The rise of fashion : a reader / edited and with an introduction by Daniel Leonhard Purdy.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Purdy, Daniel L.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Fashion--History.

Fashion.

History.

Clothing and dress--Social aspects.

Clothing and dress.

Physical Description:

xiii, 355 pages, 24 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 26 cm

Place of Publication:

Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, [2004]

Summary:

In The Rise of Fashion, Daniel Leonhard Purdy brings together key writings from the Enlightenment to the twentieth century that explore fashion as the ultimate expression of modernity. Making available many previously untranslated or otherwise unfamiliar works from French, German, and English, Purdy establishes an extraordinary lineage of fashion commentary, dating back to Mandeville and Voltaire, which laid the groundwork for the writings on commodity culture of Adorno, Benjamin, and the Frankfurt School.

From critiques of aristocratic excess to accounts of fashion's influence on our ideals of masculinity or feminity, from the figure of the dandy and the eroticism of clothing to the class politics of fashion, this landmark reader includes works by philosophers (Carlyle, Rousseau, George Simmel) and social theorists (Herbert Spencer, Veblen) as well as writers (Goethe, Baudelaire, Mallarme, Wilde) and critics (Karl Kraus, Adolf Loos, Simone de Beauvoir). Collecting and contextualizing many of the earliest and most significant formulations of fashion theory, The Rise of Fashion provocatively examines the proposition that to be modern is to be fashionable.

Contents:

Part I Aristocratic Excess and the Display of Rank

"Pride" from The Fable of the Bees (1724) / Bernard Mandeville 21

Letter to His Son (1750) / Lord Chesterfield 28

"The Man of the World" (1736) / Voltaire 32

"Discourse on the Arts and Sciences" (1750) / Jean-Jacques Rousseau 37

"Etiquette and Ceremony: Conduct and Sentiment of Human Beings as Functions of the Power Structure of Their Society" from The Court Society (1969) / Norbert Elias 49

Part II Public Discourse and the Semiotics of Dress

"On Fashion" (1792) / Christian Garve 65

"An Answer to the Question: Would It Be Harmful or Beneficial to Establish a National Uniform?" (1791) / Samuel Simon Witte 72

"Adornment" from Sociology (1908) / Georg Simmel 79

Part III Dress Reform and Gender

Masculine Simplicity

"The Benefits of a National Uniform, Declaimed by a Citizen" from Patriotic Fantasies (1775) / Justus Moser 87

"Men's Fashion" and "Men's Hats" (1898) / Adolf Loos 93

"The Great Masculine Renunciation and Its Causes" from The Psychology of Clothes (1930) / J. C. Flugel 102

Feminist Dress Reform

"The New Costume for the Ladies" and "The New Dress" from The Lily (1851) 109

"Some Realizations in Dress Reform" from Feminism in Germany and Scandinavia (1915) / Katharine Anthony 117

"Social Life" from The Second Sex (1953) / Simone de Beauvoir 126

Part IV Idealist Aesthetics

"On Art and Craftwork" (1797), "On Objects Portrayed in Visual Arts" (1797), and "On Strict Aesthetic Judgments" (1798/1799) / Johann Wolfgang Goethe 139

"On Drapery" from Aesthetics (1820) / Georg W. F. Hegel 145

"Fashion and Cynicism" (1879) / Friedrich Vischer 153

Part V Dandyism

"The Dandiacal Body" from Sartor Resartus (1831) / Thomas Carlyle 165

"The Anatomy of Dandyism with Some Observations on Beau Brummell" (1845) / Barbey D'Aurevilly 174

"The Dandy" from The Painter of Modern Life (1863) / Charles Baudelaire 192

"Fashion and the Modern" (1846) / Karl Gutzkow 196

"The Dialogue of Fashion and Death" from The Moral Essays (1824) / Giacomo Leopardi 206

Part VI Glorifying the Artificial

"Beauty, Fashion, and Happiness," "Modernity," and "In Praise of Cosmetics" from The Painter of Modern Life (1863) / Charles Baudelaire 213

"Jewels" and "Wedding Presents" from La Derniere Mode (1874) / Stephane Mallarme 222

"The Pervasion of Rouge" (1896) / Max Beerbohm 226

"The Suitability of Dress" (1882) / Oscar Wilde 232

"The Eroticism of Clothes" from Die Fackel (1906) / Karl Kraus 239

"Analysis of the Cases (Complex of Symptoms)" from Transvestites: An Investigation into Erotic Masquerade (1910) / Magnus Hirschfeld 245

Part VII Class Conflict and Status Emulation

"Conspicuous Consumption" and "Dress as an Expression of the Pecuniary Culture" from The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) / Thorstein Veblen 261

"Fashion" (1901) / Georg Simmel 289

"Economy and Fashion: A Theoretical Contribution on the Formation of Modern Consumer Demand" (1902) / Werner Sombart 310

"Bourgeois Dress" (1912) / Eduard Fuchs 317

"Fashion" from The Principles of Sociology (1902) / Herbert Spencer 328

"Customs" (1909) / Ferdinand Tonnies 333.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 341-347) and index.

ISBN:

081664392X

0816643938

OCLC:

54803616