Clothing art : the visual culture of fashion, 1600-1914
Aileen Ribeiro (Author)
An entirely new way of looking at the history of fashion through the eyes of artists. In this sumptuously illustrated book, the art historian Aileen Ribeiro, also a renowned historian of dress, investigates the evolving relationship between artists and clothing from the seventeenth century until the early twentieth century. There have always been important links between art and clothing. Artists have documented the ever-evolving trends in fashion, have popularized certain styles of dress, and have at times even designed fashions. This is the first book to explore in depth the fascinating points of contact between art and clothing, and in doing so it constructs a new and innovative history of dress in which the artist plays a central role. Aileen Ribeiro provides an illuminating account of the relationship between artists and clothing from the 17th century, when a more complex and sophisticated attitude to dress first appeared, until the early 20th century, when the boundaries between art and fashion became more fluid: haute couture could be seen as art, and art used textiles and clothes in highly imaginative ways. Her narrative encompasses such themes as the ways in which clothing has helped to define the nation state; how masquerade and dressing up were key subjects in art and life; and how, while many artists found increasing inspiration in high fashion, others became involved in designing artistic and reform dress. She also delves into the ways in which artists represent the clothes they depict in their work, approaches which range from photographic detail, through varying degrees of imaginative reality, to generalized drapery
x, 572 pages : chiefly illustrations (chiefly color) ; 29 cm
9780300119077, 0300119070
150348469
Introduction: Seeing dress in art
Part I. Portraying dress. Introduction ; Artists' fashions ; In the studio
Part II. Identifying the nation. Introduction ; Going Dutch in the seventeenth century ; Fashioning the court of Louis XIV ; Reading dress : class, character and identity in Hogarth's work
Part III. Dressing up. Introduction ; Masquerade ; Looking east ; Addressing the antique ; Romancing the past
Part IV. Painting modern life. Introduction ; Dressing stories ; Reigning taste : depicting fashion in the Second Empire ; Artists and fashion
Part V. Designing artists. Introduction ; Fashioning beauty ; Reforming dress
Afterword: Seeing art in dress