#historyofdress — Public Fediverse posts

Natalie Paley in evening dress and three quarter length coat by Lucien Lelong -- Studio Dorvyne -- 1934

I love those giant fur sleeves.

#Fashion #HistoryOfDress #LucienLelong #NataliePaley #1930s

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Claire-McCardell/Elizabeth-Evitts-Dickinson/9781668045237

An interesting read, but Dickinson's fixation on McCardell as a heroine leads her to overemphasize her individual achievement; the reader might easily come away with the mistaken impression that women are indebted solely to McCardell for sportswear, zip fastenings, and functional pockets.

To contrast with her heroine, the author has as villain Christian Dior. The "New Look" is presented as nothing but a retrograde styling for female submissiveness. Almost entirely absent from Dickinson's assessment of the "New Look" versus the "American Look" is any recognition of how dress might express pleasure in the fantastic, not just desire but the desire to be desired, and a host of other feelings not easily accommodated within the bounds of liberal individualism and the promotion of the function and ease as paramount. So these possibilities, as well as a reactionary return to female domesticity and a general fatigue with wartime "utility", might explain the popularity of New Look inspired clothing in the postwar era; the New Look's appeal was complex, and should not be simply dismissed as a case of false consciousness.

The hostile portrayal of Dior fits with a US nationalism that characterizes the book as a whole. The author resents what she sees as the failure of New York to replace Paris as the pole of postwar fashion and deplores what she sees as the lack of attention accorded to McCardell and other American women designers of the thirties and forties. Her book is an attempt to remedy this neglect and proclaim McCardell's importance as a major figure in the history of feminism, a distinctly American feminism bound up with individualist deals of autonomy, business success, and Dale Carnegie style refashioning of the self. This national - ideological orientation is in turn linked with a long US tradition of contrasting American "republican" simplicity and practicality in design with the "aristocratic" excess of Europe, to be found at its worst in French luxury.

Nevertheless, the book is worth reading if one is interested in 20th century US history or in fashion history. There's nowhere better to learn about the origins of the "Monastic" dress!

#ClaireMcCardell #FashionHistory #HistoryOfDress #History #USHistory #20thCenturyHistory #AmericanLook #NewLook

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https://thepointmag.com/examined-life/behind-the-hood/

I've been thinking about the hoodie recently.

>>... no other garment is so charged, or so fraught, in this country as the hoodie. <<

My own dislike for the garment makes me uncomfortable. How much of my distaste springs from ugly prejudices about race, class, and age buried within me?

Then I start to wonder how much of my agonized reflection is not only an ultimately futile attempt to suppress my own aesthetic responses but also an unproductive focus on the individual psyche rather than on the structures of society.

Working with lots of young men in hoodies prompted these thoughts, as did...

#USCulture #Hoodie #Fashion #HistoryOfDress #Race #Class #Age

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#KpopFediChallenge2025

-- Prettiest fashion mag moment

Ningning looked so beautiful in this vintage Dior dress designed by Yves Saint Laurent which she wore for a Vogue China event.

For his 1959 Autumn Winter collection at Dior, YSL gave this piece the provocative title of....

https://www.instagram.com/p/DQM1B6RiUxi/?img_index=7

#Kpop #KpopStyling #Fashion #FashionHistory #Dior #YvesSaintLaurent #Vogue #Labia #HistoryOfDress

Google is not all bad. They sent me this page showing a bias cut dress from the thirties/forties.

https://g.co/arts/8rrUK26tnXRAhJhX9

#FashionHistory #HistoryOfDress #BiasCut #IndianapolisMuseumOfArtAtNewfields

I know that left thinking people are supposed to deplore Christian Dior's post Second World War "New Look" as reactionary...but I love it!

#FashionHistory #NewLook #ChrstianDior #HistoryOfDress #TwentiethCenturyFashion #FrenchFashion

I love paisley.

https://forums.vintagefashionguild.org/threads/a-pattern-through-time-from-persia-to-paisley-%E2%80%A2-the-vfg-fashion-parade-for-the-week-of-january-27-2025.84281/?_gl=1*ik0wq3*_ga*MTU1MDI1NTg2My4xNzQxNjM3NTkx*_ga_9S6T56LKQ5*MTc0MTYzNzU5MS4xLjEuMTc0MTYzNzYyOS4wLjAuMA..

#Paisley #Pattern #Fabric #Fashion #HistoryOfDress #VintageFashion

One of the great creators of the interwar years. She's a familiar name to fashion historians, but she deserves to be more widely remembered.

#MadeleineVionnet #FashionHistory #HistoryOfDress #Couture

https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/madeleine-vionnet-an-introduction?srsltid=AfmBOopNw-itesBwomVCwsiwmQe6dTw-jFewR0-SP-jeQVZqzGewiz4y

It's only recently that I've learnt that the Mao suit was first developed by Sun Yat-sen.

