Design

Deco dandy contests the supposedly exclusive feminine aspect of the style moderne (art deco) by exploring how alternative, parallel and overlapping experiences of decorative modernism, nationalism, gender and sexuality in the years surrounding World War I converge in the protean figure of the 'deco dandy'. The book suggests a broader view of art deco by claiming a greater place for the male body, masculinity and the dandy in this history than has been given to date. Important and productive moments in the history of the cultural life of Paris presented in the book provide insights into the changing role performed by consumerism, masculinity, design history and national identity.

This book offers an innovative account of manliness in Britain between 1760 and 1900. Using diverse textual, visual and material culture sources, it shows that masculinities were produced and disseminated through men’s bodies –often working-class ones – and the emotions and material culture associated with them. The book analyses idealised men who stimulated desire and admiration, including virile boxers, soldiers, sailors and blacksmiths, brave firemen and noble industrial workers. It also investigates unmanly men, such as drunkards, wife-beaters and masturbators, who elicited disgust and aversion. Unusually, Manliness in Britain runs from the eras of feeling, revolution and reform to those of militarism, imperialism, representative democracy and mass media, periods often dealt with separately by historians of masculinities.

Over the past ten years the study of dress history has finally achieved academic respectability. This book shows how the fields of dress history and dress studies are now benefitting from the adoption of new multi-disciplinary approaches and outlines the full range of these approaches which draw on material culture, ethnography, and cultural studies. Raises a series of frank and fresh issues surrounding approaches to the history of dress, including analysis of the academic gender and subject divides that have riven it in the past. Comprehensive, engaging and trenchant, this will become the benchmark volume in the study of dress history.

This fascinating collection provides a chronologically arranged set of case studies looking at how interior design has constantly redefined itself as a manifestation of culture, from the eighteenth-century to the present day.

The book looks at the amateur activities of female ‘home makers’ in search of creative outlets and married couples seeking to modernise their homes as well as the contributions of early professional (female) ‘interior decorators’, and later, (male) ‘interior designers’. It also considers the more anonymous role of commercial enterprises, such as hairdressing salons, ocean-going liners or modern offices as well as public institutions, such as hospitals or naval training establishments.

Interior design and identity examines interior design in relation to the changing identities of its practitioners, its inhabitants and of the furnishings, focussing on the ways in which cultural values came to be embedded in the spaces which people inhabited and made their own. Issues relating to interiority, gender, and the relationship of the public sphere are also considered opening up a new level of design historical enquiry.

Dress and globalisation is the first work to survey dress around the world, drawing together issues of consumption, ethnicity, gender and the body, as well as anthropological accounts and studies of representation. It examines international western style dress, including jeans and business suits, headwear and hairdressing, ethnicity and so called ‘ethnic chic’, clothes for the tourist market, the politicisation of traditional dress, ‘alternative’ dressing, and T-shirts as temporary markers of identity. It also considers dress and environmental issues, touching on adventure gear, the ‘green’ consumer and the possible impact of ‘smart’ clothing. Dispelling the myth of universal ‘world’ attire, this book demonstrates that western-style clothing transcends geographical boundaries but along with other forms of dress, can form a montage of differing tastes, ethnic preferences and national and local imperatives. By discussing the nature of globalisation, this book shows that, if economics permit, all cultures are selective in their choice of what to wear. Dress and globalisation will be welcomed by students of dress history and cultural studies.

This illustrated survey of 600 years of fashion investigates its cultural and social meanings from medieval Europe to 20th-century America. It provides a guide to the changes in style and taste, and challenges existing fashion histories, showing that clothes have always played a pivotal role in defining a sense of identity and society, especially when concerned with sexual and body politics. With a chronological structure, each chapter focuses on both male and female fashion of a specific period, covering its fascinating developments. It discusses: androgynous dressing; body piercing; fabrics, clothing and the rise of city life; dress, and the changing shape of the human body; controversies surrounding trousers and leg wear for both men and women; exposure of flesh; fashion and social status; and the dissemination of fashion through travel, film, magazines and catwalk shows.

Fashion studies is a burgeoning field that often highlights the contributions of genius designers and high-profile brands with little reference to what goes on behind the scenes in the supply chain. This book pulls back the curtain on the global fashion system of the past 200 years to examine the relationship between the textile mills of Yorkshire – the firms that provided the entire Western world with warm wool fabrics – and their customers. It is a microhistory of a single firm, Abraham Moon and Sons Ltd, that sheds light on important macro questions about British industry, government policies on international trade, the role of multi-generational family firms and the place of design and innovation in business strategy. It is the first book to connect Yorkshire tweeds to the fashion system.

Written in lively, accessible prose, this book will appeal to anyone who works in fashion or who wears fashion. There is nothing like it – and it will raise the bar for historical studies of global fashion. Here you’ll find intriguing stories about a tweed theft from the Leeds Coloured Cloth Hall, debates on tariffs and global trade, the battle against synthetic fibres and the reinvention of British tweeds around heritage marketing. You won’t be bored.

The period since 1945 has been a transformative era for the fashion industry. Over the course of seventy years, the fashion world has moved from celebrating the craftsmanship of haute couture to revelling in ever-changing fast-fashion. This volume examines the transition from the old system to the new in a series of case studies grouped around three major themes. Part I focuses on Paris as a creative hub, aiming to understand how the birthplace of haute couture adapted to late-twentieth-century developments. Part II considers the retailer’s role in shaping taste, responding to consumer expectations and disseminating fashion merchandise. Part III looks to alternative visions of the European fashion system that have appeared in unexpected places. The volume is highly interdisciplinary, covering design history, cultural anthropology, ethnography, management studies and the cultural history of business.