Fashion Foundations Early Writings on Fashion and Dress

by Johnson, Kim K. P.; Torntore, Susan J.; Eicher, Joanne B.

• ISBN13: 9781859736197
• ISBN10: 185973619X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-06-01
• Publisher: Berg Pub Ltd

Summary

It is easy to view fashion as an entirely modern concept. Costume historians, in fact, trace the birth of fashion back to the thirteenth century and writings on fashion date back as early as the sixteenth century. This classic fashion writing has profoundly shaped our understanding of modern day dress-from the psychology of clothes to collective fashion trends. Its impact, however, has not previously been recognized. Fashion Foundations fills this major gap in the history of the discipline. This key text reprints a collection of pioneering fashion statements. Vital yet sometimes ignored treasures are brought together for the first time, tracing fashion writing from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. Why do we wear clothes? What do they say about our self-awareness and body image? How can we "fashion" new identities through what we wear? In this book, Michel de Montaigne, William Hazlitt, Herbert Spencer, Thorstein B. Veblen, Adam Smith, Herbert Blumer, and Georg Simmel answer these questions and many more. In the process they reveal the true origins of our contemporary approach to fashion.

Author Biography

Kim K. P. Johnson is Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Design, Housing and Apparel, University of Minnesota. Susan J. Torntore is Assistant Professor, Department of Family and Consumer Sciences, Illinois State University. Joanne B. Eicher is Regents' Professor, Department of Design, Housing and Apparel, University of Minnesota.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	1	(4)
Part 1: Dressing the Body	5	(64)
Origins and Motives	15	(22)
Of the Custom of Wearing Clothes	15	(3)
Michel de Montaigne
The Significance of Clothes	18	(3)
Sylvia H. Bliss
Dress	21	(6)
Alfred E. Crawley
Customs and Beliefs: Ceremonial	27	(2)
Alfred R. Radcliffe-Brown
Dress	29	(5)
Ruth Bendict
Costumes and Ideologies	34	(3)
Hilaire Hiler
Meyer Hiler
Physical Connections between the Body and Dress	37	(14)
The Psychology of Clothing	37	(3)
George Van Ness Dearborn
Microcosmus: An Essay Concerning Man and His Relation to the World	40	(3)
Hermann Lotze
Some Aspects of the Early Sense of Self	43	(8)
G. Stanley Hall
Health Issues and Dress Reform	51	(18)
Fashion in Deformity	51	(3)
William Henry Flower
The Science of Dress	54	(5)
Ada S. Ballin
The Reform Dress	59	(4)
Amelia Bloomer
The Development and Function of Clothing	63	(6)
Knight Dunlap
Part 2: Fashioning Identity	69	(22)
Establishing Identity	73	(12)
On Fashion	73	(4)
William Hazlitt
Let Us Have a National Costume	77	(4)
Mary E. Fry
The Psychology of Woman's Dress	81	(4)
William I. Thomas
Appearance Management	85	(6)
Remarks on the Psychology of Clothes	85	(2)
Louis W. Flaccus
Psychology of Dress	87	(4)
Grace Margaret Morton
Part 3: The ``F'' Word	91	(50)
Fashion as Change	97	(22)
Development in Dress	97	(3)
George H. Darwin
Badges and Costumes	100	(4)
Herbert Spencer
Fashion	104	(3)
Georg Simmel
Motivation in Fashion	107	(5)
Elizabeth Hurlock
Fashion	112	(2)
Edward Sapir
Some Conclusions	114	(5)
James Laver
Predicting Fashion Change	119	(6)
On the Nature of Fashion	119	(6)
Agnes Brooks Young
Fashion as Collective and Consumer Behavior	125	(16)
Fashion Movements	125	(2)
Herbert Blumer
Of the Influence of Custom and Fashion upon our Notions of Beauty and Deformity	127	(2)
Adam Smith
The Economic Theory of Woman's Dress	129	(3)
Thorstein B. Veblen
Dress as an Expression of Pecuniary Culture	132	(4)
Thorstein B. Veblen
A Psychological Analysis of Fashion Motivation	136	(5)
Estelle de Young Barr
Chronological Annotated Bibliography (1575--1940)	141	(12)
Index	153