Dress, Dreams, and Desire: A History of Fashion and Psychoanalysis

"Fascinating." - The New Yorker

What can psychoanalysis tell us about the power and allure of fashion? Valerie Steele, author of Dress, Dreams and Desire, was described by critic Suzy Menkes as “the Freud of fashion.” In this pathbreaking book, the first cultural history of fashion and psychoanalysis, Steele does not merely hold a mirror up to fashion's surface, she looks into its soul.

A renowned fashion historian, Steele draws on key psychoanalytic concepts about the body, sexuality, and th...