Time In Fashion

Few phenomena embody the notion of time as well as fashion. Fast-moving and rooted in the 'now', it's constantly creating its own past through the process of rapid style change. Uniquely poised between the past and the future, fashion's relationship with time is unorthodox. Rather than considering time in the conventional sense, this anthology explores three alternative ways to think about fashion and time: the first identifies the seasonal nature of fashion as an industry, and shows how this has impacted on workers and wearers alike. The second looks at fashion design as a ceaseless process of adaptation, reconstruction and recombination of motifs, in which nostalgia and revivals play their part. The third construes fashion's 'imaginary', with its capacity for fantasy and myth-making, as a form of alternate history that asks 'what if?' Within this framework, key classic texts are juxtaposed with lesser known ones, in an interdisciplinary approach that includes philosophy, history, literature, media and fashion design, ranging from the 18th century to the present. It will be of interest to anyone wishing to understand one of the most complex yet inescapable aspects of fashion, its relationship to time, and will be a critical resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students in the humanities and all those interested in fashion in all its creative, commercial and cultural aspects.

“An hour, once it lodges in the queer element of the human spirit, may be stretched to fifty or a hundred times its clock length; on the other hand, an hour may be accurately represented on the timepiece of the mind by one second.” —Virginia Woolf, Orlando: A Biography, 1928 About Time: Fashion and Duration traces the evolution of fashion, from 1870 to the present, through a linear timeline of iconic garments, each paired with an alternate design that jumps forward or backward in time. These unexpected pairings, which relate to one another through shape, motif, material, pattern, technique, or decoration, create a unique and disruptive fashion chronology that conflates notions of past, present, and future. Virginia Woolf serves as “ghost narrator”: excerpts from her novels reflect on the passage of time with each subsequent plate pairing. A new short story by Michael Cunningham, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Hours, recounts a day in the life of a woman over a time span of 150 years through her changing fashions. Scholar Theodore Martin analyzes theoretical responses to the nature of time, underscoring that time is not simply a sequence of historical events. And fashion photographer Nicholas Alan Cope illustrates 120 fashions with sublime black and-white photography. This stunning book reveals fashion’s paradoxical connection to linear notions of time.

The broader Regency period 1795 to 1820, stands alone as an incredible moment in fashion history, unlike anything that went before it. For the first time England became a fashion influence, especially for menswear, and became the toast of Paris, as court dress became secondary to the season-by-season flux of fashion as we know it today. Sarah Jane Downing explores the fashion revolution and the innovation that inspired a flood of fashions taking influence from far afield. It was an era of contradiction immortalised by Jane Austen, who adeptly used the new-found diversity of fashion to enliven her characters: Wickham's military splendour; Mr Darcy's understated elegance; and Miss Tilney's romantic fixation with white muslin.

The Great Gatsby is that rare classic that inescapably defines the age from which it sprang: the Roaring '20s, an era of economic boom, stylish excess and above all an explosion of new and exciting fashions. This book chronicles the sparkling spectacle of Jazz Age fashion as it moves from the corseted world of the 1910s to flapper dresses, fedoras and bejeweled headbands. Illustrated with period photographs, designer sketches and key excerpts from The Great Gatsby novel, the book fully captures the style and glamour of the age of Jay Gatsby and Daisy Miller. It spans the entire wardrobe of both men and women, including day and evening wear, accessories, casual attire and “fads” like smoking jackets, tiaras and cigarette holders.

The first visual history of Modernist Italian fashion during Benito Mussolini's Fascist regime, and the product of immense research, Fashion at the Time of Fascism charts the fashion industry's ambivalent negotiation of international couture and the bizarre dictates of Fascism, and the legacy of this era in shaping today's fashion industry. Authors Mario Lupano and Alessandra Vaccari explore and compare a huge range of forgotten archival sources, such as women's glossies, fashion, film and gossip magazines, photo archives, exhibition and commercial catalogues, books, manuals and magazines on tailoring, dressmaking, design and architecture, and corporate and government journals. This abundance of materials is presented in a fluid sequence of image and text that charts the rhythms, rituals and lifestyles of the typical Italian day through the four basic themes of "Measurements," "Model," "Brand" and "Parade." Each section includes texts that highlight the key figures and phases in Italian fashion, from the 1920s to the early 1940s, juxtaposing them with Modernism's broader salient themes and emphasizing the conscious use of glamour in the regime's super-choreographed portrayal of itself. Fashion at the Time of Fascism is further enriched by a thorough iconographic index and a detailed reference list, making the volume a revelation for both general readers and scholars. --Publisher description.

How transnational modernity is taking shape in and in relation to Asia Fashion and Beauty in the Time of Asia considers the role of bodily aesthetics in the shaping of Asian modernities and the formation of the so-called “Asian Century.” S. Heijin Lee, Christina H. Moon, and Thuy Linh Nguyen Tu train our eyes on sites as far-flung, varied, and intimate as Guangzhou and Los Angeles, Saigon and Seoul, New York and Toronto. They map the transregional connections, ever-evolving aspirations and sensibilities, and new worlds and life paths forged through engagements with fashion and beauty. Contributors consider American influence on plastic surgery in Korea, Vietnamese debates about “the fashionable,” and the costs and commitments demanded of those who make and wear fast fashion, from Chinese garment workers to Nepalese nail technicians in New York who are mandated to dress "fashionably." In doing so, this interdisciplinary anthology moves beyond common characterizations of Asians and the Asian diaspora as simply abject laborers or frenzied consumers, analyzing who the modern Asian subject is now: what they wear and how they work, move, eat, and shop.

Garments and accessories are prominent in almost all of William Shakespeare's plays, from Hamlet and Othello to A Midsummer Night's Dream and Twelfth Night. The statement 'Clothes maketh the man' was one that would have resonated with their audiences: the rise of England's merchant class had made issues of rank central to Elizabethan debate, and a rigid table of sumptuary laws carefully regulated the sorts of fabric and garment worn by the different classes. From the etiquette of courtly dress to the evolution of the Elizabethan ruff, in this vibrant introduction Sarah Jane Downing explores the sartorial world of the late-16th century, why people wore the clothes they did, and how the dizzyingly eclectic range of fashions (including ruffs, rebatos and French farthingales) transformed over time.

What did boys and girls wear during the early 1900s? Thirty pages of colorable illustration — based on authentic merchandise in Sears catalogs from 1901 through 1921 — provide some answers. For special occasions, girls looked splendid in frilly dresses with lots of lace and ruffles. Knee-length trousers and high-top boots were popular with boys. Both favored hats. Coloring book fans and fashion mavens will treasure this collection and its delightful glimpse of early-20th-century styles for kids.