Overview

A Cultural History of Dress and Fashion presents an authoritative survey from ancient times to the present. This set of six volumes covers over 2,500 years of dress and fashion. Volume 1: Antiquity (500BCE-800AD), edited by Mary Harlow Volume 2: The Medieval Age (800-1450), edited by Sarah-Grace Heller Volume 3: The Renaissance (1450-1650), edited by Elizabeth Currie Volume 4: The Age of Enlightenment (1650-1800), edited by Peter McNeil Volume 5: The Age of Empire (1800-1920), edited by Denise Amy Baxter Volume 6: The Modern Age (1920-2000+), edited by Alexandra Palmer Each volume discusses the same key themes in its chapters: 1. Textiles 2. Production and Distribution 3. The Body 4. Belief 5. Gender and Sexuality 6. Status 7. Ethnicity 8. Visual Representations 9. Literary Representations This structure means readers can either have a broad overview of a period by reading a volume or follow a theme through history by reading the relevant chapter in each volume. Superbly illustrated, the full six volume set combines to present the most authoritative and comprehensive survey available on dress and fashion through history.

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9781472557490

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Reviews

Covering this amount of ground is ambitious, but the effort is largely successful ... [The] diversity of voices and approaches strengthens the discussion. One finds intriguing, surprising, and thought-provoking essays covering many cultural layers of dress history. * CHOICE * This is a sumptuous series, as rich in ideas as it is in its descriptions of silks and satins, cashmeres and furs. * Times Literary Supplement * This six volume reappraisal of fashion history provides readers with essays by established scholars and newcomers to the discipline from America, Australasia and Europe; their combined expertise demonstrates that studying dress and fashion is essential to the understanding of history and material culture from antiquity to the modern era. -- Valerie Cumming, Editor of Costume: The Journal of the Costume Society A Cultural History of Dress and Fashion is a valuable addition to the expanding literature on the place of clothing in the development of society in Europe and America. In volumes ranging from Antiquity to the present, scholars have addressed connecting themes with skill and care. Their work captures key developments in the evolution and meaning of fashion across time and space and is informed by the latest research. Handsome and authoritative, A Cultural History will enhance any library. -- Christopher Breward, President of the Edinburgh College of Art, UK The history of dress has always demanded interdisciplinarity. Few if any garments can stand apart from their context and retain meaning. To truly understand dress and fashion it is necessary to probe the social and aesthetic forces from which it is derived. This series demonstrates the deep value of considering these forces, and the result is a much deeper appreciation and understanding of how the fashion of any given period came to be. -- Jean Druesedow, Kent State University, USA A Cultural History of Dress and Fashion will provoke rich inquiry into how one thinks about the study of fashion. This is the true strength of the set. It would be a useful addition to academic or special libraries with that focus. * ARLIS/NA Reviews *

Author Information

Susan J. Vincent is Honorary Visiting Fellow at the University of York, UK. She is the author of Dressing the Elite (Berg, 2003) and The Anatomy of Fashion (Berg, 2009).

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