Reading fashion in art

Abstract

From the stylization of the body to textile embellishments and symbolic colors, dress tells a story and provides clues as to the cultural beliefs of the time in which artworks were produced. This book provides a step-by-step guide to analysing dress in art, including paintings, photographs, drawings and art installations. The first section of the book includes an introduction to visual analysis and explains how to 'read' fashion and dress in an artwork using the checklists. The second section offers case studies which demonstrate how artworks can be analysed from the point of view of key themes including status and identity, modernity, ideals of beauty, gender, race, globalization and politics. The book includes iconic as well as lesser known works of art, including work by Elisabeth Vigée le Brun, Thomas Gainsborough, James Jacques Tissot, Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray, Yinka Shonibare, Mickalene Thomas, Kent Monkman and many others. The step-by-step methodology helps the reader learn to look at any work of art that includes the dressed or undressed body and confidently develop a critical analysis of what they see.

Contents

Introduction -- Artists & wardrobes -- The slow approach to seeing -- Observation -- Reflection -- Interpretation -- Fashion & identity -- Fashion & modernity -- Fashion & beauty -- Fashion & gender -- Fashion & politics -- Coda -- Appendix I: Checklist for observation -- Appendix II: Checklist for reflection -- Appendix III: Checklist for interpretation -- Bibliography -- Image credits -- Index -- Acknowledgments.