4
History 140a Professor Alice Kelikian
Spring 2014 Brandeis University
Olin-Sang 219
Clothes and Costume:
Fashion in Europe from the Enlightenment to the Death of Versace
This comparative history survey traces the relationship between taste, costume, clothing design, and furniture consumption in Europe and in North America. It examines the function of display, trade in clothes, and the rise of sumptuous fashion by the eighteenth century. It charts the rhythm of garment manufacture, scrutinizes sartorial markings based on class, and follows wardrobe for men and dress for women of leisure in France, England, Italy, and the United States. It considers the rise of the department store in the second half of the nineteenth century, the production of prêt-a-porter attire, the rise of the designer, and the marketing of style. It explores the ascent of fashion journalism in the twentieth century. It ends with a discussion of appearance and identity, race and ethnicity.
In addition to assigned readings and regular attendance, course requirements include two short essays, five to seven double-spaced pages in length. Both of these may be re-written after consultation with the instructors. The first paper examines a Zola novel, and the second is a review of an autobiography, biography, or biographical motion picture ("biopic") of a designer from an approved list handed out in class; together, these two assignments constitute half the final grade. A final research paper, a 10-12 page essay, accounts for the other fifty percent.
Students must come to class in order to pass the course. They need to complete all work and do so in a timely fashion. They should consult with the instructor when revising essays and about appropriate paper topics for the final paper, for which no extensions or rewrites will be granted. This research paper is due in class on 29 April 2014.
Students need to comply with University policy on academic integrity as set forth in the Rights and Responsibilities Handbook distributed by the Office of Campus Life. Those with a documented disability on record at the University requiring that reasonable accommodation be made for them should see the instructors immediately. Essays cannot be accepted by electronic mail or by facsimile and must be submitted in person. They should not appear in a mailbox or under a door.
Goals and Outcomes: In addition to improving expository writing skills, students will learn to evaluate primary documentation and to analyze clothing and costume as historical markers. They will also gain knowledge about the foundations of fashion from the eighteenth to the twentieth century, and they will come to understand the changing functions of costume and clothing.
January 14 and 17 Explanations of Style, Taste, and Adornment
Leora Auslander, Taste and Power: Furnishing Modern France, Introduction
Anne Hollander, Seeing Through Clothes, Chapter I
Thorstein Veblen, “Dress as an Expression of the Pecuniary
Culture” in Theory of the Leisure Class (LATTE)
January 21 and 24 Court Appearance from Louis XIV to Louis XVI
Leora Auslander, Taste and Power: Furnishing Modern France, Part I
January 28 and 31 A Revolution in Paris
Leora Auslander, Taste and Power: Furnishing Modern France, Part II
Valerie Steele, Paris Fashion, Chapters 2-3
February 4 and 7 The Department Store and Shopkeepers at War
Emile Zola, The Ladies’ Paradise
Leora Auslander, Taste and Power: Furnishing Modern France,
Chapter 8
February 11 and 14 The Corset Controversy
Leigh Summers, Bound to Please
Anne Hollander, Seeing Through Clothes, Chapter II
February 25 and 28 The Birth of Couture Culture in the Belle Epoque
Valerie Steele, Paris Fashion, Chapters 5 and 6
Zola Book Review Due on 25 February
March 4 and 7 Fashion as High Art: Chanel, Schiaparelli, and Vionnet
Valerie Steele, Paris Fashion, Chapters 11 and 12
Anne Hollander, Seeing Through Clothes, Chapter II
March 11 and 14 French Fashion from Dior to Yves St. Laurent
Anne Hollander, Feeding the Eye, Chapter 3, 6 and 10 (LATTE)
Francine du Plessix Gray, "Prophets of Seduction," The New
Yorker, November 4, 1996, pp. 84-92 (LATTE)
Valerie Steele, Paris Fashion, Chapter 13
March 18 and 21 Italian Fashion from Fascism and Film Sets to the Murder of Gucci
Sarah Gay Forden, The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of
Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed
March 25 and 28 Marketing in America: From Hollywood to Bloomingdales
Diana Vreeland, DV
Film: Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel, 2011
(LATTE)
April 1 and 4 Magazines and Marketing Modes
Christopher Breward, Fashion, Chapter 5, 8 and 10
(LATTE)
Film: Funny Face, 1957 (LATTE)
or A New Kind of Love, 1963 (LATTE)
Review Due on 1 April
April 8 and 11 Iconic Clothes
Nancy Nowell Smith, The Classic Ten: The True Story of the Little Black Dress and Nine Other Fashion Favorite, pp. 1-60 (LATTE)
April 25 and 29 Man in the Mirror: Fashion, Identity and the Body
Anne Hollander, Seeing Through Clothes, Chapter VI
Christopher Breward, Fashion, Chapter 9
Elizabeth Haiken, Venus Envy: A History of Cosmetic Surgery,
Chapter V, "The Michael Jackson Factor" (LATTE)
Research Paper Due on 29 April