Using significant new archival evidence, The Mechanical Smile shows how so-called “mannequin parades” employed the visual language of modernism to translate business and management methods into visual seduction. Caroline Evans, a leading fashion historian, argues for an expanded definition of modernism as both gestural and performative, drawing on literary and performance theory rather than relying on art and design history. The fashion show, Evans posits, is a singular nodal point where the disparate histories of commerce, modernism, gender, and the body converge.
Using significant new archival evidence, The Mechanical Smile shows how so-called “mannequin parades” employed the visual language of modernism to translate business and management methods into visual seduction. Caroline Evans, a leading fashion historian, argues for an expanded definition of modernism as both gestural and performative, drawing on literary and performance theory rather than relying on art and design history. The fashion show, Evans posits, is a singular nodal point where the disparate histories of commerce, modernism, gender, and the body converge.
The Mechanical Smile: Modernism and the First Fashion Shows in France and America, 1900-1929
338The Mechanical Smile: Modernism and the First Fashion Shows in France and America, 1900-1929
338Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780300189537 |
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Publisher: | Yale University Press |
Publication date: | 07/02/2013 |
Pages: | 338 |
Product dimensions: | 9.40(w) x 11.30(h) x 1.10(d) |