Designing the Modern Interior From The Victorians To Today

by Sparke, Penny; Wealleans, Anne; Keeble, Trevor; Martin, Brenda

• ISBN13: 9781847882882
• ISBN10: 1847882889
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-07-15
• Publisher: Berg Pub Ltd

Summary

This volume reveals how the design of the inside spaces of our homes and public buildings are shaped by--and shape--our modern culture. The modern interior has often been narrowly defined by the minimalist work of elite, reforming architects. But a shared modernizing impulse, expressed in interior design, extends at least as far back as the Victorians and reaches to our own time. And this spirit of modernization manifested itself in interiors--designed both by professionals and by amateurs--which did not necessarily look modern and often even aimed to imitate the past. Designing the Modern Interiorpresents a new history of the interior from the late 19th to the 21st centuries. Particular characteristics are consistent across this period: a progressive attitude towards technology; a hyper-consciousness of what it is to live in the present and the future; an overt relationship with mass media, mass consumption and the marketplace; an emphasis on individualism, interiority and the "self"; the construction of identities determined by gender, class, race, sexuality and nationhood; and the experiences of urban and suburban life.

Author Biography

Penny Sparke is a Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) at Kingston University and author of Elsie de Wolfe: The Birth of Modern Interior Decoration and An Introduction to Design and Culture: 1900 to the Present. Anne Wealleans is Senior Lecturer in Design History and Material Culture at Kingston University and author of Designing Liners: A History of Interior Design Afloat and Interior Design since 1900. Trevor Keeble is Head of the School of Art and Design History at Kingston University. Brenda Martin is the Curator of the Dorich House Museum at Kingston University.

Table of Contents

Late Medieval And Renaissance

Editor's Introduction

Graceful Or Magnificent: Fashion And Aesthetics

Fashion, Appearance And Cultural Order

Fashion's Forms - Customs And Foreigners

Trading In Looks

Fashion And Reinforcement

The 18Th Century

Editor's Introduction

The Power Of Dress

Fashion - Art - Artifice

Fashion And The Appearance Industries

The 19Th Century

Editor's Introduction

Fashion And Urban Life

From The Love Of Finery To Honest Cloth

19Th-Century Fashion As Female Culture

The 20Th Century

Editor's Introduction

Fashion's Structures

Fashion And Fantasy

Fashion And Identity

Fashion And Aesthetics

Index for all volumes

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.