Isms: Understanding Fashion

by Mairi MacKenzie

This engaging and informative guide lays out the significant design trends and movements that have shaped costume and fashion from the ancients through today. The latest in the best-selling Isms series, which includes Understanding Art , Understanding Architectural Styles and Understanding Religion , is Understanding Fashion . Concisely written, this book packs loads of detail into a handy small format, tracing the evolution of costume history and fashion through a series of interconnected trends and movements (a.k.a. "isms") from the Greco-Roman toga and the antebellum hoop skirt to the latest from the runway. This guide is organized chronologically and covers the evolution of costume, the beginning of haute couture, and the rise of fashion as we know it— documented throughout with a combination of line drawings, costume illustration, and fashion photography. It includes an overview of designers from the classic—Coco Chanel, Dior—to the contemporary design greats, such as Tom Ford and Marc Jacobs. While the book traces the influences and links between designers, it also includes patrons, from Marie-Antoinette to Jackie Kennedy and Princess Diana, as well as fashion muses from Sarah Bernhardt to Sarah Jessica Parker. Related topics such as accessories and accoutrements are included as well. Anyone interested in costume and fashion will delight in this book.

Genres: Fashion, Nonfiction, History, Art, Reference

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Max Oliveira · Rating 3 out of 5]

Muito bom como porta de entrada aos estudos da moda. Faz um panorama histórico de uma série de movimentos estéticos de moda desde o fim do século XVII, com descrições sucintas e comentários esparsos sobre visão da autor. Nada que te ajude a compreender profundamente os estilos ou a filosofia por detrás deles, contudo para quem é totalmente virgem em moda a obra da conta do serviço de lançar uma base sobre a qual a pessoa vai poder caminhar para estudos posteriores.

Definitivamente recomendo para quem deseja começar a estudar a moda.

[Raluca Daniela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this a lot because it was written as a cause-and-effect narrative, where one fashion style caused multiple counter trends and reinterpretations of it, depending on the message, target audience, and the people behind it. The book itself is a bit outdated now, in the sense that so much has happened since its publication — fast fashion going the route of ultra consumerism, all those online aesthetics that change from one week to another, influencers becoming the ones who set the trends — so I'd love to see an updated version of it. If anything, reading about fashion through the ages gives me hope that today's popular fashion will one day vanish and I'll finally find the proper socks I used to love, not the hideous things I see in stores nowadays.

[Tamara S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Also great book for future fashion students to gain some basic knowledge. It tiny mini study book

[Andràș-Florin Răducanu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mediocră.

[WORN Fashion Journal]

Organizationally, it is structured like a travel guide or a text-book. A “How to use this book” section introduces the hokey, yet useful icons in each section to delineate material such as “Introduction,” “Key Words”, “See Also” (related practices), and “Don’t see” (contrary practices). A preference for flowing text led me to regularly skip to the “Main Definition” of every ism. Despite its engagement with the format of a User’s Manual, the main content flows with an engaging readability that is impressive for a reference book.

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Mackenzie skillfully distills the several hundred years of fashion into concise descriptions of specific aesthetics and influences. The book is arranged by century starting with the 17th and 18th Centuries. The evolution and decline of Baroque and Rococo fashions are examined as the direct result of a changing socioeconomic climate in 17th Century France. While clothing was once a statement of privilege, the egalitarianism of the French Revolution led to the decline of fanciful fashion by the end of the 18th Century.

In the 19th Century, the technological advancements of the Industrial Revolution enabled a burgeoning middle class that imposed stricter social etiquettes. Mackenzie explores the ways in which codes of class and gender were presented in fashion, focusing in particular upon how women’s clothing became more physically restrictive as a direct reflection of women’s constricted place in society.

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The world of fashion diversified in the 20th century as media and industry proliferated. Between looser social codes and the emergence of textile mass production came a fashion that was aesthetically more practical than elegant. With fashion’s greater accessibility, clothing came to function more as statement rather than mere garments. A visual commentary on the social, political, and economic was developing, and this discourse was being worn.

Mackenzie leaves us with a brief examination of the 21st Century, when fashion is powerfully affected by that great empire of information exchange, the Internet, and the increasing global accessibility and interchange of goods. With fewer and fewer borders to cultural knowledge and material goods themselves, it seems that modern fashion is the result of converging social, political, ecological, and aesthetic influences from all over the world.

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An excellent point of reference for many of fashion’s separate yet entwined, and convoluted yet accessible histories - it does precisely what it intends to do; Mackenzie achieves a tangible overview to the history of fashion, and delivers it with a generally unbiased take on the historical, social, and political influences in fashion.

You won’t be debating fashion concepts and influences amongst aficionados out of the breadth of this book. However, you will discover the basis of certain practices that will plant the right amount of intrigue to take you to the library, bookstore, or World Wide Web where you can explore these "isms" further. And then you can debate. (reviewed by Jennifer Carroll)

[Andreea · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book I got for my cousin (her birthday is soon), but I am reading it before gifting it. It is easy to read and understand and it helps you form an idea about fashion throughout history and how events and the context they happened in influenced fashion.

[Mary Ann (MAA) · Rating 3 out of 5]

slick format, but hard to read (font selection, shiny paper, sans serif font). Quick reference for someone interested in fashion.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reference only.

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read. Fashion and history really do co-mingle!

[Simon De · Rating 4 out of 5]

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