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Men in Black
Mr.
"Why can't we pick out our own color?"
"I tried that once, it don't work. You get four guys fighting over who's gonna be Mr. Black."
—Quentin Tarantino, Reservoir Dogs
Men's clothes went black in the nineteenth century. Dickens, Ruskin and Baudelaire all asked why it was, in an age of supreme wealth and power, that men wanted to dress as if going to a funeral. The answer is in this history of the color black. Over the last 1000 years there have been successive expansions in the wearing of black—from the Church to the Court, from the Court to the merchant class. Though black as fashion was often smart and elegant, its growth as a cultural marker was fed by several currents in Europe's history—in politics, asceticism, religious warfare. Only in the nineteenth century, however, did black fully come into its own as fashion, the most telling witnesses constantly saw connections between the taste for black and the forms of constraint with which European society regimented itself.
Concentrating on the general shift away from color that began around 1800, Harvey traces the transition to black from the court of Burgundy in the 15th century, through 16th-century Venice, 17th-century Spain and the Netherlands. He uses paintings from Van Eyck and Degas to Francis Bacon, religious art, period lithographs, wood engravings, costume books, newsphotos, movie stills and related sources in his compelling study of the meaning of color and clothes.
Although in the twentieth century tastes have moved toward new colors, black has retained its authority as well as its associations with strength and cruelty. At the same time black is still smart, and fashion keeps returning to black. It is, perhaps, the color that has come to acquire the greatest, most significant range of meaning in history.
"Why can't we pick out our own color?"
"I tried that once, it don't work. You get four guys fighting over who's gonna be Mr. Black."
—Quentin Tarantino, Reservoir Dogs
Men's clothes went black in the nineteenth century. Dickens, Ruskin and Baudelaire all asked why it was, in an age of supreme wealth and power, that men wanted to dress as if going to a funeral. The answer is in this history of the color black. Over the last 1000 years there have been successive expansions in the wearing of black—from the Church to the Court, from the Court to the merchant class. Though black as fashion was often smart and elegant, its growth as a cultural marker was fed by several currents in Europe's history—in politics, asceticism, religious warfare. Only in the nineteenth century, however, did black fully come into its own as fashion, the most telling witnesses constantly saw connections between the taste for black and the forms of constraint with which European society regimented itself.
Concentrating on the general shift away from color that began around 1800, Harvey traces the transition to black from the court of Burgundy in the 15th century, through 16th-century Venice, 17th-century Spain and the Netherlands. He uses paintings from Van Eyck and Degas to Francis Bacon, religious art, period lithographs, wood engravings, costume books, newsphotos, movie stills and related sources in his compelling study of the meaning of color and clothes.
Although in the twentieth century tastes have moved toward new colors, black has retained its authority as well as its associations with strength and cruelty. At the same time black is still smart, and fashion keeps returning to black. It is, perhaps, the color that has come to acquire the greatest, most significant range of meaning in history.
280 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
2 people are currently reading
68 people want to read
About the author
John Harvey
4 books2 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Dr. John R. Harvey has been a Fellow of Emmanuel, University of Cambridge since 1967. He was full Lecturer for the English Faculty from 1979 on, and became University Reader in Literature and Visual Culture in 2000.
He was the chairman of the College's Picture, Plate and Furniture Committee, and the Picture Guild and was the College's Vice-Master from 2004 to 2006.
His novel The Plate Shop won the David Higham Prize for Fiction and was shortlisted for the Hawthornden Prize and the Yorkshire Post Fiction Prize.
Dr. John R. Harvey has been a Fellow of Emmanuel, University of Cambridge since 1967. He was full Lecturer for the English Faculty from 1979 on, and became University Reader in Literature and Visual Culture in 2000.
He was the chairman of the College's Picture, Plate and Furniture Committee, and the Picture Guild and was the College's Vice-Master from 2004 to 2006.
His novel The Plate Shop won the David Higham Prize for Fiction and was shortlisted for the Hawthornden Prize and the Yorkshire Post Fiction Prize.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 17, 2018
The topic itself is pretty interesting but Harvey somehow managed to make it less interesting by writing what looks like literature major hand notes for essays on Hamlet, Othello, and Dickens.
October 4, 2022
John Harvey's history of when and where men wore black is seen often through the lens of writers and artists. Harvey particularly focuses on literary figures wearing black, by Dickens, Tennyson, George Eliot, and Franz Kafka. Covering black in fashion from the 1600s to the present, the author does a deep dive into the Victorian era. He mostly focuses on Great Britain, European countries, with few mentions of the US, Japan, and other countries. Not a conventional history of fashion, but more a view through a different aspect of fashion: that of art and literature and poetry.
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April 29, 2017i used and referred this book for my upcoming book Lovescape. I have a chapter on Dressed Nation. Yes it is good book but i just flipped through its page. Yet it seemed a nice book on information related to apparels and its social aspects. men and costume has strong correlates in societal context which arbitrate power and its dispersal in society, particularity to the disadvantages of the fair sex. This book was in fact good direction for my Dressed Nation. a chapter i have worked on my forthcoming title Lovescape.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews