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Fashion Criticism: An Anthology
This is the first anthology of fashion criticism, a growing field that has been too long overlooked. Fashion Criticism aims to redress the balance, claiming a place for writing on fashion alongside other more well-established areas of criticism. Exploring the history of fashion criticism in the English language, this essential work takes readers from the writing published in avant-garde modernist magazines at the beginning of the twentieth century to the fashion criticism of Robin Givhan—the first fashion critic to win a Pulitzer Prize—and of Judith Thurman, a National Book Award winner. It covers the shift in newspapers from the so-called “women’s pages” to the contemporary style sections, while unearthing the work of cultural critics and writers on fashion including Susan Sontag and Eve Babitz ( Vogue ), Bebe Moore Campbell ( Ebony ), Angela Carter ( New Statesman ) and Hilton Als ( New Yorker) . Examining the gender dynamics of the field and its historical association with the feminine, Fashion Criticism demonstrates how fashion has gained ground as a subject of critical analysis, capitalizing on the centrality of dress and clothing in an increasingly visual and digital world. The book argues that fashion criticism occupied a central role in negotiating shifting gender roles as well as shifting understandings of race. Bringing together two centuries of previously uncollected articles and writings, from Oscar Wilde’s editorials in The Woman’s World to the ground-breaking fashion journalism of the 1980s and today’s proliferation of fashion bloggers, it will be an essential resource for students of fashion studies, media and journalism.
240 pages, Paperback
Published February 25, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 22, 2020
This is a fascinating collection of articles that is aimed at the fashion/media student but which is just as stimulating and enjoyable to the general reader. I would, though, quibble about the title: is it really fashion *criticism*? Or just fashion journalism or writing?
While Granata is right to foreground the lack of status generally attributed to fashion writing, these pieces, selected from newspapers and magazines, do not interrogate or scrutinise either the terms of reference ('fashion', 'criticism') or really turn an eye back on either content or methodology in the way that, say, literary, film or art criticism does - there's no theorising, no self-analysis, no self-consciousness of what these individual pieces and writers might be doing. There's only a light historicised 'tradition' of what 'fashion writing' might be and do.
For example, one of the few articles by an 'outsider' to the fashion industry is Susan Sontag's 'Looking with Avedon' from 1978 which I'd expected to explicitly apply gaze theory to fashion photography (Laura Mulvey's seminal essay on the male gaze in visual culture having been published in 1975 during the second-wave of feminist theorising) but no, it's perhaps there as a covert underpinning to the piece, but the lack of any kind of engaged intellectual underpinning is what makes me mentally file these pieces as journalism but not criticism.
That said, the articles collected here (most of which are short pieces recognisable from their magazine origins) showcase wit, some excellent writing, knowledge of fashion and the industry, and the ability to think about fashion in terms of its cultural significance and the way it negotiates identity both for a group and the individual. Gender is often to the forefront (and the articles are attentive to constructions of masculinity as well as femininity, even androgyny which fashion has long embraced), as is race (great article from Bebe Moore Campbell on afro hair from Ebony in 1982). More recent articles from 2016-18 look at presidential fashion, for example, and the loss of the tie as men in politics try to convey that they are also 'men of the people' - ditto, the rolled up sleeves look worked so well by Barack Obama.
So I'd absolutely recommend this to anyone fascinated by fashion and fashion writing, and the chronological arrangement offers an intriguing glimpse into how what we buy, fantasise over, desire and wear is so much more than just what we put on in the morning.
Thanks to Bloomsbury for an ARC via NetGalley
While Granata is right to foreground the lack of status generally attributed to fashion writing, these pieces, selected from newspapers and magazines, do not interrogate or scrutinise either the terms of reference ('fashion', 'criticism') or really turn an eye back on either content or methodology in the way that, say, literary, film or art criticism does - there's no theorising, no self-analysis, no self-consciousness of what these individual pieces and writers might be doing. There's only a light historicised 'tradition' of what 'fashion writing' might be and do.
For example, one of the few articles by an 'outsider' to the fashion industry is Susan Sontag's 'Looking with Avedon' from 1978 which I'd expected to explicitly apply gaze theory to fashion photography (Laura Mulvey's seminal essay on the male gaze in visual culture having been published in 1975 during the second-wave of feminist theorising) but no, it's perhaps there as a covert underpinning to the piece, but the lack of any kind of engaged intellectual underpinning is what makes me mentally file these pieces as journalism but not criticism.
