The Fashion history reader: global perspectives

Abstract

The Global History of Fashion Reader is an innovative work that provides a broad introduction to the complex literature in the fields of fashion, and dress and fashion history. It is a comprehensive resource for those who wish to further their engagement with fashion as a contemporary phenomenon. The book connects a diverse range of approaches and incorporates non-Western literature within better-known studies on Europe and North America. It identifies the history of fashion as a meeting point between the long-standing historical investigation of ‘dress’ and ‘costume’ and the more recent development of those sociological and anthropological-inspired studies that have come to be called ‘fashion theory’. Over thirty-five chapters cover a wide range of topics and approaches within the history of fashion, ranging from object-based studies to theory-driven analyses, mostly published by academics, curators and fashion specialists over the last two decades. The book is divided into nine parts, surveying some of the key themes in the history of fashion. Themes also move in and across time, providing a ‘disguised’ chronology to enable student learning: parts 1-4 cover the four centuries from the 15th to the 18th century; parts 5-7 cover the 19th century to the contemporary (with particular attention given to extra-European countries) and part 8 provides a survey of the global setting and current globalised nature of fashion. Winner: Best Book Edited or Anthology, AAANZ, Art History Association of Australia and NZ: Citation: See http://aaanz.info/prizes/