Week 1: Intro to class and syllabus. What is dress? Overview of the study of historic dress. Clothes as language and communication.

Video: Why Wear Clothes: The Functions of Fashion, Learning Seed, 2011 (24 min, Kanopy)

Handout: “What is Fashion?” (on Blackboard)

Week 2: The Bustle Period

Reading: Cole, Daniel James, and Nancy Deihl, “1850-1890. The Dawn of Modern Clothing.” In The History of Modern Fashion from 1850, 2015 (selection of pages on Blackboard)

YouTube video: “Underwear: From corsets to bullet-bras and back,” V&A Museum, 2014

Week 3: The Gilded Age (1890s)

Read: Cole, Daniel James, and Nancy Deihl, “The 1890s. Extremes of the Gilded Age.” In The History of Modern Fashion from 1850, 2015 (selection of pages on Blackboard)

Week 4: From the 1900s to World War I

Reading: Cole, Daniel James, and Nancy Deihl, “The 1900s: A New Century.” In The History of Modern Fashion from 1850, 2015 (Selection of pages on Blackboard)

Reading: “War Time Fashion” and “Women’s Uniforms in WWI,” Digital History 511, History & Practice

Museum Exhibit: “French Fashion, Women, and the First World War,” Bard Graduate Center, 2020

Optional Reading: “How White Became the Color of Suffrage,” The Conversation, February 15, 2019

Week 5: The Roaring Twenties

Reading: Cole, Daniel James, and Nancy Deihl, “The 1920s. Les Annés Folles.” In The History of Modern Fashion from 1850, 2015. (Selection of pages on Blackboard)

Reading: McDowell, Colin. “Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel (1883-1971).” The Business of Fashion Education, Nov. 27, 2015

YouTube: “1920s Jazz Age: Fashion & Photographs,” American Museum & Garden, 2017

Film: The Great Gatsby (selection of scenes)

Week 6: The Thirties and World War II 

Reading: Cole, Daniel James, and Nancy Deihl, “The 1930s: Aspirations of Glamour.” In The History of Modern Fashion from 1850, 2015. (Selection of pages on Blackboard)

Video: The Women Fashion Show, Adrian, 1939

Reading: Cole, Daniel James, and Nancy Deihl, “The 1940s. War and Recovery.” In The History of Modern Fashion from 1850, 2015. (Selection of pages on Blackboard)

Reading (secondary): Coroian, George. “Zoot Suit Riots.” Encyclopedia Britannica, May 27, 2021

YouTube: “The 1940s: World War II,” The Ultimate Fashion History Channel, 2015

YouTube: “The fashions of World War II ahead of the 70th anniversary,” AP Archive, 2015

Museum Exhibit: Black Fashion Designers, Museum at FIT, 2017

Archive: Fashion and Race Database

Week 7: The New Look (1947-1960)

Reading: Cole, Daniel James, and Nancy Deihl, “The 1950s: Couture Opulence, Suburban Style.” In The History of Modern Fashion from 1850, 2015. (Selection of pages on Blackboard)

Film: Dior and I. Inside the World of the Christian Dior Fashion House, Frederic Tcheng, 2015 (90 min, Kanopy)

YouTube: “Dior’s The New Look,” The Ultimate Fashion History Channel, 2019

Museum Exhibit: Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams, Brooklyn Museum, 2021-2022

Week 8: Midterm Exam

Week 9: The Swinging Sixties

Reading: Cole, Daniel James, and Nancy Deihl, “The 1960s: Fashion for the Future.” In The History of Modern Fashion from 1850, 2015. (Selection of pages on Blackboard)

Reading: Rogers, Sam. “7 Major Ways Yves Saint Laurent Changed Fashion Forever.” Vogue, July 29, 2019

Museum Exhibit: The Roaring Twenties and the Swinging Sixties, Museum at FIT, 2021

Week 10: The Seventies

Reading: Cole, Daniel James, and Nancy Deihl, “The Seventies: Revivals and Individuality.” In The History of Modern Fashion from 1850, 2015. (Selection of pages on Blackboard)

Film: Westwood, Lorna Tucker, 2018 (Kanopy; 80 min)

