HIST 358: Libertinage and Liberty (HC): Dress and Fashion

Tackling the issue of clothing in relation to such fundamental issues as national identity, social distinction, gender, the body, religion and politics, Clothing Culture, 1350-1650 provides a springboard into one of the most fascinating yet least understood aspects of social and cultural history.Nowhere in medieval and early modern European society was its hierarchical and social divisions more obviously reflected than in the sphere of clothing. Indeed, one of the few constant themes of writers, chroniclers, diarists and commentators - from Chaucer to Pepys - was the subject of fashion and clothes. Whether it was lauding the magnificence of court, warning against the vanity of fashion, describing the latest modes, or decrying the habit of the lower orders to ape the dress of their social superiors, people throughout history have been fascinated by the symbolism, power and messages that clothes can project.

This book establishes credit as a key matrix through which French men and women perceived their world. As Clare Haru Crowston demonstrates, credit unveils the personal character of market transactions, the unequal yet reciprocal ties binding society, and the hidden mechanisms of political power. Credit economies constituted "economies of regard" in which reputation depended on embodied performances of credibility. Crowston explores the role of fashionable appearances and sexual desire in leveraging credit and reconstructs women's vigorous participation in its gray markets. The scandalous relationship between Queen Marie Antoinette and fashion merchant Rose Bertin epitomizes the vertical loyalties and deep social divides of the credit regime and its increasingly urgent political stakes.

Author Elizabeth Amann shows that in France, England, and Spain, daring dress became a way of taking a stance toward the social and political upheaval of the period. France is the centerpiece of the story, not just because of the significance of the Revolution but also because of the speed with which its politics and fashions shifted. Amann aims to revise our understanding of the origins of modern dandyism and to recover the political context from which it emerged.

This sumptuously illustrated book offers the first up-close view of the richness and variety of historical dress of the 17th and 18th centuries. Drawn from the Victoria and Albert Museum's world-famous collection, these garments display skills that are now lost, yet continue to inspire today's leading designers.

Much of the finery seen here is too fragile to be on permanent display, or its detail too intricate to be captured in conventional photography. Jacobean blackwork, neoclassical tambour work, exquisite stitching, and knife-sharp pleats are pictured in stunning photographs, alongside such unusual techniques as stamping, pinking, and slashing--many of which are rarely employees in the modern world, as they require labor-intensive handwork impossible to replicate by machine.