Paris Fashion: A Cultural History

by Valerie Steele

Overview

Paris has been the international capital of fashion for more than 300 years. Even before the rise of the haute couture, Parisians were notorious for their obsession with fashion, and foreigners eagerly followed their lead. From Charles Frederick Worth to Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, Christian Dior, and Yves Saint Laurent, fashion history is dominated by the names of Parisian couturiers. But Valerie Steele's Paris Fashion is much more than just a history of great designers. This fascinating book demonstrates that the success of Paris ultimately rests on the strength of its fashion culture – created by a host of fashion performers and spectators, including actresses, dandies, milliners, artists, and writers.

First published in 1988 to great international acclaim, this pioneering book has now been completely revised and brought up to date, encompassing the rise of fashion's multiple world cities in the 21st century. Lavishly illustrated, deeply learned, and elegantly written, Valerie Steele's masterwork explores with brilliance and flair why Paris remains the capital of fashion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781474245494
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	09/21/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	344
File size:	176 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Valerie Steele is director and chief curator of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, where she has organized more than 25 exhibitions. She is also the founder and editor in chief of Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body&Culture, and the author of more than 20 books including The Corset: A Cultural History; Fetish: Fashion, Sex, and Power; and Women of Fashion: Twentieth-Century Designers. Described in The Washington Post as one of "fashion's brainiest women" and by Suzy Menkes as "The Freud of Fashion," Steele combines serious scholarship (and a Yale Ph.D.) with the rare ability to communicate with general audiences. As author, curator, editor, and public intellectual, Valerie Steele has been instrumental in creating the modern field of fashion studies and in raising awareness of the cultural significance of fashion.
Valerie Steele, an internationally renowned authority on the history of fashion, is Director and Chief Curator of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York. Described in The Washington Post as one of "fashion's brainiest women", she is a prolific author, combining serious scholarship with a rare ability to communicate with the general reader. She is the author of more than a dozen highly acclaimed books including A Queer History of Fashion: From the Closet to the Catwalk, Shoe Obsession, Gothic: Dark Glamour, The Corset: A Cultural History, Fifty Years of Fashion, Fetish: Fashion, Sex and Power, Women of Fashion: 20th-Century Designers. rom the Inside Out. She is also editor-in-chief of a three-volume Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Preface
List of Illustrations
1. Paris, capital of Fashion?
2. The Birth of Paris Fashion
3. Liberty of Dress
4. Fashion in Balzac's Paris
5. The Black Prince of Elegance
6. Fashioning the Parisienne
7. Capital of Luxury and Fashion
8. The Theater of Fashion
9. The Private Life of Paris
10. La Mode Retrouvée
11. Into the 20th Century
12. Chanel and her Rivals
13. Fashion under the Occupation
14. Ups and Downs of Paris Fashion
15. Fashion's World Cities

Notes
Select Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

"This is an original, gracefully written study of Paris fashion, one that manages to say as much about national character, in a sense, as it does about the rise and fall of hemlines . . . I would not only recommend it to anyone interested in the psychology of clothes, but to anyone planning a sejour in France - as much required reading, say, as the Green Guides of Michelin." - Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Steele has achieved some heroic feats of compression, though without clogging her narrative . . . at every stage the argument is buttressed with case histories and anecdotes. The 80 or so illustrations make an important contribution, too . . . not only well chosen but well integrated into the text, and the art of portraying fashion is itself discussed in illuminating detail . . . [Steele's] book offers many insights and pleasures, including some excellent quotations." - The New York Times

"An impressive compendium of information." - The New York Times Book Review

"A mine of novel information and fascinating illustrations, Valerie Steele's book is good to look at and good to read." - Eugen Weber, Historian

"An innovative renewal of a subject all too often explored ploddingly. Ms. Steele enhances brilliantly the eternal appeal of French couture." - Palmer White, author of ELSA SCHIAPARELLI: EMPRESS OF PARIS FASHION

"Once I started reading, I could not stop! Valerie Steele's book is wonderfully witty, pleasurable to read and so well documented. It is one of the best complete studies on Paris fashion that I have ever come across." - Jean-Michel Tuchscherer, Former Curator, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

"Steele's book is a richly textured analysis of sources - artistic, economic, literary, social, and it is a perfect book to recommend to students and many others beside." - Costume

"Valerie Steele’s Paris Fashion is the one-stop scholarly guide to French fashion. Beautifully written and deeply researched, it brings together a cast of characters, a set of policies, and an ethos about fashion that the whole world hopes to understand. The book is widely considered the leading work in English on the subject. Based mainly on primary sources, it demonstrates a feeling for French culture that is palpable on every page." - Peter McNeil, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia

"In this new edition of her seminal book, Valerie Steele brilliantly builds on her exploration of Parisian spaces, places and characters, real and imagined, at the heart of the cultural construction of Paris fashion. With a wealth of new illustrations, as ravishing as they are informative, and with new insights into Paris fashion, this book is more than ever indispensable to anyone interested in understanding the making of a fashion city." - Agnès Rocamora, London College of Fashion, University of the Arts, UK

"There is no better guide to the shifting fortunes of Paris fashion than Valerie Steele. When Paris Fashion was first published in 1988, it changed the way in which fashion history was written and received. This third edition incorporates new perspectives and shows how the fashion culture of Paris has continued to evolve and adapt in a rapidly changing world. Informed, provocative, and accessible, it is a book that will continue to inspire future generations." - Christopher Breward, Edinburgh University, UK

"Valerie Steele’s Paris Fashion is indispensable reading for costume historians and style mavens, students of French culture and lovers of French arts de vivre. With matchless acuity, rigor, and verve, Dr. Steele shows how and why Paris emerged as the greatest fashion city in Western history. Paris Fashion is a triumph of scholarship and storytelling alike. If I could only own one book on fashion, this would unquestionably be it." - Caroline Weber, Columbia University, US

From the Publisher

Anne Hollander, Valerie Steele, and Bill Cunningham are members of a small band of American critics and scholars now writing and talking about fashion with knowledge of the business, the craft and the art. They know its history and its meaning . . . . Above all they respect their profession and grant it due importance.

Dress: Journal of the Costume Society of America

Steele's book is a richly textured analysis of sources - artistic, economic, literary, social, and it is a perfect book to recommend to students and many others beside.

Costume

Once I started reading, I could not stop! Valerie Steele's book is wonderfully witty, pleasurable to read and so well documented. It is one of the best complete studies on Paris fashion that I have ever come across.

Jean-Michel Tuchscherer

An innovative renewal of a subject all too often explored ploddingly. Ms. Steele enhances brilliantly the eternal appeal of French couture.

author of Schiaparelli Palmer White

A mine of novel information and fascinating illustrations, Valerie Steele's book is good to look at and good to read.

Eugen Weber

An impressive compendium of information.

The New York Times Book Review

[Steele's] book offers many insights and pleasures, including some excellent quotations.

The New York Times

This is an original, gracefully written study of Paris fashion, one that manages to say as much about national character, in a sense, as it does about the rise and fall of hemlines. . . . I would not only recommend it to anyone interested in the psychology of clothes, but to anyone planning a sejour in France - as much required reading, say, as the Green Guides of Michelin.

Los Angeles Times Book Review