Books
Power Mode: The Force of Fashion
Published in tandem with The Museum at FIT exhibition of the same title, this book is divided thematically into five chapters that focus on the impact of military uniforms, suits, status dressing, resistance, and sex on the power of fashion. It takes an object-based approach to investigate how certain garments have come to be culturally associated with power, as well as how their meanings have evolved over time. It also examines how fashion designers have interpreted these stylistic archetypes—both to convey and to subvert power.
Denim: Fashion’s Frontier
Denim is one of the world’s favorite fabrics, and today it accounts for the largest segment of the clothing industry. The market for jeans alone is worth over 55 billion dollars. Experiments with denim by designers have helped to develop a vast vocabulary of denim styles beyond jeans that are now ingrained in fashion’s lexicon. This handsome book explores the multifaceted history of denim and examines the continually evolving relationship between it and high fashion.
Yves Saint Laurent + Halston: Fashioning the 70s
Co-authored with Patricia Mears
This fascinating publication is the first to examine side by side the careers and work of two of the biggest names in 20th-century fashion, Yves Saint Laurent (1936–2008) and Halston (1932–1990). Their designs—chic, sexy, and glamorous—came to exemplify the 1970s, a singular and dynamic era in fashion history. Inspired by menswear, foreign cultures, and wide-ranging historical periods, and employing new fabrics, YSL and Halston together crafted a new and distinctly modern way of dressing.
Chapters
“Shaping the Standard Body: Sizing in American Fashion” in Fashioning America: Grit to Glamor
Co-authored with Lauren Downing Peters
The companion volume to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art’s first fashion exhibition, Fashioning America: Grit to Glamour celebrates the history of American attire, from the cowboy boot to the zoot suit. From dresses worn by First Ladies to art-inspired garments to iconic moments in fashion that defined a generation, Fashioning America showcases uniquely American expressions of innovation, spotlighting stories of designers and wearers that center on opportunity and self-invention, and amplifying the voices of those who are often left out of dominant fashion narratives.
“Fashion and Physique: Size, Shape, and Body Politics in the Display of Historical Dress” in Mannequins in Museums: Power and Resistance on Display
Mannequins in Museums is a collection of historical and contemporary case studies that examine how mannequins are presented in exhibitions and shows that, as objects used for storytelling, they are not neutral objects. Demonstrating that mannequins have long histories of being used to promote colonialism, consumerism, and racism, the book shows how these histories inform their use. It also engages readers in a conversation about how historical narratives are expressed in museums through mannequins as surrogate forms. Written by a select group of curators and art historians, the volume provides insight into a variety of museum contexts, including art, history, fashion, anthropology and wax. Drawing on exhibition case studies from North America, South Africa, and Europe, each chapter discusses the pedagogical and aesthetic stakes involved in representing racial difference and cultural history through mannequins. As a whole, the book will assist readers to understand the history of mannequins and their contemporary use as culturally relevant objects.
“Don’t Eat That: Food, Fashion, Dieting and Disorder” in Food and Fashion
Food and Fashion accompanies a major exhibition at The Museum at FIT, New York's only museum dedicated solely to the art of fashion. This beautifully illustrated book featuring over 100 enticing full-color images, from fashion runways to fine art photography and period cookbooks, examines the influence of food culture through the lens of fashion over the last 250 years. It focuses on the ways that food culture has expressed itself in fashion and how these connect to broader socio-cultural change, examining how vital both have been in expressing cultural movements across centuries, and specifically exploring the role food plays in fashionable expression.
“Branding the Boutique: Yves Saint Laurent and His Rive Gauche” in Paris Refashion: 1957-1958
A captivating look at Parisian fashions of the 1960s and how the ready-to-wear revolution influenced haute couture. The 1960s was one of the most exciting periods in fashion history, as shifting cultural paradigms were embraced by a generation of designers that challenged conventions and reinvented the fashion industry. This compelling volume focuses on the important but too often dismissed fashions that were created in Paris during this time. From the early couture designs of Yves Saint Laurent that initiated a trend toward a more relaxed and youthful style, to the popularity of ready-to-wear fashions by Emmanuelle Khanh – part of a new group known as the stylists – this book traces the development of Parisian fashion during the 1960s and its continuing legacy.
“When Iconoclasts Collide: Merce Cunningham and Rei Kawakubo’s Scenario” in Dance + Fashion
Lavishly illustrated with both contemporary and historical images, the book features essays by ten fashion experts, who explore various aspects of the reciprocal relationship between dance and fashion, from the liberating effects of the tango to the influence of ballet on Japanese girl culture. Designers featured include Leon Bakst, Cristóbal Balenciaga, Comme des Garçons, Christian Dior, John Galliano, Jean Paul Gaultier, Halston, Barbara Karinka, Isaac Mizrahi, Rodarte, Yves Saint Laurent, Riccardo Tisci of Givenchy, Valentino, and Iris Van Herpen. This beautiful book explores for the first time the synergy between dance and fashion, and is an original and inspired contribution to the study of both art forms.
Journals
The Body: Fashion and Physique
Fashion Theory Special Issue, Volume 23, 2019 - Issue 2, Co-edited by Joanne Entwistle and Emma McClendon
This special issue was organized on the occasion of The Museum at The FIT exhibition as a way to delve deeper into some of its key themes, including such topics as plus-size fashion, age, race, the prosthetic body, the male body, and representations of masculinity. Our goal is to open a dialogue within the fashion studies community on how we can make the discussion of fashion, both its past and present, more inclusive.
“First Paris Fashions out of the Sky”: The 1962 Telstar Satellite's Impact on the Transatlantic Fashion System
Fashion Theory Volume 18, 2014 - Issue 3
On July 23, 1962 Europe and America exchanged the first live transatlantic television transmission using the new Telstar satellite. This transmission was broadcast across three continents, changing the speed of global communication forever. On the following day, July 24, 1962, CBS used the same Telstar satellite to broadcast a live preview of Dior and Balmain haute couture models across America. In so doing, Telstar changed the dynamic of the fashion industry by disrupting the traditional flow of information between its two most powerful centers: Paris and New York. This article examines the shift in the visual nature of couture reports that appeared in The New York Times and The New York Herald Tribune from 1957 through 1964 in order to assesses the effect the 1962 broadcast had on the transatlantic couture system.