An encyclopaedic selection of 111 garments, footwear, and accessories - from humble masterpieces to high fashion - that have had a strong impact on society in the 20th and 21st centuries and continue to hold currency today. Published to accompany the first major exhibition on fashion design at The Museum of Modern Art since 1944, Items: Is Fashion Modern? presents 111 iconic garments, footwear and accessories that have strongly influenced society in the 20th and 21st- centuries and continue to hold currency today. Organized alphabetically as a reference book, the publication examines the ways in which these items are designed, manufactured, distributed and used, while exploring the wide range of relationships between clothing and functionality, cultural etiquettes, aesthetics, politics and technology. Designs as wellknown and transformative as the Levi's 501s, the pearl necklace, the sari and Yves Saint Laurent's Le Smoking - and as ancient and historically rich as the Breton sweater, the kippah, and the keffiyeh - are included, allowing for exploration of the numerous issues these items have produced and shaped over many decades. Richly illustrated with historical and archival imagery as well as newly commissioned photography from Omar Victor Diop, Bobby Doherty, Catherine Losing, Monika Mogi and Kristin-Lee Moolman, Items reflects not only on fashion's power and social history, but also on its design construct and staying power, in order to understand what of the system of fashion should remain for generations to come - and what alterations need to be made to ensure a tenable future for this arena that touches us all.

This exciting book explores fashion not simply from an aesthetic point of view but also as a manifestation of social and cultural change. Focusing on fashion from 1850, noted fashion historians Daniel James Cole and Nancy Deihl consider the evolution of womenswear, menswear, and childrenswear, decade by decade. The book looks at the dissemination of style and the mechanisms of change, at the relationship between fashion and the visual, applied, and performing arts, the intertwined relationship between fashion and popular culture, the impact of new materials and technology, and the growing globalization of style. With photographs of costume from museums and images from the fashion press including editorial photography, illustrations, and advertising, the book will include insights into icons of fashion and the clothes worn by “real people”, providing a valuable visual reference for the reader.

Table of contents

This captivating book reproduces arguably the most extraordinary primary source documents in fashion history. Providing a revealing window onto the Renaissance, they chronicle how style-conscious accountant Matthäus Schwarz and his son Veit Konrad experienced life through clothes, and climbed the social ladder through fastidious management of self-image. These bourgeois dandies' agenda resonates as powerfully today as it did in the sixteenth century: one has to dress to impress, and dress to impress they did. The Schwarzes recorded their sartorial triumphs as well as failures in life in a series of portraits by illuminists over 60 years, which have been comprehensively reproduced in full color for the first time. These exquisite illustrations are accompanied by the Schwarzes' fashion-focussed yet at times deeply personal captions, which render the pair the world's first fashion bloggers and pioneers of everyday portraiture. The First Book of Fashion demonstrates how dress – seemingly both ephemeral and trivial – is a potent tool in the right hands. Beyond this, it colorfully recaptures the experience of Renaissance life and reveals the importance of clothing to the aesthetics and every day culture of the period. Historians Ulinka Rublack's and Maria Hayward's insightful commentaries create an unparalleled portrait of sixteenth-century dress that is both strikingly modern and thorough in its description of a true Renaissance fashionista's wardrobe. This first English translation also includes a bespoke pattern by TONY award-winning costume designer and dress historian Jenny Tiramani, from which readers can recreate one of Schwarz's most elaborate and politically significant outfits.

An eye-opening and richly illustrated journey through the clothes worn by artists, and what they reveal to us. From Yves Klein’s spotless tailoring to the kaleidoscopic costumes of Yayoi Kusama and Cindy Sherman, from Andy Warhol’s denim to Martine Syms’s joy in dressing, the clothes worn by artists are tools of expression, storytelling, resistance, and creativity. In What Artists Wear, fashion critic and art curator Charlie Porter guides us through the wardrobes of modern artists: in the studio, in performance, at work or at play. For Porter, clothing is a way in: the wild paint-splatters on Jean-Michel Basquiat’s designer clothing, Joseph Beuys’s shamanistic felt hat, or the functional workwear that defined Agnes Martin’s life of spiritua labor. As Porter roams widely from Georgia O’Keeffe’s tailoring to David Hockney’s bold color blocking to Sondra Perry’s intentional casual wear, he weaves his own perceptive analyses with original interviews and contributions from artists and their families and friends. Part love letter, part guide to chic, with more than 300 images, What Artists Wear offers a new way of understanding art, combined with a dynamic approach to the clothes we all wear. The result is a radical, gleeful inspiration to see each outfit as a canvas on which to convey an identity or challenge the status quo.

Contains detailed instructions on making Japanese garments, from kimono towo-toe socks, using either traditional Japanese sewing methods or easierodern methods. The book includes patterns, fabric suggestions and sizingnstructions.