That said, the articles collected here (most of which are short pieces recognisable from their magazine origins) showcase wit, some excellent writing, knowledge of fashion and the industry, and the ability to think about fashion in terms of its cultural significance and the way it negotiates identity both for a group and the individual. Gender is often to the forefront (and the articles are attentive to constructions of masculinity as well as femininity, even androgyny which fashion has long embraced), as is race (great article from Bebe Moore Campbell on afro hair from Ebony in 1982). More recent articles from 2016-18 look at presidential fashion, for example, and the loss of the tie as men in politics try to convey that they are also 'men of the people' - ditto, the rolled up sleeves look worked so well by Barack Obama.
So I'd absolutely recommend this to anyone fascinated by fashion and fashion writing, and the chronological arrangement offers an intriguing glimpse into how what we buy, fantasise over, desire and wear is so much more than just what we put on in the morning.
Thanks to Bloomsbury for an ARC via NetGalley
May 13, 2023
I am not really a fashionable person. I don't know which things go together and sometimes the more abstract fashion choices of celebrities just strike me as weird. I do love, however, to join in on the global fashion criticsm that takes place around the MET gala each year. I love the detail that goes into fashion, the way clothing can express so much, and how much craft and talent goes into the creation of fashion. So I was also very intrigued by this collection, edited by Francesca Granata. I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
The articles collected in 'Fashion Criticism' are mostly from magazines which means they aren't super long. That meant I could pick the book up, read a piece, and then let that sink in while I went about my day. I did enjoy dipping in and out of the collection that way. In general the articles, of course all written by different authors, share a certain kind of witty and sharp style of writing, which I always enjoy. It also features articles from people I recognised, such as Susan Sontag and Oscar Wilde, to names that were completely unknown to me before. A big plus was the way the articles in this collection investigated the way fashion impacts culture and vice versa. There is a lot of attention in these articles for gender, the way masculinity and femininity are performed and given shape in fashion, but race also is given attention.
A little issue I might have with this collection is the title, but that is the academic in me. Criticism in my field, i.e. literature, is often deeply engaged with the act of criticism, its form, its shape, its development. It is quite self-conscious in that way and I always enjoy seeing how the "genre" of literature criticism has evolved over the decades. That is not super evident in this collection, which is why the 'Criticism' element of the title didn't entirely work for me.
Overall, I found this a really intriguing collection of writing on fashion. I don't know if it will improve my own taste, but I will definitely have more informed takes next time I judge fashion.
The articles collected in 'Fashion Criticism' are mostly from magazines which means they aren't super long. That meant I could pick the book up, read a piece, and then let that sink in while I went about my day. I did enjoy dipping in and out of the collection that way. In general the articles, of course all written by different authors, share a certain kind of witty and sharp style of writing, which I always enjoy. It also features articles from people I recognised, such as Susan Sontag and Oscar Wilde, to names that were completely unknown to me before. A big plus was the way the articles in this collection investigated the way fashion impacts culture and vice versa. There is a lot of attention in these articles for gender, the way masculinity and femininity are performed and given shape in fashion, but race also is given attention.
A little issue I might have with this collection is the title, but that is the academic in me. Criticism in my field, i.e. literature, is often deeply engaged with the act of criticism, its form, its shape, its development. It is quite self-conscious in that way and I always enjoy seeing how the "genre" of literature criticism has evolved over the decades. That is not super evident in this collection, which is why the 'Criticism' element of the title didn't entirely work for me.
Overall, I found this a really intriguing collection of writing on fashion. I don't know if it will improve my own taste, but I will definitely have more informed takes next time I judge fashion.
Read
January 10, 2026I purchased this book when it was first published, and it has been sitting on my shelf ever since. I made a promise to myself to read more about topics of interest, such as film, art, and fashion. Fashion Criticism: An Anthology edited by Francesca Granata is a collection of different types of fashion writing from the late 19th century to the 21st century.
The writings are essays, fashion show reviews, and social and political commentary. As a writer and scholar, I was interested in the more literary and academic pieces from The New Yorker, Vestoj, and 032c, but this is a pretty solid collection. As someone with an affinity for the 70s and the 90s, I enjoyed section two the most because it covered that 30-year period.
As a lover of fashion, there is a lot of talk about how things were better in the old days, and people often complain about the lack of true fashion criticism through the years. I expected a decline in writing by the 21st century because of the rise of social media, but instead, I was reminded of the fashion writing that I read a decade ago. This collection is impressive because it has the fashion critics we know of, like Robin Givhan, Suzy Menkes, Cathy Horyn, and Vanessa Friedman (just to name a few), but it also has culture writers and authors like Susan Sontag, Hilton Als, Oscar Wilde, Angela Carter, and so many more. It was also really cool to see Anja Aronowsky Cronberg of Vestoj in this collection.
