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History 140a Professor Alice Kelikian
Spring 2018 Brandeis University
Olin-Sang 219
Clothes and Costume:
Fashion in Europe and Anglo-America from the Ancien Régime to the Death of Versace
This comparative history survey traces the relationship among 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 development of the department store in the second half of the nineteenth century, the production of prêt-à-porter attire, the advance of haute couture, 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, class requirements include two short essays, five to seven double-spaced pages in length. Both of these may be re-written after consultation with the instructor as this is a writing-intensive course. The first paper examines a novel or memoir, and the second reviews a biographical motion picture (“biopic”) about a designer or fashion editor from an approved list that will be posted on LATTE; together, these two assignments constitute half of the semester grade. A final research paper, a ten to twelve page essay, accounts for the other fifty percent. n April 25th, there are extensions
This is a four-credit course (with three hours of class-time per week). Students are
expected to spend a minimum of nine hours of study time each week in preparation for the course (readings, papers, films, discussion, and so on). They must come to class and complete all work in a timely fashion in order to receive a passing grade. They should consult with the instructor when revising essays and about appropriate topics for the final paper, for which no extensions or re-writes will be granted. This research paper is due in class on the last day of class, 25 April.
Students need to comply with University policy on academic honesty as set forth in Rights and Responsibilities, Section 4. They are expected to turn in their own work, and any breach in this trust will be forwarded to the Director of Academic Integrity. 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. All readings may be found on LATTE.
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 ancien régime to the twentieth century, and they will come to understand the changing functions of costume and clothing.
January 12 Introduction
January 19 Explanations of Style, Taste, and Adornment
James Laver, “Fashion and War,” Journal of the Royal Society of
Arts, Vol. 92, No. 4666, pp. 303-311
Thorstein Veblen, “Dress as an Expression of the Pecuniary
Culture” in Theory of the Leisure Class
January 23 and 26 Court Appearance from Louis XIV to Louis XVI
Daniel Roche, The Culture of Clothing: Dress and Fashion in the Ancien Régime, Chapters 5-7
Desmond Hosford, “The Queen's Hair: Marie-Antoinette, Politics, and DNA, Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol. 38, No. 1, Hair
James Thomson, “Fashions in Furniture. Louis XIV and Louis
XV,” The Decorator and Furnisher, Vol. 22, No.1
Walter A. Dyer, “The French Decorative Styles: II. Louis XV,”
The Art World, Vol. 3, No. 4
January 30 A Revolution in Paris
February 2
Caroline Weber, Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore
to the Revolution, Chapters 8-9
Valerie Steele, Paris Fashion, Chapters 2-3
February 6 and 9 The Department Store and Shopkeepers at War
Patricia O'Brien, “The Kleptomania Diagnosis: Bourgeois Women and Theft in Late Nineteenth-Century France, Journal of Social History, Vol. 17, No. 1
Elaine Abelson, “The Invention of Kleptomania,” Signs, Vol. 15,
No. 1
Philippe Perrot, Fashioning the Bourgeoisie: A History of Clothing
in the Nineteenth Century, Chapter V
February 13 and 16 The Corset Controversy
Gina Marlene Dorré, “Horses and Corsets: 'Black Beauty,' Dress
Reform, and the Fashioning of the Victorian Woman,” Victorian
Literature and Culture, Vol. 30, No. 1
Jill Fields, “'Fighting the Corsetless Evil': Shaping Corsets and
Culture, 1900-1930,” Journal of Social History, Vol. 33. No. 2
Brent Shannon, “Refashioning Men: Fashion, Masculinity, and the
Cultivation of the Male Consumer in Britain, 1860-1914,” Victorian Studies, Vol. 46, No. 4
Thorstein Veblen, “The Economic Theory of Women’s Dress,”
The Popular Science Monthly, Vol. XLVL
February 26 The Birth of Couture Culture in the Belle Epoque
March 2
Valerie Steele, Paris Fashion, Chapters 5- 6
Book Review Due March 2
March 6 and 9 Fashion as High Art: Chanel, Schiaparelli, and Vionnet
Judith Thurman, “Radical Chic: Schiaparelli, Prada, and clothes on
the cutting edge,” The New Yorker, March 26, 2012
Janet Flanner, “31, Rue Cambon,” The New Yorker,
March 14, 1931
Anne Hollander, Seeing Through Clothes, Chapter II
Elsa Schiaparelli, Shocking Life, Chapters 5-9
Anka Muhlstein, “The Cut of Coco,” The New York Review of
Books, October 9, 2014
March 13 and 16 War, Occupation and Fashion
Alan Riding, And the Show Went On: Cultural Life in Nazi-Occupied Paris, Chapter 5
Valerie Steele, Paris Fashion, Chapter 13
“Hugo Boss Acknowledges Link to Nazi Regime,” The New York Times, August 15, 1997
Judith Warner, “Was Coco Chanel a Nazi Agent?,” The New York
Times, September 2, 2011
March 20 and 23 French Fashion from Dior to Yves St. Laurent
Lourdes Font, “Dior Before Dior,” West 86th, Vol. 18, No. 1
Francine du Plessix Gray, "Prophets of Seduction," The New
Yorker, November 4, 1996
Christopher Breward, Fashion, Chapter 9
Film Review Due March 23
March 27 Italian Post-War Film Sets to the Deaths of Versace and Gucci
Sarah Gay Forden, The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of
Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed, Chapters 2-5
Nicola White, Reconstructing Italian Fashion, Chapters 3-4
Elisabetta Merlo and Francesca Polese, “Turning Fashion into
Business: The Emergence of Milan as an International Fashion
Hub,” The Business History Review, Vol. 80, No. 3
April 10 and April 13 Marketing in America: From Hollywood to Bloomingdales
Diana Vreeland, DV, Chapters 11-18
Film: Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel, 2011
April 17 and 20 Magazines and Marketing Modes
Christopher Breward, Fashion, Chapters 5, 8 and 10
Robert Lacey, Model Woman: Eileen Ford and the Business of
Beauty, Chapters 12-15
Film: Funny Face, 1957
April 24 and 25 Iconic Clothes
Nancy Nowell Smith, The Classic Ten: The True Story of the
Little Black Dress and Nine Other Fashion Favorites,
pp. 1-60
Carolyn Thomas de la Peña, Ready‐to‐Wear Globalism:
Mediating Materials and Prada's GPS, Winterthur Portfolio,
Vol. 38, No. 2/3