Cinderellas in Breeches

Selvedge is a specialist textiles magazine with an international circulation. An article which documents the biography of a pair of breeches issued as part of the uniform of the Women’s Land Army during the Second World War. It considers the history of corduroy and its decline as a UK textiles industry, garment styling, manufacture and distribution to the land girls. How, where and when they were worn and the postwar biographies of breeches as ‘authentic’ uniform for living history or as stylish vintage fashion

Ravishing: The Rose in Fashion

An exploration of how the rose—the most ravishingly beautiful and symbolic of flowers—has inspired fashion over hundreds of years. The Rose in Fashion: Ravishing is a fascinating exploration of how the rose has inspired the way we look, dress, feel, and fantasize. It foregrounds innovative, refined, and challenging fashion design from elite 18th-century woven silks to the latest gender-neutral catwalk trends and Alexander McQueen rose dresses. Drawing upon fashion clothing, everyday dress, millinery, fine jewelry, perfume, and artificial and fresh roses, multiple expert contributors make reference to love, beauty, sex, sin, gendered identities, rites of passage, transgression, degradation, and death. This sumptuously illustrated book also includes a contribution and stunning images of roses by visionary photographer Nick Knight. Wild yet cultivated, savage yet delicate, this flower has remained an enduring symbol perhaps due to its versatility and the dichotomies it represents. Exhibition catalogue to accompany the exhibition, Ravishing: The Rose in Fashion at Fashion Institute of Technology, New York

Objects of a Passion

This lecture and publication will explore how dress – in its material form – inspires and informs my writing, curatorial and teaching practices and how these entwine. The objects of my passion for the period 2014 to 2018 comprise the dress collection, British fashion, haute couture 1850-1919, mannequins, worn and perished dres

A Critical Analysis of Practices of Collecting Fashionable Dress

This article analyzes various practices of collecting fashionable dress. The first section comprises a critical analysis of terminologies and theories that explore definitions of a collected object, a collection and some specificities of collecting fashionable dress. There follows a series of themes arranged in a biographical sequence of a collector’s lifetime and that of a collection. These include explorations of when in a person’s life they collect fashion and why; classifications and hierarchies of collectors and collected objects; collecting as an extension of the self; gendered debates; the spaces of collecting; shifted and dispersed collections; whether a collection can be completed in a lifetime; and bequests and legacy. The methodology draws upon evidence taken from interviews, memoirs, museum publications and auction catalogs, which are tested against the ideas of cultural critics and collections scholars. The emphasis is upon private collectors. This article was written for a special edition of Fashion Theory that focuses on collecting, edited by Amy de la Haye

Fashioning Flowers

Chapter in exhibition catalogue, Gabrielle Chanel: Fashion Manifesto. A landmark publication that highlights the principles and evolution of the timeless Chanel style, the careful crafting of her public image, and the many facets of her lasting legacy. Gabrielle Chanel devoted her long life to creating, perfecting and promoting a new form of elegance based on freedom of movement, a natural and casual attitude, a subtle chic far from extravagance, a timeless style for a new woman. This is his "fashion manifesto", an inescapable and more than ever relevant heritage that the Palais Galliera presents today. From the beginning of her career, in the early years of the 20th century and until the end of her life, Gabrielle Chanel rose up against the fashion imposed by her time. In her youth, Gabrielle Chanel reveals herself as a woman dandy, who goes from appropriation to the creation of clothing interpreting for women the comfort, functionality, sobriety and elegance of the male wardrobe. Through in-depth technical experimentation, reinterpreting the traditional tailor's craft while using highly supple fabrics such as jersey and tweed, she imposed her version of the suit and the little black dress in the 1910s. In the 1950s, they became symbols of a different kind of femininity on both sides of the Atlantic. Chanel developed its own recognizable and timeless style, which persists in the face of the ephemeral expressions that characterize fashion. Chanel's style lies in the principles of comfort and respect for the female anatomy, but also in the details and chic elegance of its proposals. Refusing superfluous adornment, Chanel always makes a fair and audacious use of colours, materials and techniques, favouring balance and a harmonious vision of the whole. To the sophisticated sobriety of her clothes, she contrasts the opulence of her jewellery - inspired in particular by ancient or distant civilizations - with the way she wears them in abundance. Her perfume N° 5 will be a milestone in the history of perfumery, from its creation in 1921. This iconic perfume became the invisible but essential accessory for the modern woman. Gabrielle Chanel became a legend during her lifetime, a legend that she herself wove and helped to develop throughout her career. As early as the 1930s, the French and international press echoed numerous biographical accounts that only served to accentuate the confusion deliberately maintained about her life and the fascination that her character already aroused. Since his death in 1971, numerous writings have attempted to shed light on the different facets of his history and personality. All these works have sought to unravel the mystery of his origins, the keys to his success, his exchanges with the artistic scene as well as his sentimental relationships, and more recently, his conduct during historical events and in particular during the Second World War. All this has contributed to a better understanding of the complex personality of "Coco" Chanel, while at the same time provoking debate and controversy. As a museum dedicated to fashion, we have chosen to focus the exhibition on the work of the seamstress, who became one of the most influential fashion designers of the 20th century. The exhibition Gabrielle Chanel, Manifeste de mode, the first retrospective dedicated to the designer organized in Paris, aims to analyze her professional career, the birth and evolution of her style, the characteristics of her work, her codes and her contribution to the history of fashion

