Fashion

by Christopher Breward

Following 150 years of fashion, Christopher Breward offers a catholic view of this colorful and flamboyant universe, describing its trends, products, and inhabitants. From Haute Couture, High Street, and developing fabric technology to such stars of the fashion heavens as Coco Chanel, Giorgio
Armani, and Alexander McQueen, Breward explores territories far beyond style and function. He sees more than just an industry, giving voice to the larger cultural phenomenon fashion has become.

Breward's discerning view captures the glamorous world of Vogue and advertising; the relationship between fashion and film, and fashion as a business; and goes beyond the surface to consider individual interaction with fashion. How have ideas about hygiene and comfort influenced the direction of
style? How does dress create identity and status? Framing details of dandies, flappers, and punks within a clear overview of their respective periods, Breward takes a second look and casts everyday wear in a much different light.

In addition to all the glitz and glamour, the book includes suggestions for further reading, a timeline marking important events in fashion, and a list of relevant museums and galleries. In all, it is the most valuable, accessible, and modern text on fashion today.

Genres: Fashion, Nonfiction, History, Art, Sociology, Research, Reference

272 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2003

About the author

Christopher Breward is Director of Collection and Research at the National Galleries of Scotland, UK and Professorial Fellow at Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh, UK.

Reviews

[Malcolm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Christopher Breward's historical studies of fashion has justly earned him plaudits, so a combination of his care and sceptical insights longside the very high production values of Oxford UP's excellent History of Art series was imply too much to pass up, and I wasn't disappointed.

Breward's grasp of the literature and ability to get beyond the hagiographic writing that pervades much of the fashion literature in its obsession with the 'genius' designer is welcome. Naturally, it is the nature of the field and the character of art history discourses that significant parts of the story are old through key designers - Coco Chanel, Charles Frederick Worth, Paul Poiret, Galliano, Donna Karan, Vinenne Westwood, Gaultier et al make the expected appearances but in the context of a book with a significant section looking critically at fashion promotion, and thankfully including an (all too brief) chapter on making clothes. The book has three substantive sections - dealing with producing, promoting and wearing. Not surprisingly the final section is the longest, and it is the place where Breward gets to tease out the relationship between identities-from-wearing and fashion production in its capitals - Paris, London, New York, Milan. I would have liked more on making clothes, but this is an art history series and Breward has done well to assert the essential role of the networks that produce clothing from 'glamour' designer to sweatshop labourer, and also included many of the key texts in the supplementary reading list.

The book is beautifully produced - good quality paper, high quality images - 144 of them in 239 pages of text: a pretty good ratio and here are few double pages without an image, good binding. There is an extremely good reading list (and it is telling that I am reading this 8 years after publication and there is not much of quality to add), and all for a remarkably cheap price. This is an exceptionally good introduction to the field of study as a whole.

[Rafaela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just like any other Art History book, is not a quite easy book to follow. There are topics more interesting than others, but overall was a pleasant read. I was expecting a book that wold talk about the ways of dressing, but learning about the cultural changes and economic factors that influenced great names in the history of fashion was actually a great way to start.
Since my mother tongue isn't english I had to search some words that were fashion vocabulary but nothing that I'm not used to

[Maria Pantazopoulou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting book, I would definitely recommend it to anyone who'd like to read a concrete introduction to social fashion history!

[Lii · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oxford history of Art book of Fashion was a book of the general history of fashion that leads to the modern fashion industry. Although the book discusses many important factors it leaves out many other important points as well. The language is a bit pretentious and can be hard to read. It provides insight into the history but doesn't really dive properly into it.

[Maddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative in a way of what fashion once was (only through late Rococo to modern day), what it is now, how society and individual designers paved the way through history. It also gives great sources and resources to further your research. Sadly, it is very limited and mainly focuses on what couture is and was. Enjoyable read and informative in what it offers.

[Jack Kinsella · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was hoping for a better book, considering the publisher, but the author's use of English was let down by an over-reliance on the thesaurus, rampant inaccurate usage, and an overly wordy style. Shame really.

[Ashley Cancienne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have not finished this book yet. But it is extremely boring. Some facts here and there are interesting, but its hard to follow because the author uses way too many complex words, long sentences, and reiterates a lot. Also, it doesn't follow a time line very much. It goes from 1920s to 1950s to 1930s to 1960s to 1920s. Very confusing! It's pretty much a textbook. I think this is a book fashion students are forced to read and take notes on or something. Also, theres not much on actual fashion clothing, accessories, models or photography. Its mostly about designers and what they were known for, and even then I feel like a lot of the actual interesting stuff is left out.

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Breward has takes a welcome and uncommon critical look at the social, economic, and cultural forces that have shaped Western fashion as a movement and industry in the last century and a half in this book. Unfortunately, he seems to have so much disdain for both his subject and fellow fashion historians in his writing I have to wonder if he wrote the book under duress. A rigorous critical look at a subject shouldn't preclude finding joy in it, but Breward's text is as joyless as they come. I had to put it down after a few chapters because it was sucking all the fun out of fashion history and criticism for me.