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20151007-from-red-guards-to-bond-villains-why-the-mao-suit-endures

#ZhongshanSuit #MaoSuit #HistoryOfDress #FashionHistory #ChineseHistory #China #MaoZedong #MensApparel #SunYatsen

I read this account of the rise and fall of Victoria's Secret over the weekend. If you're looking for a cultural studies text on this once iconic lingerie business, this book is not for you. The authors are fashion business journalists and "Selling Sexy" is a well sourced rag trade business history. I enjoyed learning more about the rise of specialty retail in the USA, outsourcing to Asia, and similar apparel industry topics, but others might find this material dry.

Yet the very nature of the business requires the authors to discuss marketing and image, which they do with a good grasp of race, ethnicity, and physique in the development of the various Victoria's Secret fantasy worlds. The narrative also describes, without pretending to explain completely, the still mysterious spell that Jeffrey Epstein cast over VS boss Leslie Wexner. In the final chapters of the book, the authors give a good account of how Victoria's Secret failed to adapt to the new age of #MeToo, the shaming of fatshamers, and Instagram influencers.

Although the book is not supposed to be a coffee table volume, I was disappointed by the paucity and limited range of illustrations, as a larger selection would have more clearly shown the changes in VS marketing over the years.

A rewarding read overall that made me think more about the pressures and desires women face when choosing, combining, or rejecting the pretty, the sexy, and the comfy.

Selling Sexy

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250850966/sellingsexy/

#VictoriasSecret #BusinessHistory #HistoryOfDress #FashionHistory #Lingerie #LeslieWexner #Books

I would love to visit Uruguay.

Looking at the romper style swimsuit with its lowcut back, I would guess that this poster is from the early to mid thirties.

I would welcome any information about this poster.

#Uruguay #Poster #TravelPoster #HistoryOfDress #Swimsuit #Fashion #1930s #Thirties

I recently posted about my hatred for cargo pants.

I don't resile from that judgement, but some posts from @pixelcats expressive of her generosity of spirit reminded me that I need to take care not to be a curmudgeon:

>>[email protected]
Pixelcats⁷
@pixelcats

@tikistitch @celli @croptopjin @brie @purplecoww @asya I remember reading a toot very early on when I first joined Mastodon that said something about the joy of reading overly excited posts about weird niche topics and the people who love them.

And for me that really holds really true. I LOVE hearing about that weird thing you're interested in. Tell me why it's great, tell me how you found it, tell me why it makes you happy. I want to hear all the things.<<

>>[email protected]
Pixelcats⁷ @pixelcats

@tikistitch @celli @croptopjin @brie @purplecoww @asya It might not be my thing to be excited about, but I'll learn something about it or you and I'll feel a little bit of your joy.

And in a world where there is so much to be negative about right now, I say yay for more weird, unhinged joy. 💜,<<

So, in keeping with that more affirmative mode, I put it to you that the Chelsea boot is a thing of beauty and a joy for ever:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea_boot

#Shoes #ChelseaBoot #HistoryOfDress #Footwear #Fashion

I loathe cargo pants.

A brief history of cargo pants, the military’s greatest fashion contribution

https://www.militarytimes.com/off-duty/military-culture/2020/09/12/a-brief-history-of-cargo-pants-the-militarys-greatest-fashion-contribution/

#CargoPants #HistoryOfDress #Costume #Fashion #MilitaryUniform

@ExhibitExplorer

I particularly like Hollar's dress engravings.

See some examples here:

https://fashion-era.com/english-costume/hollar-engravings-womens-gowns-1639-40-2.htm

#WenceslausHollar #Art #Print #HistoryOfDress #FashionHistory #17thCentury

#OnThisDay, 31 Jan 2013, women in Paris are officially allowed to wear trousers again.

The 1799 law required women to ask police for permission to "dress as men", or risk being taken into custody.

Najat Vallaud-Belkacem lifted the ban as “incompatible with the principles of equality between women and men”.

In practice, the revolutionary era ban was ignored anyway.

#WomenInHistory #Histodons #HistoryOfDress

Hugely informative carousel from the Met Costume Institute detailing the step-by-step process to restore the trim of a Jeanne Hallée dress.

This may be the most fascinating behind-the-scenes Insta post I’ve ever seen.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CmKjsZiuWnT/?igshid=ZDhmZGIxNmQ=

#fashion #fashionhistory #costume #historyofdress

@HilaryDoda i am excited for all the #HistoryOfDress, #HistoryOfTextiles, and #FashionHistory content you might share!

#introduction to the other #histodons !

I'm a dress historian with an interest in all things #adornment and #MaterialCulture. I'm interested in the #HistoryOfDress, #HistoryOfTextiles, and the #EarlyModernAtlantic.

I have a book in copy edits right now on the dress culture of early #Acadia, and a paper coming soon on #weaving in Scottish Cape Breton.

My current big project is on #spurs and #EarlyModern #masculinities, and I teach a four-course sequence on global #FashionHistory.