Week 11: The Eighties 

Reading: Cole, Daniel James, and Nancy Deihl, “The 1980s. Power dressing and postmodernism.”  In The History of Modern Fashion from 1850, 2015. (Selection of pages on Blackboard)

Reading: Wolde-Michael, Tsione. “A Brief History of Voguing.” Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture

Reading: Friedman, Vanessa, “Fashion’s Racial Divide.” The New York Times, 2015

Optional Film: Paris is Burning, Jennie Livingston, 1990 (78 min, Kanopy)

Week 12: The Nineties

Reading: Cole, Daniel James, and Nancy Deihl, “The 1990s. Subcultures and Supermodels.” In The History of Modern Fashion from 1850, 2015. (Selection of pages on Blackboard)

Reading: Miltano, Hannah. “The Everlasting Marriage of High Fashion and Fine Art.” CR Fashion Book, Nov. 30, 2020

Film: The Life and Career of Fashion Designer Alexander McQueen, Ian Bonhôte, 2018 (112 min, Kanopy)

YouTube: “Alexander McQueen: Unseen,” Museum at the FIT, 2021

Optional video: Steele, Valerie. “Is Fashion Art?.” Lecture, Mumok, Museum of Modern Art, Vienna, Jun. 28, 2012

Week 13: The Twenty-first Century

Reading: Cole, Daniel James, and Nancy Deihl, “The 2000s. Mixed Messages.” In The History of Modern Fashion from 1850, 2015. (Selection of pages on Blackboard)

Reading: Borrelli-Persson, Laird. “Has Fashion Really Embraced Technology? We Chart the Ever-Evolving Relationship Between Maker and Machine.” Vogue, Feb. 4, 2020

Reading: Gibson, Chris, and Elyse Stanes. “Is Green the New Black? Exploring Ethical Fashion Consumption.” In Ethical Consumption: A Critical Introduction, eds. Tania Lewis and Emily Potter, 2011. (Selection of pages on Blackboard)

Film: Margiela. In his Own Words, Reiner Holzemer, 2019 (Kanopy; 95 min)

YouTube: Bangladesh Factory Collapse, CBS News, Apr. 25, 2013

Week 14: Review

Final reflections: What is fashion?

Review for the Final Exam

Course evaluation (Student Evaluation of Teaching)

Week 15: Final Exam

Recommended bibliography:

Benbow-Pfalzgraf and Richard Martin, eds. Contemporary Fashion. 2nd Ed. Detroit, St. James Press, 2002.

Black, Sandy, ed. Fashioning Fabrics: Contemporary Textiles in Fashion. London, Black Dog, 2006.

Breward, Christopher. Fashion. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2003.

Church Gibson, Pamela. Fashion and Celebrity Culture. Berg Fashion Library, 2011.

Craik, Jennifer. The Face of Fashion: Cultural Studies in Fashion. London, Routledge, 1993.

Entwistle, Joanne. The Fashioned Body: Fashion, Dress, and Modern Social Theory. Cambridge: Polity Press and Blackwell Publishers, 2000.

Haye, Amy de la and Valerie Mendes. Fashion Since 1900. Thames & Hudson, 2010.

Hill, Daniel D. Fashion, From Victoria to the New Millennium. Boston, Pearson, 2011.

Jansen, Angela and Jennifer Craik. Modern Fashion Traditions: Negotiating Tradition and Modernity through Fashion. London: Bloomsbury, 2016.

Kaiser, Susan. Fashion and Cultural Studies. London, Berg, 2011.

Kawamura, Yuniya. Fashion-ology. An Introduction to Fashion Studies. New York, Berg, 2005.

Laver, James. Costume and Fashion: A Concise History. New York, Thames & Hudson, 2002.

Riello, Giorgio and Peter McNeill, eds. The Fashion History Reader: Global Perspectives. Oxford: Routledge, 2010.

Steele, Valerie. Fifty Years of Fashion: New Look to Now. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

Taylor, Lou. The Study of Dress History. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002.

Tortora, Phyllis and Marcketti, Sara. Survey of Historic Costume, 6th edition. New York, Fairchild, 2015.

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