Hardy Amies: A Dagenham Designer

This exhibition was created to explore the life and work of Sir (Edwin) Hardy Amies (1909-2003), the world famous London couturier and royal dressmaker. Amies grew up in Dagenham, living at Gale Street Farm and the nearby White House, which had formally been the farm house for the Valence Estate. Exhibits in clyde examples of elegant tailored couture, dresses designed for HM The Queen and ready-made tailored menswear for the high street store Hepworths. The exhibition has been co-curated by Create London Valence House Museum, with dress historian and curator Amy de la Haye. A booklet with text by Amy de la Haye also accompanies the exhibition

The House of Worth: Portrait of an Archive

Legendary British-born designer Charles Frederick Worth (1825-1895), with enormous talent for design and promotion, built his fashion house into an empire during the last quarter of the 19th century—the first busi­ness of its kind with global reach. His company, through his heirs, endured until 1952, when his great-grandson retired. Profusely illustrated, this astonishing book explores Worth’s success in the realm of haute couture after 1890. Hundreds of photographs selected from the V&A’s unique archive of more than 7,000 official house records capture the Worth style and offer valuable insights into the daily routine at Maison Worth in Paris. Images and text tell the intriguing story of these creations, providing historical context and describing Worth’s inter­national clientele of elegant women of wealth and power

The Handbook of Fashion Studies

Edited volume of new writing representing a comprehensive survey of major concepts and current research in fashion studies. Editorial Introduction by Sandy Black, Amy de la Haye, Agnès Rocamora, Regina Root and Helen Thomas. Amy de la Haye is editor of Section IV Fashion and Materiality including: Introduction: Amy de la Haye, London College of Fashion, University of the Arts, UK Chapter 12: Unpicking the Threads: Technology and investigative methodologies, Philip A. Sykas, Manchester School of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK Chapter 13: The Look: Looking at objects as subjects, Alexandra Palmer, Royal Ontario Museum, Canada Chapter 14: Anthropology and Materiality, Sarah Fee, Royal Ontario Museum, Canada Chapter 15: Immateriality, Robyn Healy, RMIT, Melbourne, Australi

A moda no MASP de Pietro Maria Bardi (1947-1987)

O objetivo deste artigo é evidenciar a centralidade das ações ligadas à moda e à formação da Seção de Costumes do MASP no projeto de museu e na concepção de arte de Pietro Maria Bardi no período 1947-1987, e como tais ações teriam sido relevantes para a instituição de uma visualidade e uma história para a moda nacional. Demonstra-se como a trajetória de P. M. Bardi na Itália, ou seja, sua atuação como galerista e comerciante de artes, jornalista, bem como seu contato com a ideologia e as ações do Regime Fascista no campo das artes e da moda, influenciou diretamente suas ações em relação ao design de moda. Essas ideias e experiências foram fundamentais para direcionar sua atuação no MASP e, em especial suas iniciativas na área do design. Nota-se ainda como a atuação de Bardi no campo do design de moda foi também influenciada pelas ideias propagadas pela Bauhaus e Le Corbusier, assim como por seu olhar estrangeiro, que acaba por levá-lo a recuperar, nas referentes iniciativas, as tradições e a cultura brasileiras, gerando uma produção que dialoga com o modernismo brasileiro, uma vez que usa a experiência internacional para valorizar o nacional