Introduction

The historiography of the Great War has been significantly renewed in recent years; yet, despite its crucial social, economic, and cultural importance, the role that fashion played in shaping wartime experiences and economies on an international scale between 1914 and 1918 has largely gone unaddressed. Fashion, Society, and the First World War fills this gap by offering a comprehensive analysis of the impact of the war on the ways that the fashion industry functioned in a global wartime economy, as well as on the ways that women and men negotiated this new world. With an international, thematic approach, and illustrated in full color throughout, this volume discusses the reconfiguration of the fashion industry, wartime style and production, and the reframing of selfhood, gender roles, and national identity through visual, print and material culture. Through analysis of archives, visual chronicles, press, and garments, and covering an impressive range of topics, from the feathered showgirl in Paris to the evolution of pilots' uniforms, these exciting essays show how fashion, even temporarily, encouraged the articulation of an identity, a society, and a nation. Fashion, Society, and the First World War provides an extensive overview by leading fashion historians on an industry in the midst of major transformation and is both an invaluable guide and starting point for all researchers, curators, and students interested in fashion history and the cultural history of the period

Fashion collections, collectors, and exhibitions in France, 1874–1900 : historical imagination, the spectacular past, and the practice of restoration

This article explores fashion collecting and dress exhibitions in nineteenth-century France. The first three exhibitions of historic dress in France, which occurred in 1874, 1892, and 1900, raised a host of questions for French dress historians, collectors, and curators: they debated how historical dress should be displayed, what kind of garments should be collected, and what role fashion had in the narrative of French history. This article explores the “historical turn” in dress history, which formalized the practice of using historical garments and accessories as sources for the writing and display of history. It also examines how the shift from industrial to decorative arts spurred an interest in fashion collecting. Finally, it argues that the spectacularization of fashion display between 1874 and 1900 had an impact on the garments themselves, as collectors and curators began to alter garments in order to display them within imaginative settings. Rather than condemning these restorations, this article proposes that we view them as forms of historical imagination. Keywords: historiography, exhibitions, collecting, nineteenth century, Franc