutter can be inspired by the design and construction of the garment, its fabrication, colour and cut

Reversibility in Massive Concurrent Systems

Reversing a (forward) computation history means undoing the history. In concurrent systems, undoing the history is not performed in a deterministic way but in a causally consistent fashion, where states that are reached during a backward computation are states that could have been reached during the computation history by just performing independent actions in a different order.Comment: Presented at MeCBIC 201

Editorial in "Fashion Practice: Design, Creative Process and the Fashion Industry"

The landscape of research in fashion has blossomed over the last decades. A marked increase in academic debate and a burgeoning number of publications have begun to map the diversity, complexity, and breadth of fashion as simultaneously a major industry and a cultural medium, often dismissed as superficial and “merely” commerce. Fashion is by its complex nature multidisciplinary, comprising: design in both two and three dimensions, textile development, old and new technologies, craftsmanship and artisan skills, business and production, marketing, promotion and consumption, global economics, material and visual culture, history, social anthropology, and so on

Sources for Fashion History

Review of: Peter McNeil, Fashion: Critical and Primary Sources, Berg, Oxford, 2009. This review discusses the intended function of the publication of this massive four volume fashion history/fashion studies primary source material. This travels from the late medieval period to today in terms of its analysis of dress in its cultural and historical place. Whilst praising the breadth and alert choice of selected texts and authors, the review regrets that more attention was not paid to material culture approaches to the study of dress, past and present

Fashion, History, Museums

The last decade has seen the growing popularity and visibility of fashion as a cultural product, including its growing presence in museum exhibitions. This book explores the history of fashion curating and exhibitions, highlighting the continuity of past and present curatorial practices. Comparing and contrasting exhibitions from different museums and decades – from the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1900 to the Alexander McQueen Savage Beauty show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2011 – it makes connections between museum fashion and the wider fashion industry. By critically analyzing trends in fashion exhibition practice over the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, Julia Petrov defines and describes the varied representations of historical fashion within British and North American museum exhibitions

UWAGI DOTYCZĄCE KOSTIUMOLOGII I HISTORII MODY JAKO DYSCYPLIN NAUKOWYCH W POLSCE

The author discusses the problem of studying the clothes and fashion history in contemporary Polish science. To assess the role, signifi cance and potential of these studies, the author analyzes selected examples from their history. In addition, the text analyzes the diff erence between the history of clothing and the history of fashion. He concludes indicating the possibilities of the development of these disciplines.The author discusses the problem of studying the clothes and fashion history in contemporary Polish science. To assess the role, signifi cance and potential of these studies, the author analyzes selected examples from their history. In addition, the text analyzes the diff erence between the history of clothing and the history of fashion. He concludes indicating the possibilities of the development of these disciplines