Sometimes I can get caught up in the narrative that good fashion criticism and writing doesn't exist anymore, but this is a fantastic resource that reminds me of where I should look.
The writings are essays, fashion show reviews, and social and political commentary. As a writer and scholar, I was interested in the more literary and academic pieces from The New Yorker, Vestoj, and 032c, but this is a pretty solid collection. As someone with an affinity for the 70s and the 90s, I enjoyed section two the most because it covered that 30-year period.
As a lover of fashion, there is a lot of talk about how things were better in the old days, and people often complain about the lack of true fashion criticism through the years. I expected a decline in writing by the 21st century because of the rise of social media, but instead, I was reminded of the fashion writing that I read a decade ago. This collection is impressive because it has the fashion critics we know of, like Robin Givhan, Suzy Menkes, Cathy Horyn, and Vanessa Friedman (just to name a few), but it also has culture writers and authors like Susan Sontag, Hilton Als, Oscar Wilde, Angela Carter, and so many more. It was also really cool to see Anja Aronowsky Cronberg of Vestoj in this collection.
Sometimes I can get caught up in the narrative that good fashion criticism and writing doesn't exist anymore, but this is a fantastic resource that reminds me of where I should look.
December 2, 2020
"McQueen said, I'm not big on women looking naive. There is a hidden agenda in the fragility of romance."
"Now the mouth is back as bloody gash, a visible wound. This mouth bleeds over everything, cups, ice cream, table napkins, towels....We will leave our blood spoor behind us, to show we have been there....They all dripped blood over everything as they stalked sophisticatedly to their dooms. In their wake, lipstick traces on a cigarette stub; the perfect imprint, like half a heart, of a scarlet lower lip on a drained Martini glass; the telltale scarlet letter, A for adultery. On a shirt collar on the kitsch poetry of it all! ... The revival of red lipstick indicates, above all, I suppose that women's sense of security was transient."
This anthology blew me away. Aside from my passionate love for Alexander McQueen, I know next to nothing about fashion. This book was extremely approachable for someone who has never interacted with the subject of fashion. It's well-curated--every essay stood strong on its own but fit well with others in its grouping. I learned a lot and also found some recommendations for future reading on the subject!
Thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Academic for an ARC of this book!
"Now the mouth is back as bloody gash, a visible wound. This mouth bleeds over everything, cups, ice cream, table napkins, towels....We will leave our blood spoor behind us, to show we have been there....They all dripped blood over everything as they stalked sophisticatedly to their dooms. In their wake, lipstick traces on a cigarette stub; the perfect imprint, like half a heart, of a scarlet lower lip on a drained Martini glass; the telltale scarlet letter, A for adultery. On a shirt collar on the kitsch poetry of it all! ... The revival of red lipstick indicates, above all, I suppose that women's sense of security was transient."
This anthology blew me away. Aside from my passionate love for Alexander McQueen, I know next to nothing about fashion. This book was extremely approachable for someone who has never interacted with the subject of fashion. It's well-curated--every essay stood strong on its own but fit well with others in its grouping. I learned a lot and also found some recommendations for future reading on the subject!
Thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Academic for an ARC of this book!
November 11, 2023
wish ze by nejaky kapitoly byly delsi a vic rozvinuty ale furt ate
May 31, 2021
This was so lovely to read as someone interested in fashion as a medium of conveying the nuances of the culture it was made in. Also extremely eye-opening, as I had no idea Oscar Wilde or Susan Sontag wrote fashion criticism--it states in the anthology that several of Sontag's fashion essays, which she wrote for Vogue in the nineties, were never published after the initial publication. All in all, highly recommend if you're into uncovering firsthand accounts and writing from the eras they were written in.
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February 23, 2025nostalgia … and longing is always a “future-past, a deferment of experience”
a contemporary sense of cynicism and ennui, or on millenarian visions of apocalypse
a contemporary sense of cynicism and ennui, or on millenarian visions of apocalypse
February 12, 2021
This is a really interesting anthology of writings on fashion through history, putting together a variety of pieces all centered around different aspects of fashion criticism. I particularly found the early writings to be the most fascinating as they looked forward to trends that have now come true in the 21st century, especially tied to fashion and gender. They provided an incredibly meaningful context even to modern day writings on fashion. I was really interested in all of the different articles chosen and was genuinely surprised that this field has not seen an anthology like this yet. I hope this book marks a shift in the realm of writings on fashion that properly highlight just how important these writings are in our understanding of fashion, where it's been and where it's going. I highly recommend.
June 18, 2021
Informative, well researched and engrossing. An excellent book that mixes social and historical observations and made me learn a lot.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews