Colors in Fashion

(Paperback)

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Description

Color speaks a powerful cultural language, conveying political, sexual, and economic messages that, throughout history, have revealed how we relate to ourselves and our world. This ground-breaking compilation is the first to investigate how color in fashionable and ceremonial dress has played a significant social role, indicating acceptance and exclusion, convention and subversion. From the use of white in pioneering feminism to the penchant for black in post-war France, and from mystical scarlet broadcloth to the horrors of arsenic-laden green fashion, this publication demonstrates that color in dress is never straightforward. Divided into four parts solidarity, power, innovation, and desire each section highlights the often violent, emotional histories of color in dress across geographical, temporal and cultural boundaries. Underlying todays relaxed attitude to color lies a chromatic complexity that speaks of wars, migrations and economics. Bringing together cutting-edge chapters from leading scholars, it is essential reading for students of fashion, textiles, design, cultural studies and art history.

Reviews

Sixteen engrossing essays explore the many shades of meaning in the colors adopted by royals and revolutionaries, soldiers and suffragettes, from Hollywood to Nigeria and from the sixteenth century to the present. -- Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell * Art Historian *
A series of fascinating essays by an internationally-spread group of authors ... it can be dipped into at will. * Journal for Weavers, Spinners and Dyers *
This book provides a comprehensive exploration of colors complex and fascinating relationship with fashion. Foregrounding how consumption and power structures have shaped the way color is worn, perceived and desired in a number of global contexts and historical periods, it is an essential book on how culture and society influence color. -- Sarah Street * University of Bristol *
Why did the British suffragettes wear white What color did Thailands Queen Sirikit sport on Fridays And why were dyed green carnations in the early 1800s so deadly ... Readers of fashion, costume, and design, as well as anthropology, history, and art history will enjoy this accessible, fun title. -- Library

Author Bio

Jonathan Faiers is Professor of Fashion Thinking at Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton, UK, publishes internationally on fashion and textiles, and is editor of the journal Luxury: History, Culture, Consumption. Mary Westerman Bulgarella is a consultant in the conservation, research, and display of historic textiles and dress, based in Florence, Italy and in Chicago, Illinois. She has been the Advisory Committee Coordinator of Costume Colloquium since its conception.