Sex and Suits: The Evolution of Modern Dress

ISBN-13: 9781474250658 / Angielski / Miękka / 2016 / 176 str.

Anne Hollander

Opis

Since the dawn of western fashion in the Middle Ages, women's dress has never stopped evolving, yet menswear has seen far fewer style revolutions. At the centre of the male wardrobe is the suit: relatively unchanged since the 17th century, its cut and cloth suggest athleticism, seriousness, sexuality and strength - qualities which contrasted with the perceived superficiality and frivolity of female dress, and eventually led to the adoption of the suit into the female wardrobe where it remains to this day.In Sex and Suits brilliant essayist and art critic Anne Hollander charts the development of men's and women's fashion from their divergence in the medieval period to their convergence through to the late 20th century. Challenging the idea that the suit's success is merely down to its practicality, this trailblazing book argues that men have been fashion's true style-setters and that as women's fashion has taken on elements of men's style through tailoring, so men have reclaimed the embellishment and colour of past eras.First published in 1994 to great acclaim, this classic text is as fresh and provocative as ever and remains a must-read for students, scholars and anyone fascinated by the history of fashion and gender.

Recenzje

Anne Hollander's Sex and Suits was, and remains, a major contribution to the study of fashion. Valerie Steele, Director of the Museum at FIT, New York, US

Spis treści

List of Illustrations1. INTRODUCTIONSex and the Modern FormWhat Fashion IsII. THE WORK OF FASHIONFashion, Non-fashion and Anti-fashionMeaning in FashionForm and SexualityEarly Fashion HistoryLater ChangesFemale InventionIII. THE GENESIS OF THE SUITThe Great DivideReason and FantasySobriety and SimplicityAntique Natural NudityHeroes in WoolNeo-classic EroticsReady-made MenThe Once and Future SuitIV. MODERNITYWorth and His EffectsReforming WomenStaysRedesigning WomenModern TransformationsRecent RevolutionsV. NOWADAYSInformalitiesSexualitiesRevelationsAnxietiesPerceptionsSelect BibliographyIndex

O autorze

Anne Hollander was an independent art historian, critic and historian of dress who was renowned for her bold studies of the evolution of costume. A fellow of the New York Institute for the Humanities and former president of PEN American Center, she was the author of influential books on the subject of costume and fabric in art, Seeing through Clothes and Sex and Suits, as well as Moving Pictures, on the influence of painting on the cinema.